NATO must not teach Russia on how to behave towards Georgia

President Dmitry Medvedev stated that the troops would be pulled out from Georgia to South Ossetia and Russia by August 22. The president added that 500 Russian peacemakers would stay near South Ossetia’s borders.

Russia said that it would not participate in the Open Spirit 2008 international naval exercise in the Baltic Sea. In addition, Russia informed the USA of the impossibility to receive the U.S. warship in the Far East port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The ship was due to pay a business visit to the Kamchatka Peninsula on September 5-9.

The exercise has been held annually since 1997 within the framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, with the aim of sweeping Baltic States' coastal areas for old WWI and WWII explosives, RIA Novosti says.