Tabassum Zakaria
Reuters
September 1, 2008

Vice President Dick Cheney, one of Moscow’s harshest critics, will go to Georgia and other former Soviet states this week to reinforce U.S. support for allies in Russia’s backyard.

Cheney leaves Tuesday for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine, his first visit to those countries as vice president. He then ends his weeklong trip in Italy.

The aim, analysts said, is to build morale and offer reassurance of U.S. commitment to the region after Russia crushed Georgia’s military and declared two of its rebel regions as independent states.

“From the perspective of sending a signal to Moscow, yes, they want to send the hard-liner out to the region,” said Daniel Benjamin, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.

Benjamin said the Bush administration wants to ensure “no one goes weak in the knees in the region.”

Tensions flared when Georgia tried on Aug. 7-8 to retake the pro-Russian province of South Ossetia by force, prompting an overwhelming counter-attack from Moscow. Russian forces went into South Ossetia and a second separatist area, Abkhazia, and then moved into Georgia proper.

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