Recent attacks by Georgian forces against South Ossetian separatists dramatically escalated over the weekend as Russian forces entered the fray on the side of the rebels. Latest reports say Georgian troops have now left South Ossetian territory, a claim denied by Georgian military sources however Russian forces have refused calls for a cease fire and have broadened the conflict inside Georgia.
Georgian forces have completely withdrawn from Tskhinvali, the Russian military said Sunday, thereby confirming earlier accounts by Georgia that its forces had withdrawn from the city. But Tbilisi denied that its forces had completely pulled out of South Ossetia. [source]Accusing Georgia of genocide against the breakaway republic, Russia has used the opportunity to pound the Georgian cities of Poti, Kutaisi and Gori along with the levelling of the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali.The attack has been the worst military engagement since the invasion by the former Soviet Union of Afghanistan in 1979.
Both sides are blaming each other for continuing attacks with Georgia saying targets have been hit by Russian forces in and around the capital Tbilisi, the BBC reports.
In an echo of unfinished Cold War business, U.S. President George W.
Bush has warned Russia that Georgia is a sovereign country and the
territorial claims of the pro-Western state must be respected.
Though the Russian military objectives (to drive Georgia out of South Ossetia) have either been met or will be met shortly, the political aims are harder to unravel. The conflict has seen the return of former President, now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to the fore, despite the end of his term of office as leader last year.
The Putin/Medvedev political objective may be to intimidate Georgia (and watching republics) that Russia remains the regional force and any moves towards accommodation with the West will be met by Moscow with force. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, who came to power in the so-called Rose Revolution in 2003 has long raised the ire of Moscow with his pro-Western policies.
The strategy of pummelling Georgia may well be the opportunity Russia had been waiting for to weaken public support for the joining of NATO by the strategically-located former Soviet state.
The big question though is how far will the U.S. go to protect its ally? Mutters of discontent have already been heard from Washington that may change to more bellicose language and even action should Russia not find a way to end the damaging conflict. The notoriously combative Vice-President Dick Cheney has already been reported as stating in a phone message to Saakashvili that Russian aggression "must not go unanswered".
For the conflict see timeline and photos courtesy of the BBC.
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What made Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili plunge in to a pyre?
With hardly three months before NATO's summit meeting Saakashvili was desperate to cash on his best bet
to become a NATO member before Bush steps down.
A cost and benefit analysis is due to determine how costly Mikhail's misjudged, miscalculated membership misadventure may prove.
It may well turn out to be a case of testing the toughies' tolerance threshold by trying the Russian roulette on oneself!
I still hear people say that the only reason they wanted Russia to stop was because they say the use of force by Russia was excessive, every member of goverment on tv that I have seen has said something similar to this.
I am just trying to figure out who are we to say "stop, you are being excessive" people already forget that we, the USA was the sole blocker of any UN action aganist Israel from being to excessive against Lebanon? and this was only two years ago. How is that not hypocricy? On the other side it exist too, Russia was one of the loudest voices against the excessive use of force against Lebanon, but we have no right to have an opinion on someone being excessive.
Just because Russia decides to defend it's interests does not mean that everybody needs to make a connection as to say " Rusia is back to the cold war days." They have the right to defend their intrests as well, without it being "Cold war politics" can we the US be accused of being imperlistic as we were heavily in the World War time? Every action that Russia does which is not in the US's interests does not need a reference to "back to cold war politics"
This article only used the reference to attract people to read it in the title, but there are other "news" articles which make great reference to connecting Russia back to doing cold war politics. (This is probably just more annoying to me then most people, sorry)
I enjoyed your comments folks. Thanks.
Jim, I agree the Georgian president made a major blunder, but what a mistake as you point out. Reminiscent of Saddam and Kuwait?
Sean thank you your point is reasoned and well made. The argument I was trying to carry though was the return of both sides to a form of cold war rhetoric, not particularly blaming Russia.
I'd appreciate both of your comments on my most recent post on the crisis.
Relax all you MOODY MARXIST apologists - RUSSIA will leave GEORGIA just as quickly as they left BERLIN or BUDAPEST or WARSAW!!! SEE VLAD DIDN'T WANT TO BE 'PRESIDENT' OF RUSSIA ANYMORE - NOW VLAD WANTS TO BE 'EMPEROR' OF THE NEW RUSSIAN EMPIRE!!! Commie freakin fools - it is/was not GEORGIA who was the aggressor it was BLOODY FREAKIN PUTIN's KGB RUSSIA!!! WATCH-OUT UKRAINE - YOU ARE NEXT!!! Yes RUSSIA is to blame as well as mitwits like JOHN'the-old-fool'McCAIN + D^CKHEAD CLINTON who appeased the MUSLIMS into giving away parts of SERBIA(backed by the RUSSKI'S) to KOSOVO to 'show' their tolerance of the oppressed MUSLIMS!!! PAYBACK IS A BITCH AIN'T IT!!! STOP RUSSIA NOW - BEFORE THEY TAKE BACK BY FORCE ALL THOSE SATELLITES THAT ABANDONED THEM IN THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM!!! WHO ELSE WANTS TO JOIN NATO???
The fact is that Russia is not trying to protect its interest, it's try to get all its old territories. That has been their goal forever. Russia itself is guilty of doing to its own citizens what it accuses Georgia of doing.
Kind of like that slime we call president here in the US, eh Jena?
Dear readers do you not watch your own tv station or news outlets.This is another example to how the media is used as a propaganda tool for the US what ever happened to free speech and freedom of the press.If you think Russia is the one who started this conflict you are truely part of the spin doctors at work here.Please look at Items put forth about Georgia and its so called democratic repulic of Georgia at the UN.As a result I wrote my Prime Minister and Foriegns affair ministry regarding this situation.I was appauled at how a victim became the criminal within such a short time.Does media think we are so naive.The build up was reported on CNN along with the Georgian incursion into South Ossetia which happened on August 7.Russia did not send troops till August 8.A few more facts for you.Georgia has 32000 full time soldiers at its disposal 10000 which were set to South Ossetia,Russia sent in only 3000-5000 troops to retake it on August 8 and on August 9 it sent an additional 9000 troops to the other indepent province.Furthermore the two break away provinces held referendum's twice about seperation from Georgia once in 1991 and then in 2006 both times they overwhelmingly voted to seperate the first was thrown out because it was not over seen by a outside party via vi the UN.The second time it was over seen the result was 91 % voted for separtion there were 300 observers at 74 polling station.At the UN how ever what happened was that the US pressured other countries not to recongnize them because the Georgians were supporting there war in Iraq.
Mike
HA ha ha ,Bush wants to keep Georgia`s teritorial integrity,what about Serbian integrity when Bush recognised Kosovo as independent state,that`s what you get to have a morron running a superpower.
+100. Respect. ;)
Georgians Did Not Start the War: The Russians Did! And the Russians Did it Because Russia is Very Sick Today With Xenophobia and Nostalgia for the Soviet Empire!
Since beginning of August 2008, the Russian “Peacekeepers” together with Ossetian illegal militia have been ethnically cleansing Georgian villages and killing innocent civilians! Just think about this…
Many experts and diplomats wondered whether the Russian government is sick with xenophobia and with the nostalgia of "good, old Soviet Union" is trying to revive the forgotten empire. Or maybe they are just playing a very stupid game that will have extremely severe consequences to the future of Russia and its citizens.
It is not a new fact that the people from Caucasus republics are constantly being discriminated in Russia, are targets of Russian neo-Nazi groups and live second class citizens lives. The Russian government never tried to understand the mentality, culture and social norms of the people from the Caucasus region. Throughout history the Russian empire or the Soviets or Putin's regime have been applying one rule to the Caucasus region in order to maintain control over it: divide and conquer! Putin successfully fueled ethnic tensions between various Caucasus nationalities, so they all had to look up to the Russians for help and the roots of this policy date back to Tsar's Russian Empire, when the Russians were only able to take control over Caucasus with the help of Caucasus nations, primarily the Georgians. The Georgians thought they were doing a favor and Tsar would leave them alone to govern their own lives, but the Georgians were wrong.
After the collapse of Soviet Union the Russian government successfully fueled ethnic tensions between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, Georgians and Ossetians, Georgians and Abkhazians, Ingushis and Ossetians, etc… This was the only strategy and the only game the Russian rulers played by: fuel hatred, divide the territories, resettle and arm the people so there will be no peace until the Russian soldier places his foot in the region. And of course, the Russian army is known for their outstanding performance in "peacekeeping" missions that have carried out, being involved in genocide, ethnic cleansing (Georgians in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Chechen civilians), rape, murder, torture and the list goes on. At the end it seems that the Russian "peacekeeping mission" is not that peaceful at all.
It is evident that the Russian political system always been in shape of a Pyramid, where all the political and economic control spheres of country is divided between a leader (Czar, or Secretary General or Prime Minister) at the top, who has a direct control and right hand support of secret service at one angle and military at the other. This is the heart of the Russian political life and everything else develops around it. With a strong propaganda machine, complete control over Russian citizens is assured, as well as "democratic" elections where one candidate always receives the vast majority (if not all) of the votes and there never seems to be opposition to the candidate. And what about the President Medvedev? He is just another toy in Putin's closet…
Putin decided to send a strong signal to the world and wished to overthrow the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, but he failed. He strongly believes that the fate of the Georgian people depends on his wishes and is determine to shape the borders of another sovereign country. This move directly threatens the World Order established after World War II. The current World Order is not perfect, but so far, with its deficiencies it is working.
After the brief war with Georgia, the Russian government tried to justify its move by saying that the Georgians started the war. Here is the first lie! The Georgian government has been saying since beginning of August 2008 that the situation in South Ossetia is escalating and the Russian "peacekeepers" are staging provocations together with illegal armed forces of South Ossetian separatist regime. They started killing Georgian police officers and firing artillery shells at the Georgian villages located in South Ossetia, but the world was preoccupied with getting ready for the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympics.
When the Georgian government officials told the Europeans in Brussels that we were at the brink of war, the Europeans politely warned the Georgians not to use the word "war" in the city of Brussels, because they do not like the word "war." It seems that old Europe is getting older each day and with the age, because numerous warnings and cries by the Georgian officials fell on the deaf ears of old Europe. Never mind the fact that it took Hitler conquering Poland and Czechoslovakia, before the Western Europe realized this was a war.
And what about the Americans? The American society is in the midst of elections, the Democrats want to see Europe take more responsibility for security in Caucasus region, the Republicans are divided and worried about gay marriage and abortion rights… The friends of Georgia in new Europe are trying everything to force the old Europe take harsher approach towards Russia, but Europe is dependent on Russian natural gas and oil.
Giving up on a young democracy does not seem plausible for the Europeans, but the old Europe is scared of the new Russian bear. The new Russia is controlled by a xenophobic psychopath who has decided to break all the rules of the game, in order to change those rules. And the question comes: how can you stop a bully? Everyone can keep condemning the Russian government, but that paper will wind up in Putin's toilet again… The only way to stop a bully is bully up against the bully – simple rule of life.
With the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Russian government has proven the world that they will violate international laws whenever they feel like it and they will use aggression in the name of peace as they did in Prague 1968. If the world would not stand up for Georgia, who will be the next prey of the hungry Russian bear? Maybe Ukraine? Or Moldova? Or who knows… The Russian government is as unpredictable as the weather in England…
The Georgian people are united and stand united, we have survived the onslaught by Mongols, Persians, Arabs, Turk-Seljuks throughout the history and we have still survived and we are not scared of the Russian bear either.
Just last question to Mr. Putin. Mr. Putin, if you are so concerned about the freedom of small minorities, why not recognize the independence of Chechnya? Then Daghestan? Then Ingushetia? And then all the other autonomous republics where the citizens do not even speak Russian? Think about that at first and then lets discuss the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, after 300,000 Georgian refugees return to their own homes.
And to my fellow Abkhazian and South Ossetian brothers and sisters. Yes, there will be dancing and celebration in Sokhumi and Tskinvali. Yes, you will be smiling and waving flags - Georgian flags of course…
RUSSIA is the outrageous 'BLOODY-BULLY' and the EURO's and NATO are a bunch of 'WUSSIES' - as is their usual history!!! Hey MARXIST-wannabe's and BARRY'incurably-dishonest'OBAMA supporters - hope you'll be happy when BARRY'the-teleprompt-reader' wants "...to sit down" and have a good talk with 'MAD'VLAD or ACHMADINEJEAD or 'fatty'CHAVEZ or the EL-JEFFES'FIDEL/RAOUL'!!! WHAT WILL THE UNITED STATES GIVE-UP THEN??? DEMBHOLE WANKERS always want to 'just talk' - instead of fight for our vanishing freedoms!!! Ha.
As predicted by myself + others - RUSSIA ['MAD'VLAD and hisd bully-boys] have left OSSETIA only 2 months after they agreed too - while raping and despoiling and executing all opposition!!! GREAT JOB NATO - AND TO ALL THESE LEFTY-LUNATICS WHO BLAMED THE US FOR THIS ATROCITY!!!