“The US and the New Europe and Russia”

I. “The New Europe” &

Russian Political Culture

II. The 2008 Conflict Between Russia and Georgia

Russia

Vladimir Putin, b.

1952; formerly of

the KGB and Russian

Security Forces (FSB)

Video Link: • Corruption in Putin’s Russia: “Russia’s

Youtube Whistle Blower” (NY Times video, January 2011)

Post-Soviet Russia

Georgian President

(since 2004) Mikhail

Saakasvhili (b. 1967)

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and US President George W. Bush in Tbilisi in 2005

Georgia’s new oil

pipeline, which began operation in

2005, was funded

mainly by BP and bypasses Russia’s oil

pipeline.

FOX News cuts short interview with Georgians