According to a letter released by the Russian envoy to the United Nations, John McCain contacted Vitaly Churkin seeking a campaign donation.

Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroen Automobile Company (DPCA) plans to export 10,000 to 20,000 C-Triomphe cars to Russia in the coming three years, Beijing News reported today, citing sources of DPCA.

The Foreign minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov has proposed the creation of a new European security pact, saying existing mechanisms failed when tested during the Caucasus crisis. Sergei Lavrov was one of several world leaders who addressed the U.N. General Assembly's annual debate during a special Saturday session. From United Nation's headquarters in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.

Russia's president signed decrees on Tuesday recognizing Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states and called on other countries to follow suit.

Lawmakers in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, have unanimously adopted a resolution calling on President Dmitry Medvedev to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Even as Russia says it has begun the promised pullback of its forces from inside Georgia, reports indicate Russian forces continue to occupy strategic positions around the country and show little sign of leaving.

The President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday during a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that Russian troops would start their pullout from Georgia on August 18.

Being an advocate for peace is a difficult and thankless task. As war zones wind down, others flare up, while success is heralded in Iraq, Afghanistan grows more unstable, and just when we think that an invasion of Iran has been avoided, the shit hits the fan in Eastern Europe.

Just as months of negotiations seemed destined to end in deadlock, Poland and the United States have struck a deal to base part of a controversial US missile defence system on Polish soil. With a little help from recent events in the Caucasus?

President Medvedev said Russia would “support any status for South Ossetia and Abkhazia that is accepted by the people of these republics.”

Russian troops march deep into Georgia, violating truce. Reports say Russian tanks are moving toward the Georgian Capital Tbilisi.

Georgia says dozens of Russian tanks rolled into a strategic city and seized a military base, violating an EU-mediated agreement to end a six-day conflict. Emma Stickgold reports for VOA from Moscow that Russia said some of its soldiers went into the Georgian city of Gori, but denied the report of tanks.