Tag: Georgia

Closing Thought–13Aug18

It seems that Russia still has designs on Georgia (the country not the state) even after their 2008 mini war……a decade on…..

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/08/08/looking_back_on_the_russian-georgian_war_10_years_later_113698.html

……and since their troops are still present the US is making demands……

In comments on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called on Russia to withdraw its military entirely from the two breakaway Republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The US does not recognize the regions’ independence.

The comments come 10 years after the brief Russo-Georgian War, during which Georgia attempted to attack South Ossetia, ended up fighting Russian troops therein, and fairly quickly lost. In the aftermath, Russia recognized the independence of both regions.

The regions are a long-term problem for Georgia, which has ambitions for joining NATO. NATO clearly would never accept anyone as a member state who has existing territorial disputes with Russia, and accuses Russia of occupying parts of their territory, since this would mean an immediate NATO-Russia war.

The State Department insists they support Georgia’s “territorial integrity” as including those regions, and to the extent that continues, it also follows that Georgia will never be able to advance toward accession into NATO.

(antiwar.com)

Demand?  A country that has troops in 177 countries stationed on about 800 “bases” should not be making such demands…..maybe the US should lead by example not some infantile bullying.

Just a thought.

Turn The Page!

You Voted…..Now What?

Inkwell Institute

Eurasian Desk

Writing about what is a head for the people of Crimea now that they voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and take up with Putin’s Russia……I would like to point t another region that has done the same thing and the results of that ………

There is a tale of woe………..for Russia that is……….Ever hear of South Ossetia?

South Ossetia was a province inside the country of Georgia which had a conflict within the bordewrs because the Ossetians did not want to be part of Georgia……after years of conflict they became an autonomous region aligned with Russia…….so how did that work out of the people of South Ossetia?

The ethnic Russians who make up most of Crimea’s population are pretty excited about the reunion with the motherland, but a look at other regions reveals that the love from Moscow may not last long, the New York Times finds. In South Ossetia, recognized as an independent state by Russia after its 2008 war with Georgia, the enclave was left isolated after recognition from other countries failed to follow; the local economy is now totally reliant on funds from Moscow. While residents were ecstatic when they first gained recognition from Russia, they now complain that Moscow has been heavy-handed about maintaining political control and that billions of rubles in promised aid have mostly ended up in the pockets of the local elite. “It will be sad if Crimea turns out the same way,” says an academic who complains that local government officials now live in much fancier houses—but a cup of tea costs $6. “This culture of Russian expansion, it means lots of money, but terribly distributed. It destroyed the good ways of a small people.”

That was one of the tales that was passed around when all this Ukrainian stuff started….that it would be too expensive for Putin to be serious about annexation………

Now can this be used to make the economics of a takeover more a headache than a windfall……

That sports fans will be the post for later today….just what will the West do to punish Putin for his actions?

Do You Remember Georgia?

NO!  The country not the state!  If you will recall there was some incident where Russia attacked some area know as South Ossetia.  Well, there seems to be a new twist in the situation, as reported in the NY Times.

Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.

The accounts are neither fully conclusive nor broad enough to settle the many lingering disputes over blame in a war that hardened relations between the Kremlin and the West. But they raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia’s insistence that its shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, was a precise operation. Georgia has variously defended the shelling as necessary to stop heavy Ossetian shelling of Georgian villages, bring order to the region or counter a Russian invasion.

President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia has characterized the attack as a precise and defensive act. But according to observations of the monitors, documented Aug. 7 and Aug. 8, Georgian artillery rounds and rockets were falling throughout the city at intervals of 15 to 20 seconds between explosions, and within the first hour of the bombardment at least 48 rounds landed in a civilian area. The monitors have also said they were unable to verify that ethnic Georgian villages were under heavy bombardment that evening, calling to question one of Mr. Saakashvili’s main justifications for the attack.

Neither Georgia nor its Western allies have as yet provided conclusive evidence that Russia was invading the country or that the situation for Georgians in the Ossetian zone was so dire that a large-scale military attack was necessary, as Mr. Saakashvili insists.

With a paucity of reliable and unbiased information available, the O.S.C.E. observations put the United States in a potentially difficult position. The United States, Mr. Saakashvili’s principal source of international support, has for years accepted the organization’s conclusions and praised its professionalism. Mr. Bryza refrained from passing judgment on the conflicting accounts.

But wait!  Was the Russian invasion yet another lie?  Looks like it.

It Is On Georgia’s Head

NO Irene, it is still the country not the state.  This chest thumping could be the next big push for “democracy”.

With a NATO delegation scheduled to arrive in Georgia tomorrow to examine the damage done to the Caucasus nation’s military infrastructure, President Mikheil Saakashvili reiterated his vow to reclaim the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which were lost after a Georgian military assault on South Ossetia led to a brief war with Russia, claiming the rest of the world would unite against Russia to “restore” his nation’s territorial integrity.

Russia has recognized the independence of both enclaves, though the United States has promised to use its status as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to ensure that neither will ever be recognized as independent from Georgia. Vice President Dick Cheney, who recently visited the region, has warned that Russia risks a “confrontation” with NATO, and has expressed US support for NATO membership for both Georgia and Ukraine. President Saakashvili, for his part, predicts future armed conflicts with Russia in the region, and cited the Ukraine-controlled Crimea as the source of a potential future war.

A Free South Ossetia?

For the skeptics who raise doubts about their future as an independent state, South Ossetians have one word: Andorra.

The comparison sounded a little strange, looking around this city, the capital of the enclave of South Ossetia, which was burned and battered by Georgian attacks earlier this month. Bullets had torn big chunks out of the pine trees, and the turret of a tank lay upside down in a doorway. Someone had spray-painted the words “Shame, Georgian bootlicker!” on a wall on the main boulevard.

Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations has filled people here with hope that other countries will follow. To outsiders, that hope may seem far-fetched; Western leaders have made it clear that they consider the regions part of Georgia.

But all is not as it appears.

Russia intends to eventually absorb Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia, a South Ossetian official said Friday, three days after Moscow recognized the region as independent and drew criticism from the West.

Georgia, meanwhile, said it would recall all diplomatic staff from its embassy in Moscow on Saturday because of the Russian military presence in Georgia. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nestrenko criticized the move, saying it “will not benefit our bilateral relations,” Russian news agencies reported.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the region’s leader, Eduard Kokoity, discussed the future of South Ossetia earlier this week in Moscow, South Ossetian parliamentary speaker Znaur Gassiyev said.

Russia will absorb South Ossetia “in several years” or earlier, a position was “firmly stated by both leaders,” Gassiyev said.

Do not say that you were not warned–this will become a major problem for the next president.

What Was The Georgian Invasion All About?

No Irene, not the state, I am still talking about the country. Surely most people have heard of the Russian invasion of the country of Georgia. If not, then drop your nuts and the game controller and get a flippin’ life. Yes, Irene there is more to this story than the media has told us about.

Please step into the Professor’s Way Back Machine and we will travel a few years into the past. It all began with the collapse of the old Soviet Union.

On a balmy day in 1992, Eduard Shevardnadze, becomes the leader of Georgia, after many months and years of civil turmoil and violence. Eventually Shevardnadze is elected president and the fun began. During his tenure there was widespread corruption and oppression. Georgia began negotiating a deal for a pipeline. The agreement he was expected to sign with the president of Azerbaijan would pave the way for a pipeline that would transport some 5 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey via Georgia. .

The consortium, led by BP Amoco, who commissioned the project, say the pipeline will be more effective than present routes running to ports in Russia and Georgia, because they cut out the congestion in the Black Sea.

This all started in 2001. In 2002, US Special Forces deployed in Georgia to help train and equipment the Georgian army in counterinsurgent techniques. In 2003, the Georgian president struck a deal with Gazprom, a Russian company for pipeline transport, and thus western companies were shut out of the deal completely. This same year, after the deal with Gazprom was inked, the so called “Rose Revolution” started. It was an uprising by the people and the army over Shevardnadze’s failure to deal with the widespread corruption of his administration.

Shevardnadze was toppled and later the present president of Georgia, Saakasvili, is elected president with a substantial pro-US position.

Now was it a coincidence that the participants of the “Rose Revolution” were receiving training by US Special Forces? Personally, I do not believe in coincidences in international politics. Now the last armed conflict—since Gaprom was now dealt out of the pipeline deal, was the action anything to do with that? Another coincidence, the new Russian president is a past chairman of Gazprom.

Now the stage is set. And you have read or heard the outcome. All the chest thumping by the US president and candidates over the invasion of Georgia. Was the action truly about separatists or the politics of oil?

US Condemns Russia Over Georgia

Western leaders have condemned strongly Russia’s decision to recognise the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

US President George Bush warned his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, that his “irresponsible decision” was exacerbating tensions in the region.

President Bush said Russia should “reconsider this irresponsible decision” and “live up to its international commitments”.

“This decision is inconsistent with numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions that Russia has voted for in the past, and is also inconsistent with the French-brokered six-point ceasefire agreement which President Medvedev signed,” he said in a statement.

“Russia’s action only exacerbates tensions and complicates diplomatic negotiations,” he added.

But wait!

When the West recognized Kosovo’s independence half a year ago, Russia’s leaders warned the move would open ‘Pandora’s Box’ in the Caucasus.

The threat that Kosovo could stand as a secessionist precedent in the Caucasus had formed the Kremlin’s most vivid protest to the province’s break from its ally Serbia.

But while Moscow is still confronted by the problems that the Kosovo precedent raises, paradoxically, the comparison has now been turned into a justification of South Ossetia and Abkhazia’s right to self-determination.

Western leaders have labelled Russia’s move to recognize Georgia’s regions as hypocrisy, while Russian leaders hit back with the accusation that a double standard has been applied in the case of Kosovo.

I do not understand how one can condemn another for doing the same thing as the original one.  Kinda like condemning another country for an invasion after you had just invaded another country.

Russia Backs Georgian Rebels

Russia’s parliament has backed a motion urging the president to recognise the independence of Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Both houses voted unanimously in favour of the non-binding motion, which analysts say could help President Dmitry Medvedev in talks with the West.

The US said any move to recognise independence of the two regions would be contrary to international law.

Responding to the parliamentary vote, the US state department said recognition of the two provinces’ independence would be “a violation of Georgian territorial integrity” and “inconsistent with international law”.

President George W Bush said he was deeply concerned, adding: “I call on Russia’s leadership to meet its commitments and not recognise these separatist regions.”

In an interview in his office that stretched until nearly 2 a.m., Mr. Saakashvili said that Georgia had gained allies in the world and would embark upon a campaign of rebuilding.

He predicted continued American support and said that he spoke by phone with the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Senator John McCain, as often as twice a day, and that he was in regular contact with Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has been picked to run for vice president on the Democratic ticket.

He also said that the Bush administration had not communicated disappointment or signaled a decline in its support for him since he gave the order on Aug. 7 to attack Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital.

And now Cindy McCain has been dispatched by the McCain campaign to Georgia for the media coverage….that is wrong…she is going on a humanitarian mission…wink…wink.

Russians Dig In

Thousands of Georgians angry at the presence of Russian troops on the outskirts of the strategic Black Sea port of Poti took to the streets Saturday waving Georgian flags and urging the Russians to leave.

The protest came as a top Russian general said his country’s forces would keep patrolling Poti even though it lies outside the areas where Russia claims it has the right to station soldiers in Georgia

On Friday, Russia said it had pulled back forces from Georgia in accordance with a EU-brokered cease-fire agreement. Russia, though, interprets the accord as allowing it to keep a substantial military presence in Georgia — a point hotly disputed by the United States, France and Britain.

Russian troops were taking positions Saturday in trenches they had dug near a bridge that provides the only access to Poti. Tanks and APCs were parked nearby. They had hoisted both Russian flags and the flag of the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS, the union of former Soviet republics that Georgia recently announced it had left. Emotions ran high, though direct confrontation was avoided.

A “Democratic” Georgia?

Yes, Irene, I am still talking about the country and not the state that made Laster Maddox famous.

One of the constant themes in the US government and media presentation of the conflict in the Caucasus is the depiction of Georgia as a bastion of democracy. The Bush administration has increasingly invoked the terminology of the Cold War by referring to “democratic Georgia” as a symbol of the “free world” and its struggle against authoritarian Russia.

The reality of political life in Georgia is far different than the media image.

Only last November, in the midst of mounting protests against his regime, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili employed dictatorial methods against his opponents. On November 2, opposition demonstrations began in Tbilisi, demanding democratic reforms and the ouster of Saakashvili. These protests, while organized by billionaire media tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, gave vent to grievances against government repression and the desperate living conditions of the population. They attracted tens of thousands to the streets of Georgia’s capital city.

Saakashvili declared a state of emergency, suspending democratic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly. Independent broadcasting was halted even before the state of emergency was declared, and only the state-controlled television station was allowed to broadcast for a period of fifteen days. Imeldi was taken off the air indefinitely.

During the crackdown, Saakashivli called for snap elections to be held less than two months later, on January 5. The elections, held under conditions of political intimidation and repression, placed the opposition at an enormous disadvantage.

In fact, the “excesses” of Saakashvili in putting down peaceful protests were not mere aberrations. The US State Department, in its 2008 “Country Reports in Human Rights,” listed the following in relation to the Georgian government: “at least one reported death due to excessive use of force by law enforcement officers, cases of torture and mistreatment of detainees, abuse of prisoners, excessive use of force to disperse demonstrations, poor conditions in prisons and pretrial detention facilities, impunity of police officers, continued overuse of pretrial detention for less serious offenses, lack of access for average citizens to defense attorneys, lack of due process in some cases, and reports of government pressure on the judiciary.”

The country is not the bastion of democracy that McCain and Bush would like us to believe.  This rhetoric is beginning to sound like the rhetoric from the old “Cold War” days.