Russia's military incursion into Georgia will not achieve Moscow's strategic goal of toppling the government in Tbilisi, and Russia faces growing international isolation because of its actions, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. “Russia's leaders will not accomplish their primary war aim of removing Georgia's government,” Rice said in excerpts from her first major speech on Russia since its invasion of Georgia last month. “Our strategic goal now is to make it clear to Russia's leaders that their choices are putting Russia on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance,” Rice said in the excerpts released by the State Department ahead of her speech to the German Marshall Fund later on Thursday. Rice said Russia's invasion of Georgia was part of a “worsening pattern of behavior” that included its use of oil and natural gas as a political weapon, the unilateral suspension of a treaty on conventional military forces in Europe, and a threat to target peaceful countries with nuclear weapons. “The picture emerging from this pattern of behavior is that of a Russia increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad,” Rice said, casting doubt on whether Moscow would be included in international economic forums. “To reach its full potential, Russia needs to be fully integrated into the international political and economic order,” Rice said. But due to its recent “aggression” against Georgia, “Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) is now in question,” Rice said. “And so too is its attempt to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).”
