Russia/Georgia Situation News & Updates

reply to post by pause4thought
I differ with your views on this fast track plan for Georgia joining NATO Pause for thought. Georgia and the Ukraine are the last thing NATO needs on its hands, added to the fact that Europe are completely at the mercy of Russian energy, the Europeans will never upset Moscow over any interference in their near abroad. Russia won this one and will keep its influence outside NATO.

Originally posted by Willbert
Did the UN sanction a peacekeeping force to be placed there?

Yes they were sanctioned by UN. UN visited and monitored the peacekeepers' positions numerous times in the past decade, but stopped about a year ago. About the same time Georgia started saying that it wants Russian peacekeepers out. Many Russian peacekeepers indeed left the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia after that - willingly. But they stayed in S. Ossetia.

Originally posted by Willbert
Or did Russia put troops there and said we are peace keepers in this country?

Those were fully legit peacekeepers in accordance with UN. At least untill a few months ago when Georgia claims that more Russian peacekeepers entered SO with non-permitted weapons. Russia claimed that these weren't armed troops but military rail-road workers.

Originally posted by Willbert
I know the Russians recently had issues with the UN when the UN was questioning why Russia was increasing their military in the break away areas.

Yeah that concerns the "rail road workers". Not much is known about who they really are, and neither side has proof of its claims.

Whether UN directly questioned Russia is unknown. The Russian peacekeepers were still legally sanctioned up untill the very end.

Originally posted by Willbert
Russia stated they needed more troops due to the hostility in the region. This was like months ago....

Yeah and supposedly that was in response to Georgia sending more troops to the region. Georgia in turn says that it send troops because the Russians send troops. And so on and so forth. It the "who came first the chicken or the egg" sort of arguement. Largely useless now, except to say that S Ossetia fighters likely used this build-up to their advantage.

Russia says US playing dangerous game in Georgia

MEIENDORF CASTLE, Russia, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of playing a dangerous game in the Caucasus by backing Georgia and denied Moscow was not doing enough to prevent looting.

(AlertNet)

WHERE IS JAMES BOND??
We need you, this is getting ugly

Originally posted by -Rugged Shark-
Not solid proof, but please note the orange shield on the front of the fuel/water truck in this pic.

So is that a type of idenfiying tags that Russia uses?

Based on the uniform and the equipment the soldiers are carrying they could belong to either side.

[edit on 13-8-2008 by maloy]

reply to post by chips


I wanted to watch it but missed it. Thanks for the synopsis. I'd like to see the tape, anyone got it?



[edit on 13-8-2008 by pluckynoonez]

Hmmmm......

Now I think I just found out that the Russian peace keepers are not UN peacekeepers.. they are part of a CIS. Is this group associated with the UN peace keepers?

Georgia has long objected to the presence of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peacekeepers, who have been based in Abkhazia and a second breakaway region, South Ossetia, since both territories declared independence in the early 1990s. Tbilisi accuses the peacekeepers -- who are mainly Russian, despite their CIS mandate -- of serving Moscow's interests and preventing a peaceful resolution of the separatist conflicts.

Georgian officials had hoped to use an April 30 meeting in Brussels of the NATO-Russia Council to propose big changes to the peacekeeping format. But Moscow beat Tbilisi to the punch, announcing on April 29 that it plans to send an unspecified number of Russian peacekeepers to the separatist regions to counter what it says is the threat of an invasion by Georgia.

Georgia: Moscow's Move To Bolster Peacekeepers Angers Tbilisi, Worries EU

reply to post by maloy


Isn't that a Cyrillic letter (a D, if I am not mistaken)?

Georgians do not use that alphabet, but only seeing a Georgian military vehicle could we be sure of that.

reply to post by maloy


Well the shield uses cyrillic writing, while Georgian writing is completely different. But like is said, it isn't solid proof.

reply to post by pluckynoonez


Here's a link to the Reuters AlertNet article:

Rice says Russia faces more isolation over truce

So the peacekeepers in Georgian are not from the UN but from another faction/group not associated with the UN....

The UN may have been monitoring the contracts signed by the parties involved.

An association of former Soviet republics that was established in December 1991 by Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to help ease the dissolution of the Soviet Union and coordinate interrepublican affairs. Other members include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Commonwealth of Independent States

This explains greatly what Bush meant in his address today....

In recent years, Russia has sought to integrate into the diplomatic, political, economic, and security structures of the 21st century. The United States has supported those efforts. Now Russia is putting its aspirations at risk by taking actions in Georgia that are inconsistent with the principles of those institutions.

Guess.. the states watched as Russia tried to interrogate itself into the 21st. century. Only to recently fall back to it's old ways by suppressing by force its nabours.

Guess.. the states don't like the way Russia was policing its nabours differances....


[edit on 13-8-2008 by Willbert]

A somewhat off-topic post.

While looking for images of Georgian army vehicles, I found this page.

If you scroll to the middle of the page (or better, if you search for "KRAZes in the new Georgian army base") you will see a photo with what look like familiar buildings, those buildings look like some of the partially destroyed buildings they have been showing on TV.

If the buildings are the same and are civilian buildings, they were too close to the army base.

Originally posted by Willbert
Hmmmm......
Now I think I just found out that the Russian peace keepers are not UN peacekeepers.. they are part of a CIS. Is this group associated with the UN peace keepers?

Originally the peacekeepers were approved by CIS. But the UN sanctioned their presence and monitored their activities for many years.

Thinking back to it - they never wore or had any signs identifying them as belonging to the UN. But the question here was whether UN approved of their presence there to stabilize the region, and it had. But UN itself never send anyone there for full-time monitoring.




And I did some searching into the military vehicle tags. Yes - the trucks appear to be Russian. The color of the tag just identifies them as belonging to a certain province in Russia - not all Russian military tags look like that.

[edit on 13-8-2008 by maloy]

Errr, there are UN monitors in Georgia but at the Abkhazian border.



These monitors are part of UNOMIG

link to UNOMIG site

Georgian official says Russian troops are to leave Gori tomorrow.

- Sky News TV.

Originally posted by chips
Georgian official says Russian troops are to leave Gori tomorrow.

- Sky News TV.

Are they saying it like: We are ordering them to leave tomorrow, or Russia has said they will leave tomorrow?

Originally posted by maloy

Originally posted by Willbert
Hmmmm......
Now I think I just found out that the Russian peace keepers are not UN peacekeepers.. they are part of a CIS. Is this group associated with the UN peace keepers?

Originally the peacekeepers were approved by CIS. But the UN sanctioned their presence and monitored their activities for many years.

That does not mean the Russian peacekeepers where flying a UN peacekeeping flag. Which puts an interesting twist to this...

No wonder NATO did not intervene in this skirmish by sending additional peacekeepers to help Russian peacekeepers.

The Russians were policing on their own with the UN's blessing so long as the contracts/agreements were held between the parties involved.

reply to post by jhill76


I don't know - I'm literally just reading that off my TV screen. That's all it says for now.

Originally posted by -Rugged Shark-
Errr, there are UN monitors in Georgia but at the Abkhazian border.

These monitors are part of UNOMIG

link to UNOMIG site

Are they Russian peacekeepers? Or they UN peacekeepers monitoring all parties involved in the pack signed in 1992? Which means their monitoring the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peacekeepers, mostly Russians.

Commonwealth of Independent States

The CIS was formed by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (formerly Byelorussia) in Minsk on 8 December 1991. With the exception of Georgia and the Baltic states, other former Soviet republics joined in Alma-Ata on 21 December. Georgia became a member in 1993. The creation of the CIS precipitated the final demise of the Soviet Union. Whilst moves have been made to develop the CIS as the basis of a free trade area or defence pact, progress has been largely determined by bilateral relations between Russia and the separate states.

Source


[edit on 13-8-2008 by Willbert]

Shortly after Bush spoke, the White House announced that a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo jet carrying medical supplies arrived in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

Another C-17 is to arrive in Tbilisi on Thursday carrying more supplies, including 104,000 doses of antibiotics requested by the Georgian Ministry of Health, a State Department spokesman said. The value of both shipments is $1.28 million, he said.

Bush said more U.S. military aid missions were planned by the Navy and Air Force.

He warned Russia not to interfere with any relief efforts.

"We expect Russia to honor its commitment to let in all forms of humanitarian assistance. We expect Russia to ensure that all lines of communication and transport, including seaports, airports, roads and airspace, remain open for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and for civilian transit," Bush said at the White House.