Q Since the U.S. entreaties to Russia about not recognizing these breakaway regions didn't seem to work -- otherwise -- let me try that again. U.S. entreaties for Russia not to recognize the breakaway regions or face unspecified consequences didn't really seem to work. When will the U.S. start to outline what some of those consequences will be?

MR. FRATTO: I think there's time for that. As I said yesterday, we are still focused on supporting Georgia, getting humanitarian assistance into Georgia. We've had scores of C-17 and C-130 flights delivering humanitarian assistance into Georgia. We have ships unloading many pallets of humanitarian assistance to Georgia. We'll continue to do that. We'll continue to support them through the G7 -- especially in the G7 finance ministers and with the international financial institutions, to ensure that Georgia's economy remains on track -- one of the shining stars of that region was the Georgian economy before the conflict broke out -- and other ways that we can continue to support Georgia in the short term.

In the medium and longer term, we'll -- as we've said, we're reviewing our relationship with Russia. Europe is reviewing its relationship with Russia. Russia still has some choices to make. Our long-term goal is that we want to see Russia return to at least the commitments that it had in the past to be integrated into global institutions, especially rules-based institutions like the WTO and other organizations around the world.

seen at 09:00, 26 August in Whitehouse Press Briefings. Email this to a friend.
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