Tag: South Ossetia

Russian troops and armor head into Georgia proper in major escalation.

What is certain to be considered a major escalation in the fighting, Russian ground forces are reportedly attacking the Georgian city of Gori well outside the disputed South Ossetian region. While technically South Ossetia is recognized by the entire world as part of Georgia, the crossing of that border into Georgia proper is going to have major repercussions for the Russians and has started to change the tone of questions to ‘when is Russia going to stop fighting in response to Georgia’s invasion of S. Ossetia?’ to something along the lines of ‘just what are the Russians *really* up to?’ The latter line of questioning is going to have an impact in Soviet Russian – Western relations for many years to come.

Meanwhile, Georgian forces in Iraq have been landing in Tiblisi and some questions are being raised on how exactly they got there (and whether US air power played a role).

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Russia and Georgia share Olympic medal platform, call for peace

An early leader for the Pierre de Coubertin medal for sportsmanship is a pair of shooters, one from Russia and one from Georgia, who shared the medal platform today in the Womens’ 10m air pistol. Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze and Russia’s Natalia Paderina, former teammates on the USSR team, collected the bronze and silver today respectively, but took a moment to appeal for peace in the trouble South Ossetia area.

“I am very nervous today. It’s very difficult for my people,” said the Georgian.

“If the world were to draw any lessons from what I did there would never be any wars.

“We live in the 21st Century, after all,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes as she put her pistol down after her final shot of the event.

“We shouldn’t really stoop so low to wage wars against each other.”

Georgian forces announce pullout from South Ossetia

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman have announced they will be removing Georgian forces from South Ossetia. Russia now has nearly 10,000 troops in South Ossetia (which had a pre-battle population of 70,000) and the Russian Black Sea fleet is positioning itself off the Georgian coast for a naval blockade.

Meanwhile, strategic thinkers are starting to question the response by Russia. The use of ballistic missiles and strategic bombers seems disproportionate to an attack on peacekeepers, and some are questioning whether these attacks are designed to destabilize the Georgian government, or at least keep them out of NATO.

One other side effect of the attack is a more unified Western ‘view’ on Russia and the fact they may not be a ‘partner’ in the future. French, UK and other European allies share the US view that Russia may have burnt some bridges with their overresponse to this crisis.

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World asks Russia to withdraw from South Ossetia. Russia asks why?

Russia continues to pour troops into South Ossetia and has reportedly stepped up the bombing of Georgia, targeting not just military locations but economic assets such as ports and pipelines. Meanwhile the world has been sending ambassadors and whatnot demanding that Russia pullback, but the Russian government is starting to ask the big question–why?

Russia will win militarily, through sheer numbers if not military ability. While it may be a much longer fight than just this weekend (despite what Russian bloggers think) the overall political climate in Russia is now asking the question ‘maybe we should redraw the maps.’

With a veto at the UN, don’t expect ‘blue helmets’ to be replacing the Russian ‘peacekeepers’ in South Ossetia anytime soon. Putin is calling the Georgian attack ‘Genocide’ which is a pretty loaded word designed to stir up a range of emotions around the world, though many around the world take everything Putin says with a grain of salt. It’s pretty clear that most of the world isn’t going to be rushing to the Russian side on this matter, but it’s also pretty clear that that doesn’t really matter.

What happens next is anyones guess. Militarily we could see guerilla-like fighting for years. Economically it’s unlikely we’ll see any sort of sanctions or anything more than a slap on the wrist (i.e. visa troubles for Russian leaders, etc). Russia might find itself kicked out of the G-8 regardless of who wins the American presidential election in a few months, but it’s doubtful many Russians would really care.

How much of a ‘resurgence’ in the Russian military is ‘real’ (readiness / training / resupply) and how much was for ’show’ (i.e. long range bomber flights of little significant value) over the last few years of Putin’s tenure will soon become apparent. Should the Roki tunnel (where South Ossetia gets much of its money) be blown up by some errant missile, resupply of Russian forces would become a bit more difficult.

We’ll see what happens next.

p.s. for additional updates from the Russian point of view you can use TASS’s English language website. It is updated more frequently than Russia Today’s website. For the Georgian side you can check the Civil.ge website.

UPDATES:

* Head of the Russian 58th Army injured in attack.

* Georgia claims to retake South Ossetian capital, destroying 40 Russian tanks.

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South Ossetia update 8/9

The ‘war’ in South Ossetia between Russia and Georgia (well, is it a war or not, who really knows or cares at this point) has gotten to the point that reliable information from the ground is difficult to obtain.

* Both sides claim to be in control (or occupying) the South Ossetian capital city. Russiatoday claims the capital is basically destroyed, including many hospitals.

* Bombs continue to fall on Georgian cities from Russian aircraft.

* Georgia has called for a cease-fire, as have many members of the UN.

* In Abkhazia, separtistist are trying to open a ’second front’ against Georgia by launching air and artillery strikes on Georgian forces in the Kodori Gorge.

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South Ossetia update 8/9 am

* Russian planes attacked the Georgian city of Gori, bombing military bases and reportedly some civilian buildings.

* Russia announced additional forces will be sent to South Ossetia.

* The Georgian port of Poti was destroyed.

* Georgia claims 10 planes have been shot down, and Russian TV confirms at least two.

* 1,500 have been reported killed.

* President Bush has called for an immediate halt to all fighting.

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Russian troops enter South Ossetia

AP is reporting that Russian television is claiming Russian troops are entering South Ossetia.

A Russian official denied bombing Georgia, but Russian state television said Russian troops were moving into South Ossetia and showed a convoy of tanks that it said had already crossed the border. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, by evening, Channel One television said.

UPDATE: BBC is reporting 150 pieces of armor coming through the tunnel (one does wonder why the Georgians did not blow it up)

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Watching the Georgia – South Ossetia war, from a Russian slant.

For many Americans you can now catch live coverage of the Georgia-South Ossetia crisis on the Kremlin’s Engilsh language service Russia Today. The MHZ Networks offers Russia Today as a free channel to residents in the Washington, DC area, and Russia Today is free to air on many satellites over the US. If you don’t have one of those services, you can also catch Russia Today’s Youtube Channel

Now, being a Russian channel, you’ll hear some stuff like:

* “We must stop the slaughter of Russians”

* “Russia will not tolerate deaths of compatriots”

and you won’t hear about Russian warplanes being involved or any resupply of South Ossetians from Russian territory.

But still, given that the US media is focused on the Olympics or the bus crash in Texas today (12 dead) at least you’ll get to hear something about what is going on (and lots and lots of live video).

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