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GUEST: Anna Arutunyan, news editor for The Moscow News – an English-language weekly in Moscow, she is also a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus

Georgia accused Russia yesterday of violating its airspace and firing a missile at a village deep in its territory. Russia has denied carrying out the attack. The incident has renewed tensions between the two countries. Meanwhile, earlier this week Russia unveiled a new air defense system that its designers say will be used as the basis of a new generation of Russian missile-intercepting weapons. The US and Russia have been bickering over Washington’s plans to deploy elements of an anti-missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. The US says the shield is intended to defend against missiles from “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea and that it would be no threat to Russia’s nuclear arsenal. My guest, Anna Arutunyan has just written an article about Russia where she asks the questions, “Is the West still keeping a place at the table for Russia as a developed player in the world arena? Or is the West casting Russia in the role of an exporter of natural resources on the fringe of the international community? So many critical issues … hinge on the resolution of this question.”

Anna Arutunyan’s commentary in Foreign Policy in Focus entitled “Distrusting the Russians (Again)”. The commentary is available online at www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4442