Russia’s president retreated from his threat to deploy missiles on Europe’s borders, but only if President-elect Barack Obama joined Russia in calling for a conference on European security.

Russia’s president retreated from his threat to deploy missiles on Europe’s borders, but only if President-elect Barack Obama joins Russia in calling for a conference on European security.

Newly available accounts raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia’s insistence that it acted defensively against Russian aggression.

The head of the Council of Europe parliamentary delegation said elements of Wednesday’s elections “did not reflect principles of democratic elections.”

The head of the Council of Europe parliamentary delegation said elements of Wednesday’s elections “did not reflect principles of democratic elections.”

Russia and Georgia began direct talks for the first time since their five-day war in August, but Russia’s negotiator arrived nearly an hour late.

Russia accused Georgia of “seeking to provoke new hostilities” even as Russian peacekeepers were dismantling checkpoints outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Candidates loyal to authoritarian President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko won an overwhelming majority of parliamentary seats in a closely-watched election.

The proposals, the Kremlin?s latest effort to reassert itself on the world stage, essentially sideline NATO and other post-World War II security organizations in Europe.

The ruling party in Georgia triumphed in parliamentary elections, official results showed, cementing President Mikheil Saakashvili as the pre-eminent political force.