Gov. Richardson Says Georgia Part of Russia’s Territory

See http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2008/08/sunday_snapshot_51.html

Democratic New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson speaking on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" Sunday August 10, 2008, as reported by National Journal's Hotline said:
“My view is that the United States--if we had a stronger relationship with Russia, we could exercise strong diplomacy to stop this effort against Georgia. We should immediately go to the United Nations Security Council, condemn Russia's action, and then get the Security Council to pass a strong resolution getting the Russians to show some restraint, and possibly at the same time generate some U.N. peacekeeping troops. The problem, though, is that we don't have the kind of influence and strength in our relationship with Russia to persuade them. This has been one of the failures of the Bush administration, failing to build a strong relationship, a mutually beneficial relationship with Russia, so we'd have the kind of influence to persuade them to stop some of these very, very dangerous efforts within their territory.”