Georgia/ Russia

The European Union issues a Solomonic judgment about that whole Georgia/Russia/South Ossetia unpleasantness last year, arguing that Georgia violated international law and commenced the shooting war, but that Russia was being a spectacular pain in the neck beforehand and used Georgia’s attack as an excuse to escalate far beyond what defence would have dictated. So really, it’s everyone’s fault. Hey, I’ve got a great idea: Let’s expand NATO to Georgia immediately! That’ll solve… uh… nothing.

Twenty-one two Central and East European politicians of a certain (largely mid-90s) vintage, including eight former heads of state or government (including Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Mart Laar) and six former foreign-affairs ministers, write a letter to Barack Obama whose message can perhaps be summed up as, “Hey! Look over here!”