Scheunemann: coin operated expert

McCain Adviser Was Lobbyist for Georgia

John McCain's top foreign-policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is a leading expert on U.S.-allied Georgia -- and was a paid lobbyist for the former Soviet republic until March, in the run-up to what has become a major battle between Georgia and Russia.

This is just plain crude. Most of the time a lobbying firm will advise their clients to contribute to a think tank who will then recruit a sympathetic scholar, thus preserving a patina of expertise. This is just plain foreign policy payola.

The situation in the Caucuses

Saakashvili says Moscow wants to oust him

President Mikheil Saakashvili on Monday accused the Russian government of invading undisputed Georgian territory and of seeking to depose his government as foreign ministers from the Group of Seven urged Russia to agree an immediate ceasefire with Tbilisi.

Blow to hopes of oil pipeline security

The so-called east-west energy corridor across Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey established with strong political backing from the US, has eroded Russia’s stranglehold over energy exports from one of the world’s few remaining untapped oil provinces.

Dubbed the “pipeline for peace” by its western promoters in the 1990s, the 1m-barrels-a-day Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline commissioned in 2006 has brought a new source of high-quality oil into the Mediterranean to compete with Russian supplies.