Saakashvili must be totally crazy to want to send Georgian troops to Afghanistan. Georgians wake up - you have many returned Soldiers from the 1979-88 war living in Georgia get them to tell you what a fool this man must be to commit your troops to an unwinable conflict.
I don’t think USA will be upset if Saakashvili deserts the throne. There is a new replacement on the way – Nino Burdjanadze, currently in opposition. She will continue her policy of close ties with Washington, although may be more pragmatic in relations with RF. And Washington will continue pushing for control of oil and gas rich Caspian basin and energy routs like Nabucco (which is planned to transit Georgia). Little Georgia will be armed to its teeth again. NATO will not go away.. Its army exercises and expulsion of two Russian diplomats tells how much they care for Russia’s interests. Yes, Saakashvili is trying to hold on to his power, staging coup, which allows him to start repressions against opposition (Stalin is still an idol in Georgia). But without valid support from the West his days are numbered. Perhaps, it does not matter that much who will occupy the throne as long as he (she) is pro-Western and anti-Russian. I think Russia could do more good with the policy of attraction of its neighbors in Caucuses by promoting more business development, support to win hearts and minds of people in the region. I understand the pressure of competition with the West for the region on RF, all that negativity left from the Soviet past. And nobody would like to be surrounded on their borders by NATO or USA military bases. In order to be more competitive RF needs to become stronger internally, promoting the rule of low, eradicating corruption, developing small businesses, infrastructure. They also need consistent foreign policy, independent from different lobbies. It’s sad that friends like Georgia and Russia could become enemies!
Actually I have a theory on this absolutely crazy NATO exercise... The EU gets the USA into a war with Russia. Now the USA economy goes down the tubes. The Dollar is now dead, and the Euro wins. Americans are stupid... they getting set up by their own FED. Goodbye USA, your president works for the enemy.
This NATO excercise in Georgia just leaves me dumbfounded!! Its not they having it, its that they doing it while a crazy psycho runs the country. We all know what he is going to do, he is going to send a few missiles into Russia. Doesnt NATO know that they dealing with a flipping maniac!!!!!! If I was Medvedev, I'd ask for a direct line to the NATO commander, and make sure the generals are well briefed on what to do when this mistake happens. Are they trying to start WWIII or what???? When are Americans going to wake up, your government is out of control, whats it going to take, a big flash of white light before you see how crazy this is!!!
There surely are a lot of Ossetin in Southern Ossetia, but what about Abkhazia and ethnic Abkhaz? Is it justified to encourage an "Abkhaz" state? My main source on ethnic groups in what used to be the Soviet Union, Narody Rossii. Enciklopediya (Moskva 1994), gives a total number of 7239 ethnic Abkhaz in Russia and Gruziya for 1989. In 1989, only 4752 people out of these 7239 ethnic Abkhaz in states of the former Soviet Union called the Abkhaz language their "native language", 29,6% claiming Russian as their language. I had to wait until 2005 to see the first standard Abkhaz dictionary published, Abkhazsko-russkiy slovar´, tom I-II - I am holding it in my hands right now, it is really a great and beautifully made work, but it probably comes to late to help revive the Abkhaz language. Given the small number of Abkhaz, printing a newspaper or organizing TV in Abkhaz may be too demanding. I would not dare to hope for Abkhaz courses for speakers of Russian, since Abkhaz is a very complex and "unusual" language, hard to learn in a satisfying manner, and a lot more different from Russian than Georgian. To give a picture of Southern Ossetiya: According to "Narody Rossii", which I would consider very reliable, there lived 164055 Ossetin in Gruziya (=Georgia) in 1989, most but not all of them in Southern Ossetiya, out of a total number of 402275 people considering themselves "Ossetin". Among ethnic Ossetin, a strong 93,2% (or 374931 persons in absolute numbers) told the Ossetin language was their native language - this may in part reflect the positive stand towards this language during Soviet times, it had never been neglected in a way like, say, Avar. But take into account that Georgian is spoken in South Ossetia, too, and there are "pockets" of Ossetin in other parts of traditional Georgia (Gruziya) as well, so separating along ethnic lines may prove difficult for politicians.
Russia has done everything right, why should Georgia have the right to claim South Ossetia? Putin is probably the only one protecting the moral of the world
The whole conflict is just another US project. Georgia invaded South Ossetia when The South Ossetians wanted independence. It was Georgia's aggression that was unjust; not Russia's. Russia simply responded by sending peace-keepers, which the Georgian army proceeded to attack. Russia felt that their ally was under attack, and they were the good neighbors who responded to the distress call. Georgia has wanted to join NATO for some time now. The US is on the side of Georgia in this conflict, and the western media is with holding facts from it's people, saying that the Russians are the aggressors instead of the Georgians. We are slowly slipping into another cold war. I've seen it in my own media too! I'm in Canada right now, and Canada shares the same ideology as the United States when it comes to conflicts. NATO itself seeks to corrupt the eastern powers, but I'm sure they will not be so easily persuaded. I am ashamed to call myself Canadian right now, due to our support of such childish behavior. The US always has to take a side in a conflict; they always start wars they cannot possibly finish. The phony "war on terror" for example. Bah! How can you be at war with a word? Terrorism will unfortunately always be happening in any part of the world, and not even totalitarianism can stop it. Yes, you can remove organizations that function on the ideologies of terror, such as the Taliban, and Al - Queda, (If it exists,) but terror itself will always exist, no matter who or where you are. To attack a word is a waste of time, money, and life that results only in the meaningless loss of life. The US is using Georgia as a puppet to further prevoke already mounting eastern tension with the west.
Sevodnya_Net, a country may be beautiful but it does not mean it is automatically "a very nice place" Actually every country in this world is beautiful in its own way.
Sevodnya_Net the sense of humour remark, I didn't realise that this affair between Russia and Georgia was a total joke. Now I can see the funny side of things...
Sam, Oh I know Georgia is a beautiful country, alright. No conclusions being jumped to there I'm afraid. And just to keep David happy, I have no idea what sex has to do with it. And I don't own a snake, either. Perhaps I could suggest some of us do a course or night classes in Having a Sense of Humour :-)
Daniel made a comment that Invading Georgia proper was a bad idea.
Well it would not make any military sense for the Russian army not to create a buffer zone around what it wants to protect. Buffer zones are created on the territory of a loser and not the victor.
It would also not make any military sense not to destroy the enemy’s ability to repeat the same action later or to continue fighting.
In fact what would really had looked stupid if the Russian army stopped at the South Ossetian border metres from the Georgian army and waited for that army to be supplied from its bases and camps.
Lets be honest here, if the Russians wanted to take the whole of Georgia, it would probably put another few days on the fighting. The fact that Russian federation did not technically conquer Georgia means that they have no obligations towards Georgia by international law as say the USA has for Iraq.That's a smart move.
daniel you write:" Russia didn't need to move into Georgia-proper, if they moved into South Ossetia to protect the South Ossetians, then fine, but invading Georgia was a bad idea"
I believe they had to: Russia had to finish what it started. Had they just remained in south ossetia and not gone into georgia, there would have been shelling of tskinval, andmore civilians would have died. so to protect their own, Russia had to push the Georgians well back from South osseita, create a buffer zone, and agree on a peace deal. Think about it, if someone breaks into your house, and comes into your dining room, do you push them back out into the hall or do you push them out of your house completely? It's a simple military strategy. It was necessary in order to protect Russian citizens. But Georgia's assault on South Ossetia did nothing to protect Georgia's civilians, if anything, it put them at an unnecessary risk. btw, I think the use of the word "attrocity" is a bit strong here, in the sense that it was a level playing field: Russia attacked an american funded and trained army who picked a fight with them. One might call Israel's actions an attrocity as they used sophisticated military technology against an enemy which had nothing more than homemade rockets.
To DD, I believe you reside in fair Belgium. From your perspective perhaps it is inexplicable that someone might want to desert to Georgia, but try putting yourself in the shoes of a Russian soldier for once. And actually, Georgia is a very nice place. OK, it may not do chocolate the way the Belgians do it, but I can think of worse places to desert to. And deserting to Belgium from Ossetia would not be so easy :-)
I'm quite well aware what the "debate" is about. Did he fall or was he pushed? I wouldn't bet a massive amount of lari on him having been kidnapped, to tell you the honest truth :-)
Sevodnya_Net What has sex got to do with it, unless, of course, Georgia pimps its girls. And I don't see the connection of Monty Python (unless this is the name you have given to your pet snake) and the Holy Grail (unless this is a religious chat show about the Crusades and the Freemasons) and Russia's intervention to rescue the innocent/defenceless.
Daniel, when I was watching the Russian advance into Georgia, beyond South Ossetia, there was one point in that week where I was able to successfully predict where the soldiers would go next. They spread out and hit every military base and arms depot in the country. They circled the capitol but didn't enter it, because the military assets were not in the capitol but nearby. I found a map from the Spiegel site - it showed over a dozen military bases in little Georgia. They had been armed to the teeth with American weapons, and it was all destroyed or dismantled and taken north by the Russians. According to that map (and I lost the link so am looking for it again), all of the battles but one were on military bases, and that one battle was at the major crossroads in Gori. I don't think the Russians were looking for conquest. They were just trying to pull Georgia's teeth.
Sevodnya, Yes indeed, this sounds like a joke! Why the hell would a Russian soldier who only has still a few months to serve desert to.... yes, Georgia!! Lets all go to Georgia, the land of milk and honey, THE country to desert to !!! The soldier, leaving his family and friends in Russia behind to desert to Georgia!!? Sounds very unrealistic and funny!! But yes, somehow it could be a true desertion, there are nutcases all over the world. It only would be fair if this soldier could get the opportunity to talk to his parents and a Russian official in a neutral place, just to justify if this is real desertion or abduction. Don't you agree?
to jsmith, Your argument is very compelling and i do agree with you, i should have mentioned that i don't base my opinions on a single report, i do use other sources, in this case i was simply highlighting ONE viewpoint from a respectable NGO.
I should also mention that i'm a journalist, so i do understand the need for objectivity, impartiality, fairness and accuracy.
However to me there is one sticking point: Russia didn't need to move into Georgia-proper, if they moved into South Ossetia to protect the South Ossetians, then fine, but invading Georgia was a bad idea
"rescue" one of their "deserters". It is obvious that Sevodnya_Net did not read properly what the debate was about before going for his comedy act. I advice him to scroll down and read it again. The debate was if the guy was in fact kidnapped or not handled over after the conflict then Russia has every right to use force to get him back. If he was a deserter then that's a different thing.Some how Sevodnya_Net as usual had mixed up my comments to reach his own comedy act.
30 October, 2009, 06:41
Saakashvili must be totally crazy to want to send Georgian troops to Afghanistan. Georgians wake up - you have many returned Soldiers from the 1979-88 war living in Georgia get them to tell you what a fool this man must be to commit your troops to an unwinable conflict.
07 May, 2009, 06:51
I don’t think USA will be upset if Saakashvili deserts the throne. There is a new replacement on the way – Nino Burdjanadze, currently in opposition. She will continue her policy of close ties with Washington, although may be more pragmatic in relations with RF. And Washington will continue pushing for control of oil and gas rich Caspian basin and energy routs like Nabucco (which is planned to transit Georgia). Little Georgia will be armed to its teeth again. NATO will not go away.. Its army exercises and expulsion of two Russian diplomats tells how much they care for Russia’s interests. Yes, Saakashvili is trying to hold on to his power, staging coup, which allows him to start repressions against opposition (Stalin is still an idol in Georgia). But without valid support from the West his days are numbered. Perhaps, it does not matter that much who will occupy the throne as long as he (she) is pro-Western and anti-Russian. I think Russia could do more good with the policy of attraction of its neighbors in Caucuses by promoting more business development, support to win hearts and minds of people in the region. I understand the pressure of competition with the West for the region on RF, all that negativity left from the Soviet past. And nobody would like to be surrounded on their borders by NATO or USA military bases. In order to be more competitive RF needs to become stronger internally, promoting the rule of low, eradicating corruption, developing small businesses, infrastructure. They also need consistent foreign policy, independent from different lobbies. It’s sad that friends like Georgia and Russia could become enemies!
06 May, 2009, 16:34
Actually I have a theory on this absolutely crazy NATO exercise...
The EU gets the USA into a war with Russia.
Now the USA economy goes down the tubes.
The Dollar is now dead, and the Euro wins.
Americans are stupid... they getting set up by their own FED.
Goodbye USA, your president works for the enemy.
06 May, 2009, 16:16
This NATO excercise in Georgia just leaves me dumbfounded!!
Its not they having it, its that they doing it while a crazy psycho runs the country.
We all know what he is going to do, he is going to send a few missiles into Russia.
Doesnt NATO know that they dealing with a flipping maniac!!!!!!
If I was Medvedev, I'd ask for a direct line to the NATO commander, and make sure the generals are well briefed on what to do when this mistake happens.
Are they trying to start WWIII or what????
When are Americans going to wake up, your government is out of control, whats it going to take, a big flash of white light before you see how crazy this is!!!
02 April, 2009, 11:31
There surely are a lot of Ossetin in Southern Ossetia, but what about Abkhazia and ethnic Abkhaz? Is it justified
to encourage an "Abkhaz" state? My main source on ethnic groups in what used to be the Soviet Union,
Narody Rossii. Enciklopediya (Moskva 1994), gives a total number of 7239 ethnic Abkhaz in Russia and Gruziya
for 1989. In 1989, only 4752 people out of these 7239 ethnic Abkhaz in states of the former Soviet Union called
the Abkhaz language their "native language", 29,6% claiming Russian as their language. I had to wait until 2005
to see the first standard Abkhaz dictionary published, Abkhazsko-russkiy slovar´, tom I-II - I am holding it in my
hands right now, it is really a great and beautifully made work, but it probably comes to late to help revive the Abkhaz language.
Given the small number of Abkhaz, printing a newspaper or organizing TV in Abkhaz may be too demanding.
I would not dare to hope for Abkhaz courses for speakers of Russian, since Abkhaz is a very complex and "unusual"
language, hard to learn in a satisfying manner, and a lot more different from Russian than Georgian.
To give a picture of Southern Ossetiya: According to "Narody Rossii", which I would consider very reliable,
there lived 164055 Ossetin in Gruziya (=Georgia) in 1989, most but not all of them in Southern Ossetiya, out of
a total number of 402275 people considering themselves "Ossetin". Among ethnic Ossetin, a strong 93,2% (or 374931
persons in absolute numbers) told the Ossetin language was their native language - this may in part reflect the positive
stand towards this language during Soviet times, it had never been neglected in a way like, say, Avar. But take
into account that Georgian is spoken in South Ossetia, too, and there are "pockets" of Ossetin in other parts of
traditional Georgia (Gruziya) as well, so separating along ethnic lines may prove difficult for politicians.
19 March, 2009, 22:19
Russia has done everything right, why should Georgia have the right to claim South Ossetia? Putin is probably the only one protecting the moral of the world
04 March, 2009, 14:41
The whole conflict is just another US project. Georgia invaded South Ossetia when The South Ossetians wanted independence. It was Georgia's aggression that was unjust; not Russia's. Russia simply responded by sending peace-keepers, which the Georgian army proceeded to attack. Russia felt that their ally was under attack, and they were the good neighbors who responded to the distress call. Georgia has wanted to join NATO for some time now. The US is on the side of Georgia in this conflict, and the western media is with holding facts from it's people, saying that the Russians are the aggressors instead of the Georgians. We are slowly slipping into another cold war. I've seen it in my own media too! I'm in Canada right now, and Canada shares the same ideology as the United States when it comes to conflicts. NATO itself seeks to corrupt the eastern powers, but I'm sure they will not be so easily persuaded. I am ashamed to call myself Canadian right now, due to our support of such childish behavior. The US always has to take a side in a conflict; they always start wars they cannot possibly finish. The phony "war on terror" for example. Bah! How can you be at war with a word? Terrorism will unfortunately always be happening in any part of the world, and not even totalitarianism can stop it. Yes, you can remove organizations that function on the ideologies of terror, such as the Taliban, and Al - Queda, (If it exists,) but terror itself will always exist, no matter who or where you are. To attack a word is a waste of time, money, and life that results only in the meaningless loss of life. The US is using Georgia as a puppet to further prevoke already mounting eastern tension with the west.
04 February, 2009, 07:40
Sevodnya_Net, a country may be beautiful but it does not mean it is automatically "a very nice place"
Actually every country in this world is beautiful in its own way.
04 February, 2009, 06:45
Sevodnya_Net
the sense of humour remark, I didn't realise that this affair between Russia and Georgia was a total joke. Now I can see the funny side of things...
04 February, 2009, 00:01
Sam,
Oh I know Georgia is a beautiful country, alright. No conclusions being jumped to there I'm afraid.
And just to keep David happy, I have no idea what sex has to do with it. And I don't own a snake, either.
Perhaps I could suggest some of us do a course or night classes in Having a Sense of Humour :-)
03 February, 2009, 12:27
Sevodnya_Net posted "And actually, Georgia is a very nice place"
Have you been there,how do you know?
Or are you again jumping to conclusions like you are with Russia, where as you had admitted had never been.
03 February, 2009, 12:19
Daniel made a comment that Invading Georgia proper was a bad idea.
Well it would not make any military sense for the Russian army not to create a buffer zone around what it wants to protect. Buffer zones are created on the territory of a loser and not the victor.
It would also not make any military sense not to destroy the enemy’s ability to repeat the same action later or to continue fighting.
In fact what would really had looked stupid if the Russian army stopped at the South Ossetian border metres from the Georgian army and waited for that army to be supplied from its bases and camps.
Lets be honest here, if the Russians wanted to take the whole of Georgia, it would probably put another few days on the fighting. The fact that Russian federation did not technically conquer Georgia means that they have no obligations towards Georgia by international law as say the USA has for Iraq.That's a smart move.
03 February, 2009, 04:38
daniel
you write:" Russia didn't need to move into Georgia-proper, if they moved into South Ossetia to protect the South Ossetians, then fine, but invading Georgia was a bad idea"
I believe they had to: Russia had to finish what it started. Had they just remained in south ossetia and not gone into georgia, there would have been shelling of tskinval, andmore civilians would have died. so to protect their own, Russia had to push the Georgians well back from South osseita, create a buffer zone, and agree on a peace deal.
Think about it, if someone breaks into your house, and comes into your dining room, do you push them back out into the hall or do you push them out of your house completely?
It's a simple military strategy.
It was necessary in order to protect Russian citizens.
But Georgia's assault on South Ossetia did nothing to protect Georgia's civilians, if anything, it put them at an unnecessary risk.
btw, I think the use of the word "attrocity" is a bit strong here, in the sense that it was a level playing field: Russia attacked an american funded and trained army who picked a fight with them.
One might call Israel's actions an attrocity as they used sophisticated military technology against an enemy which had nothing more than homemade rockets.
02 February, 2009, 22:21
To DD,
I believe you reside in fair Belgium. From your perspective perhaps it is inexplicable that someone might want to desert to Georgia, but try putting yourself in the shoes of a Russian soldier for once. And actually, Georgia is a very nice place. OK, it may not do chocolate the way the Belgians do it, but I can think of worse places to desert to. And deserting to Belgium from Ossetia would not be so easy :-)
02 February, 2009, 22:18
I'm quite well aware what the "debate" is about. Did he fall or was he pushed? I wouldn't bet a massive amount of lari on him having been kidnapped, to tell you the honest truth :-)
02 February, 2009, 22:11
Sevodnya_Net
What has sex got to do with it, unless, of course, Georgia pimps its girls. And I don't see the connection of Monty Python (unless this is the name you have given to your pet snake) and the Holy Grail (unless this is a religious chat show about the Crusades and the Freemasons) and Russia's intervention to rescue the innocent/defenceless.
02 February, 2009, 22:07
Daniel, when I was watching the Russian advance into Georgia, beyond South Ossetia, there was one point in that week where I was able to successfully predict where the soldiers would go next. They spread out and hit every military base and arms depot in the country. They circled the capitol but didn't enter it, because the military assets were not in the capitol but nearby. I found a map from the Spiegel site - it showed over a dozen military bases in little Georgia. They had been armed to the teeth with American weapons, and it was all destroyed or dismantled and taken north by the Russians. According to that map (and I lost the link so am looking for it again), all of the battles but one were on military bases, and that one battle was at the major crossroads in Gori. I don't think the Russians were looking for conquest. They were just trying to pull Georgia's teeth.
02 February, 2009, 15:35
Sevodnya,
Yes indeed, this sounds like a joke! Why the hell would a Russian soldier who only has still a few months to serve desert to.... yes, Georgia!! Lets all go to Georgia, the land of milk and honey, THE country to desert to !!! The soldier, leaving his family and friends in Russia behind to desert to Georgia!!? Sounds very unrealistic and funny!!
But yes, somehow it could be a true desertion, there are nutcases all over the world. It only would be fair if this soldier could get the opportunity to talk to his parents and a Russian official in a neutral place, just to justify if this is real desertion or abduction. Don't you agree?
02 February, 2009, 13:06
to jsmith,
Your argument is very compelling and i do agree with you, i should have mentioned that i don't base my opinions on a single report, i do use other sources, in this case i was simply highlighting ONE viewpoint from a respectable NGO.
I should also mention that i'm a journalist, so i do understand the need for objectivity, impartiality, fairness and accuracy.
However to me there is one sticking point: Russia didn't need to move into Georgia-proper, if they moved into South Ossetia to protect the South Ossetians, then fine, but invading Georgia was a bad idea
02 February, 2009, 09:58
"rescue" one of their "deserters".
It is obvious that Sevodnya_Net did not read properly what the debate was about before going for his comedy act.
I advice him to scroll down and read it again.
The debate was if the guy was in fact kidnapped or not handled over after the conflict then Russia has every right to use force to get him back.
If he was a deserter then that's a different thing.Some how Sevodnya_Net as usual had mixed up my comments to reach his own comedy act.
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