Rice hopes Russia sticks to cease-fire ‘this time’

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed skepticism Sunday that Russia will stick to a negotiated cease-fire with Georgia brokered by French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rice said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev “has made promises several times” to withdraw troops from Georgia, adding that this time “I hope he means it.”

{mosads}Sarkozy said Sunday that he expects Russia’s withdrawal to begin midday Monday, a timeline Rice said she hopes Medvedev plans to honor “this time.”

The Secretary of State does expect Russia to withdraw eventually, if not this time, because of international pressure.

Russia “does care,” Rice said, but the country “wants to have it both ways. On one hand it can use disproportional force and then it can still be welcomed into international institutions. It can’t happen that way.”

Rice said she expects European monitors and peacekeepers to enter Georgia soon after the cease-fire, but made it clear that U.S. troops will not take part.

Asked if President Bush had misplaced his trust in Russia when, in 2001, he said he had looked former Russian President Vladimir Putin “in the eye” and gotten “a sense of his soul,” Rice said, “It was absolutely the right thing to do to give Russia a chance.”
“It was the right thing to do to give Russia a path toward integrations into western institutions and a modern state with responsible behavior in the international,” the Secretary of State said. “That’s still the right thing for Russia. The fact that Russian, over the last several years, has demonstrated it is not ready to take that path was Russia’s choice.”