CASPIAN OIL

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice was speaking in Georgia in June 2008 when a prescient message scrolled across the screen: Bear takes to prowling streets.

28 May, 2006
Terror alert as Caspian oil pipeline opens
In the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, a long line of broken mud cuts across the meadows. If you go anywhere near it, camouflaged guards carrying automatic weapons emerge from the forest beyond.
These guards in the Borjomi region of Georgia - trained by US army and SAS veterans - are pawns in a new great game gripping Central Asia: their job is to protect the oil pipeline buried 10ft below.
The $4bn Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan pipeline, on stream from today, is key in American plans to reduce dependency on Opec oil producers in the turbulent Middle East. Pumping oil 1,000 miles from the Caspian sea to the Mediterranean through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, it will avoid Russia - increasingly seen by the US as a resurgent superpower prepared to use control of energy resources as a political weapon.

Since coming to power in 2004 Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili has steered his country away from Russia towards co-operation with the US. 'Georgia will be America's partner in spreading democracy around the world,' Bush told rapturous crowds during the first visit of a US president to the country last year.

10 July 2008
Russia, US Swap Warnings as Condoleezza Rice Visits Georgia
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tbilisi as the US and Russia accused each other of stoking unrest in Georgia while US troops began exercises with regional armies near Russia's borders.
Her trip came a day after she signed a deal allowing Washington to base part of a new US missile defense system in the Czech Republic, prompting a stark warning from Moscow that it would respond militarily.

11 August 2008
US, Russian ambassadors spar at UN over Georgia
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad exchanged sharp words with the Russian ambassador on Sunday, accusing Moscow of seeking "regime change" in Georgia and resisting attempts to make peace after days of fighting have left hundreds of civilians dead.
Khalilzad disclosed during a U.N. Security Council session that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday morning "that a democratically elected president of Georgia — and I quote — must go."

Bush, Cheney Increasingly Critical of Russia Over Aggression in Georgia
The White House stepped up its criticism of Russia for escalating the conflict in Georgia, with President Bush warning Monday that Russia's "disproportionate response" is unacceptable and Vice President Cheney adding that the crisis threatens long-term relations between Moscow and Washington.

Cheney was even more pointed, telling Saakashvili on Sunday afternoon that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered," according to his press secretary.