http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-russia-nato7-2009may07,0,2749236.storyNATO war games launch despite Russia's fierce objections
Moscow has called the NATO military exercises in Georgia, which includes U.S. troops, 'open provocation' and threatened grim consequences.
By Megan K. Stack
May 7, 2009
Reporting from Moscow - NATO war games got underway in the nation of Georgia on Wednesday, pushed ahead despite a furious outcry from Moscow and a bloodless but embarrassing mutiny at a nearby Georgian military base earlier this week.
More than 1,000 soldiers from the United States, Europe and elsewhere have gathered at a military base near Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, for several weeks of training and simulated peacekeeping exercises.
The games, part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Partnership for Peace program, had been planned before combat broke out last summer between Georgia and Russia.
Russian leaders issued fervent calls in recent days for the alliance to cancel the exercises and keep its troops out of Georgia, warning of dire consequences if it didn't. Conducting military maneuvers in what was recently, albeit briefly, a war zone could only serve as an "open provocation," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last week.