Ever since the Rose Revolution of 2003, Vladimir Putin and his fellow autocrats in Russia have been looking for an excuse to break bad on Georgia. I’m not sure why they didn’t simply try to poison him to death like they tried with Viktor Yuschenko, but in any case they have long had their eyes on reclaiming the upstart nations that dared to throw off the old Soviet tyrant. Georgia further angered Russia by seeking membership of NATO. Russia has long used South Ossetia as a means to attempt to destabilize the Georgian government. It has armed the province far more heavily that it could otherwise have been and stationing “peacekeepers” there. While the Georgian government has, in my opinion, been occasionally heavy handed in dealing with the separatists, the matter has always been an internal matter of a nation settling something akin to a civil war. It’s never been Russia’s place to interfere more than diplomatically.
Putin and company got their excuse to crush the upstart Georgians yesterday as Georgia made an aggressive attempt squelch the armed revolt in South Ossetia. After Georgian troops moved into the South Ossetia capital, Tskhinvali, and shelled several areas, which resulted in the deaths of 15 Russian soldiers, Russia invaded. Though the Russian Foreign Minister described its invasion as an attempt to “keep the peace”, its devastation of the Georgian port city of Gori demonstrates that the Russian government isn’t telling the truth (via memeorandum). Gori lies well outside South Ossetia and is only about 47 miles from the Georgian capital of Tblisi.
The fighting still rages today in both Gori and Tskhinvali with Russia sending in more troops and the Georgians calling home its contingent of 2,000 troops from Iraq to reinforce its own much smaller military. Russia seems to have defaulted to its old Soviet Union days alternating between defiance and feigned innocence to explain its actions the past two days.
Glenn Reynolds points to an interesting link from the Transalantic Politics site that might make Russia’s motivations here more clear.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry reported that Russian aircrafts have completely destroyed the harbor of Poti, in the immediate vecinity of Supsa, a vital oil terminal.
Supsa is vital for Europe, especially since the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (the only alternative route to the Russian oil and gas pipelines) has been disrupted on August 6 in Turkey by the Kurdish militia PKK. Since then, oil transports have been rerouted from Tbilisi to Supsa.
If the Russians take Gori and Poti, then they have effectively cut the country in half. It’s also worth noting that Russian intelligence has been very active in neighboring Azerbaijan, where the valuable Baku oil field is located. Azerbaijan had in the past three years, been enjoying better relations with Russia. Russian control of he Georgian portion of the Baku/Supsa pipeline would almost guarantee a much greater flow of oil to a country that can either use it itself or sell it at a premium to the rest of the world.
It looks like the Russian Bear has started to roar again. I sincerely hope that we hear it for what it is.
Tags: Georgia, No More Tyrants, Rose Revolution, Russia, South Ossetia, Vladimir Putin
Please stop genocide of Ocetian nation!
Starting 1989 nationalistic fascist Georgian government tries to annihilate and expel Ocetian nation from its territory. As the result of Georgian warfare against small nations, tens thousands of Ocetian, Abhasian, Armenian and Russian people died since 1991. The scale of genocide is concealed by Georgian mass media. Brutality of Georgian fascists and freaksville torture of the local population overrode the torture of fascists during the Second World War.
Georgian mass media stir up the sickness of Georgian nation – they believe they are only people deserving life on Georgian territory, they are exclusive, elitist; other nations should move out or be killed.
At the moment the tragedy is happening – Georgians systematically shooting dead the Ocetian people in their own houses or burying under the falling homes.
Georgian fascists destroyed Ocetian settlements and town Tskhinvally – they lay even with the ground.
The number of victims buried by Georgian fire under the ruins cannot be calculated – it is amounted to thousands.
Georgians destroyed all hospitals. Medics cannot work under the fire of Georgians. People saved in underground stores do not have food, water, electricity, gas for 3 days – they cannot go out because of Georgian fire and cannot move out of town because Georgians are trying to take hold with tanks and armored vehicles of the only road from the town to tunnel controlled by Russians.
At that Georgian president insincerely is saying that he tries to make constitutional order and peace, and suggesting lefthandedly to cease fire. All his actions are aimed towards USA and NATO (he even speaks with his nation in English so that you understand him).
USA has strategic interest in region – pipeline going through Georgia. So official government of USA will never realize that Georgian president is criminal politician betrayed its nation (in fact people in Georgia do not want war), instead government of USA will support him (several hours ago a train with NATO armored machines came to Georgia).
The next victim of Georgian fascists will be Abhasian nation.
People in USA and Europe please force your politicians to stop Georgians.
[...] by See-Dubya.} Some more good points here at the Sundries Shack and at Ace’s. Oh, and once again, Tom Clancy’s writing…well, a Clancy-branded [...]
[...] Jimmie has a good take on the situation that led to the fighting. One glaringly obvious goal? The removal of a democratically elected government that is too friendly with the west and not nearly servile enough to Russia. (U.S. UN Ambassador Zalmay) Khalilzad disclosed during a U.N. Security Council session that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday morning “that a democratically elected president of Georgia — and I quote — must go.” [...]
A Russian “counter-attack” to protect Ossetians could have been done solely by regular Russian forces, and they would have been responsive to Kremlin control.
This operation bears a strong relationship to the Serbian ethnic cleansing operations by the use of ill-discipined and over armed irregulars whose tactics are also reminiscent of the Kansas Jayhawkers and Bushwackers of Bleeding Kansas.
In addition, appeals were made to raise Cossack forces to assist Mother Russia in the manner of the Romanovs in expanding Russian hegemony in centuries past. This is also a way to ingratiate the Cossacks to the New Russia after the ill treatment the Soviets gave to the Cossacks for supporting the Whites during the Civil War and the Germans during WW 2.
Likewise, appeals were made to the Chechnyans for similar reasons.
As a result, we find the Russian forces operating with little effective Kremlin control. Russians open and close checkpoints, leave and reenter cities to destroy Georgian infrastructure as if they were in Germany in 1945.
More than one military organization has run away with the war in teeth to garner gains not anticipated, often opposed by the government:
The Japanese incident at the Marco Polo bridge was done against orders as was the attack on the USS Panay in China in the Thirties. Colonel John C Fremont took a detour from surveying the Arkansas River to stir up Anglos in California resulting in the Bear Flag. Dewey attacked the Spanish in Manila Bay on the orders of the Asst Secy of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt.
The incidents in Georgia are more in keeping with Tsarist Russian than Soviet Russia.