Rice: Russia Delays Withdrawal

U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said she thought the French would be seeking “an explanation from the Russians for why the Russian president either won’t or can’t keep his word,” The Associated Press reported.

“It didn’t take that long for the Russian forces to get in [Georgia] and it really shouldn’t take that long for them to get out," she said.

She was speaking with reporters on her way to an emergency NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, scheduled for August 19. Georgia-Russia conflict will topped the agenda of the meeting.

“We have to deny Russian strategic objectives, which are clearly to undermine Georgia’s democracy, to use its military capability to damage and in some cases destroy Georgian infrastructure and to try and weaken the Georgian state,” Rice said. “We are not going to allow Russia to draw a new line at those states that are not yet integrated into the trans-Atlantic structures.”