Russia/Georgia Situation News & Updates

Breaking:

Russia to close embassy in Tbilisi.

- BBC News TV

Russia remains a Black Sea power

Aug 30, 2008

If the struggle in the Caucasus was ever over oil and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) agenda towards Central Asia, the United States suffered a colossal setback this week. Kazakhstan, the Caspian energy powerhouse and a key Central Asian player, has decided to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Russia over the conflict with Georgia, and Russia's de facto control over two major Black Sea ports has been consolidated.

At a meeting in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Thursday on the sidelines of the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Kazakh President Nurusultan Nazarbayev told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that Moscow could count on Astana's support in the present crisis.

In his press conference in Dushanbe, Medvedev underlined that his SCO counterparts, including China, showed understanding of the Russian position. Moscow appears satisfied that the SCO summit also issued a statement on the Caucasus developments, which, inter alia, said, "The leaders of the SCO member states welcome the signing in Moscow of the six principles for regulating the South Ossetia conflict, and support Russia's active role in assisting peace and cooperation in the region." The SCO comprises China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

www.atimes.com...

Forgot to add to my earlier post 8 or 9 posts back :

That is why they never blew the Roki tunnel, they had to let the Russians through . That is why the Georgian US and Israeli trained forces lost and withdrew so easily, it was a battle they never intended to win. Once Russians had crossed into Georgia proper the trap had sprung and the shrill voices of the western diplomats began therby ensuring Russia could not make a swift withdrawal, and the well orchestrated lie across the whole media spectrum kicked into place . An extraordinarily well co-ordinated work of massive propaganda timed with the so called random act of an erratic Georgian President . The rest , as they say , is history.

It's like a chessboard where none of the pieces can actually move onto the square where an opponents piece sits . Not directly through military means , that'd be war . So they have to use proxy pieces , and they used the sacrificial georgian pawn to draw the russian piece onto the square that they can hopefully remove by diplomatic means , that'll then allow a US queen to be placed on that square whereas before the Russian 'invasion' , only perhaps a US pawn would have worked, anything bigger than that causing political and diplomatic tension questions and strife .

[edit on 29-8-2008 by Gun Totin Gerbil]

Russia Russia 'could destroy NATO ships in Black Sea within 20 minutes'

MOSCOW, August 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Black Sea Fleet is capable of destroying NATO's naval strike group currently deployed in the sea within 20 minutes, a former fleet commander said on Friday.

Russia's General Staff later said the alliance's naval deployment in the Black Sea "cannot fail to provoke concern", with unidentified sources in the Russian military saying a surface strike group was being gathered there.

en.rian.ru...

Russia Russia 'could destroy NATO ships in Black Sea within 20 minutes'

Maybe that's why they are bringing one of the most advanced warship in the world... and that's a big step towards WW3...

Third US warship bound for Black Sea

The USS Mount Whitney, considered one of the most advanced warships in the world, is expected to arrive in the Black Sea early in September.

The warship will become the US' third in the Black Sea as the guided missile destroyer USS McFaul and the USS Taylor frigate are already in the region.

IMO the fleet in the Black Sea is to deter Russia in helping Iran when the fight starts in a couple of weeks. But this ship is no really in ``offensive`` power... but more in coordinating attacks.

[edit on 29-8-2008 by Vitchilo]

The New Cold (Chicken) War

LONDON - The first economic blow of the new Cold War between the West and Russia has been struck--although instead of aiming for the energy markets, Russia has decided to target the humble hen.

From September 1, Russia will reportedly ban poultry imports from 19 American producers, with the fate of another 29 plants hanging in the balance. The official reason for the ban is food health and safety concerns, after Russia claimed that tests found the chickens were stuffed with antibiotics and arsenic.

(forbes.com)

Apparantly this chicken leg episode is quite a big deal , with the Russians eating vast quantities of the things . Should hurt the US poultry business quite a lot . It is not a small fry thing.

Maloy, can you translate Putin commenting on Fox News?

ru.youtube.com...

reply to post by pluckynoonez


Here's some rough translation from a user called 'Xeniya1988' on YouTube:

"Let's just remember how the interview of a litte, 12-years old girl was taken. She and her aunt , as I understood, live in the USA and who were wintnesses of that events in South Ossetia.And on one of the major TV-channels - FoxNews she was interrupted right along by the anchor when he didn't like what she was saying, he was coughing, wheezeing. The last thing he was leftt to do is to [#] in his pants, he was ready to do anything to make them stop speaking.

(YouTube: 'Putin about FoxNews')

reply to post by chips


Thanks, I suppose I should of scanned the page better.

Well, to be fair, (and I'm almost NEVER in agreement with fox.), the anchor was just trying to stick to schedules... whoever was in charge of those schedules is the one you want to be attacking for cutting her off.


I find it funny, how even American eye witnesses who return to the US, or are still over there, are disagreed with by the American people.

Just about every eye witness testimony I have heard, declares that Georgia was intentionally killing civilians, and the Russians rolled in to put a stop to it.

Yet, for some reason, there is an abundance of Americans who have NOT been there, who swear up and down that Russia was the aggressor. I can only assume they imagined this scenario because of bedtime stories their cold war parents told them about the "evil" Ruskies.


The news agencies, like Fox and CNN, who spin the news, use false footage, and fake events to make a situation look completely different... those editors should be in jail! This is forgery.

It's the reason I simply don't watch Fox or CNN anymore. I refuse, unless a clip is posted on the forums for review.
Get your news from Sky or Reuters. They seem to be doing a good job.

You wouldn't watch Jerry Springer for dating advice... so why watch Fox for news?

reply to post by johnsky

Well, to be fair, (and I'm almost NEVER in agreement with fox.), the anchor was just trying to stick to schedules... whoever was in charge of those schedules is the one you want to be attacking for cutting her off.

You are somewhat missing the point. Leader (de facto) of a nuclear superpower openly shows that he never saw the original video (or even heard that there was original Fox video) - this is still fine - but uses its (false) content to basicly help MCCain - and this is wrong. He describes the video that Russian TV channel edited. With funny noises/coughes, scewed time frame and cut-out parts. This is the real issue. Who brainwashes Putin? Or is he just a pawn too?
And as for eyewitnesses and public opinion - who does not know that Georgia attacked first? It is just that the tons of lying propaganda (2000 dead, leveled city of Tshinvally, genocide of Osetians) makes it hard to trust even correct reports and descriptions. The girl in the video by the way never mentioned acts of genocide or even leveled Tshinvalli. She naturally thanks Russian forces and blames Georgia.
Just as Georgian girl from ,say, Gori/Poti/... will blame Russians and thank future NATO peacekeepers.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Kremlin announces that South Ossetia will join 'one united Russian state'

The Kremlin moved swiftly to tighten its grip on Georgia’s breakaway regions yesterday as South Ossetia announced that it would soon become part of Russia, which will open military bases in the province under an agreement to be signed on Tuesday.

Tarzan Kokoity, the province’s Deputy Speaker of parliament, announced that South Ossetia would be absorbed into Russia soon so that its people could live in “one united Russian state” with their ethnic kin in North Ossetia.

The declaration came only three days after Russia defied international criticism and recognised South Ossetia and Georgia’s other separatist region of Abkhazia as independent states. Eduard Kokoity, South Ossetia’s leader, agreed that it would form part of Russia within “several years” during talks with Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, in Moscow.

The disclosure will expose Russia to accusations that it is annexing land regarded internationally as part of Georgia. Until now, the Kremlin has insisted that its troops intervened solely to protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgian “aggression”.

(Times Online)

[edit on 29-8-2008 by chips]

Maybe the west needs to cut it's losses(lose abkasia and South Ossetia) and get on with the NATO expansion(Ukraine and Georgia) . I can't see Russia letting go at this point.IMO Russia needs to stop flexing muscles,put it's shirt on,and get back to the table.




[edit on 29-8-2008 by all2human]

Putin: US provoked Georgia crisis to help Republicans

* Putin: U.S. military advisers involved in conflict

* Russia tells Europe to stop taking orders from U.S.

* Georgia to break off relations with Moscow

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin launched a fresh attack on the United States, saying U.S. advisers were involved in the Georgian conflict and accusing the White House of provoking the crisis to help Republicans win the U.S. election.

Russia is fighting back against a storm of condemnation from the United States and European governments for sending troops into Georgia and recognising its two breakaway regions as independent states.

Prime Minister Putin's comments, broadcast by German television station ARD on Friday, expanded on remarks in an interview with CNN shown on Thursday which the White House said were "patently false".

"We know there were a lot of U.S. advisers (in Georgia) ... but instructors, teachers and personnel for military weapons should be on firing ranges and in the teaching centres -- but where were they? They were in the zone of military operations.

"And that pushes one to the conclusion that the leadership of the United States knew about the action that was being prepared and moreover probably took part in it," Putin said.

"If the leadership of the United States had sanctioned that, then I have the suspicion that it was done specially to organise a small, victorious war," he said.

"And if it didn't work, then to create from Russia the appearance of an enemy and on that ground unite the electorate around one presidential candidate, of course the ruling party."

Putin did not name Republican candidate John McCain.

"In a significant way the crisis was provoked, including by our American friends in the course of the election struggle.

"This was the use of administrative resources in a deplorable way to provide advantage to one of the candidates, in the current case from the ruling party," said Putin, who stepped down as president in May after eight years in office.

The West is considering what steps to take against Russia, which has great leverage over the European Union as the supplier of much of its oil and gas. Putin warned European states they should stop taking orders from the White House.

"If European states want to serve the foreign policy interests of the USA, then, in my opinion, they will gain nothing from this," he said.

"A country -- in the current case Russia -- which can stand up for the honour and dignity of its citizens, defend their lives ... will not be isolated, despite the bloc-like thinking of our partners in Europe or in the United States.

"The world doesn't end with Europe or the United States."

(AlertNet)

Chavez backs Russian recognition of Georgia regions

PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez backed Russia's recognition of two breakaway regions of Georgia on Friday, making Venezuela only the second nation to support Moscow's stance.

Russia's neighbor and close ally Belarus has expressed similar support for Moscow's decision to back the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia after a brief war between Russia and Georgia this month.

"Russia has recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. We support Russia. Russia is right and is defending its interests," Chavez said during a televised speech from an oil field along the Orinoco Oil Belt.

(Reuters)

Putin : August 30 08

Russia won’t be isolated

Russia will not be isolated because it protected its citizens and upheld its peacekeeping mission, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said. In an interview on German TV, Putin suggested that if Russia had not responded to Georgian aggression, there could have been a tragedy along the scale of what happened in the former Yugoslavia.

“I think a country like Russia, that protected its citizens, and fulfilled its peacekeeping duties, won't be held in isolation, no matter what our partners think within the limits of their bloc. Europe and the U.S. are not the whole world,” he said.

We don’t have any special rules of our own by which we are going to play. We want everybody to play by the same rules. These are called international law. But we don’t want anyone manipulating them - playing it one way in one region, and another way in another region, to suit their own interests. We want to have the same rules for everyone, which would take into account the interests of all members of the international community”.

www.russiatoday.com...

Explosions rock gunpowder factory

From correspondents in Ankara

August 30, 2008 04:27am
Article from: Agence France-Press


TWO explosions rocked a state-owned gunpowder factory in central Turkey today, killing three people and injuring 26.

An initial blast was followed by a bigger explosion at a part of the factory - just outside the town of Kirikkale - where 2.5 tonnes of gunpowder was stored, Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said.

The victims included the owner of a company contracted to do painting work in the factory complex and one of his workers.

Officials are trying to identify the third body.

Anatolia news agency reported that a fire triggered by the explosions had been brought under control by firefighters.

The blasts sparked panic among residents and shattered the windows of buildings in a neighbourhood close to the factory, reports said.

Kirikkale, about 77km east of Ankara, is also home to three other factories producing heavy weaponry, guns and munitions.

A fire at the munitions factory in 1997 raged for days and forced the evacuation of some parts of the town.

www.news.com.au...

Hmnm this seems a bit suspicious especially as there was a huge fire in a Ukraine ammo dump not more than a week ago. Plus all the plane crashes and it seems something is defintely going on. If someone did the stats on the likelihood of all these things going on within weeks of each other, I'm pretty sure you'd see an abnormal spike in the graph!

My guess is covert actions aimed to reduce the ability of these countries to either use their own ammo or supply it to someone else if the need arises.

Or possibly Turkey sees what might be coming and ordered massive increase in ammo and weapons production and as a result of increased activity and tired workers, accidents happen?

Another thought was an article about Turkey having to decide about it's NATO status and whether it wanted to let anymore NATO ships into the Black Sea. Could be related.

There seems to be increased focus in Russia now - that the war signifies the end of the one-polar world. Although I don't agree that the military victory over Georgia is any sort of proof that Russia is anything close to a superpower, it seems that many Russians would like to think that it is. That is not to say that Russians want a Cold War. Russians feel like Russia is entitled to have some leverage on the world stage.

I'd like to think that this is all temporary. There is really two ways to go from here:


1. NATO - Russia relations continue to sour to point that NATO quickly absorbs Georgia (and perhaps Ukraine) and innitiates a process of militarizing the now evident Eastern European buffer zone. Russia follows up by reinforcing its military budget and quickening the rebuilding phase of the Russian military. Both sides then turn their attention to the oil-rich Caspian geopolitical region (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan), and start trying to form good relations with local despots in order to "tap their keg". But even then I do not see a true Cold War taking place.


2. The entire affair blows over, and both sides calm down and suddenly remember how this unneeded war of words is straining their economy. Georgia would still join NATO, and Russia will still be viewed negatively - but that would be nothing new. Irregardless of who wins the U.S. elections, the new President will likely want to retain at least some manageable relations with NATO. Russia remains in G8. And despite their declaration of independence, S Ossetia and Abkhazia remain de facto republics. As for Georgia - it ceases to matter and becomes just another East European lapdog. This scenerio is more likely.


Certainly things won't go back to the way they were - but then this U.S.-Russia split is nothing new; it has been happening for the last 8 years. There is no need to get worked up about it - there were very few surprises in recent weeks. Even if Russia wants to create a bipolar world - I have serious doubts that the government will have the ability to pull it off. Concerns about economy will win over concerns about international leverage. The country is run by businessmen after all.




Some Russian Political Analysis Articles (in English):

Russia-NATO: return of the great game

The second half of the first decade of the new century saw a new trend. Russia's consolidation, buoyed by a favorable economic situation and political stabilization, raised the issue of spheres of influence, at least in the post-Soviet space and Eastern Europe. Many analysts saw the series of colored revolutions that spread across the post-Soviet space as the final renunciation of peaceful settlement of disputes between Russia and the West; but this was not true - Russia did not give up attempts to come to terms with pro-American governments.

...

Nobody wants a military solution to the conflict, which could be fatal for the whole world. Both sides will have to prove their cases by political and economic means. Russia's integration into the world economy over the last 15 years has led to a situation where the West cannot inflict serious damage on us without hurting itself as much, if not more.

...

Where will the next round of confrontation take place? It is hard to predict with certainty, but it is likely to be in Ukraine, where not only the destiny of the Black Sea Fleet but also Russia's influence in Eastern Europe is at stake. This round will be bloodless. At any rate, I would like to hope that Ukraine is not going to oust the Black Sea Fleet from the Crimea by force.

However, the propaganda confrontation will be much more intense than in Georgia. A world event is not the one in which 10,000 take part, but the one which is being filmed by 10 TV cameras.

en.rian.ru...

My thoughts - if anything takes place in Ukraine it will indeed by bloodless. No one in Ukraine is considering taking up arms, and no one in Russia is considering military action in Ukraine. But as we speak there is a major political struggle for power building in Ukraine - a struggle that will manifest itself in the coming years. The country now is so evenly split in two (ethnically, culturally, and territorially) - that one should not rule out an actual peaceful division into two (think Czech Republic and Slovakia, or Serbia and Montenegro).




Washington's nuclear maneuver

Quoting anonymous sources, the Western media are making a stir by saying that the United States is ready to freeze the intergovernmental agreement with Russia for peaceful nuclear cooperation because of the Georgian conflict.

...

Japanese publications are even more pessimistic. They believe that a step toward freezing the agreement raises a question mark over the future of bilateral nuclear cooperation.

However, Russia and the United States have been cooperating in the nuclear sphere for many years, and nobody is going to cancel their contacts. The two great powers guarantee nuclear non-proliferation and development of civilian nuclear power industry. The agreement in question was signed on May 6 of this year.

This agreement establishes basic principles of cooperation in the nuclear sphere, and is designed to provide a legal foundation for direct contacts between Russian and American companies in civilian use of nuclear energy. Before, all business in this sphere was based on exclusive intergovernmental agreements, whereas this document will allow American and Russian companies to cooperate without asking their presidents for signatures on every occasion.

...

For the agreement to enter into force, it has to be approved by the U.S. Congress. Some congressmen are ready to block it because of the events in South Ossetia, where Moscow resolutely came to the defense of Russian peacekeepers and South Ossetian civilians after Georgia attacked the city of Tskhinvali.

...

Moscow's position is pragmatic. First of all, passions have to abate. Washington is not likely to give up a beneficial agreement, either. The Western media were too quick to predict a negative reaction. It is perfectly obvious that under the circumstances, the agreement's withdrawal from Congress is advantageous for both sides.

If the document is not recalled from Congress, it will definitely be rejected. The outgoing U.S. administration did not pass the agreement through Congress in the allocated time (90 days from its signing). But if it withdraws it, it may have a chance to be endorsed by Congress under the new president.

en.rian.ru...



Other noteworthy NEWS from Russia (in English):

Moscow still seeking dialogue with U.S. on missile defense

en.rian.ru...



Georgian conflict to lead to NATO buildup around Belarus

en.rian.ru...

My thoughts in Belarus: Lukashenko has appeared more and more in Russia's news since the conflict began. He is now stressing that Belarus is threated by NATO. I suspect that this is pretense for Belarus forming even closer military ties with Russia, possible having Russia station its radars and missiles in Belarus. There is even a remote chance that Belarus is thinking of finally becoming part of Russia.



Russia rejects rumors it plans to cut oil supplies to Europe

en.rian.ru...



Russia could build naval base in Abkhazia

en.rian.ru...



Russia, Iran to discuss Bushehr NPP completion on Sept. 1

en.rian.ru...

[edit on 29-8-2008 by maloy]

I think this is finally a ploy by the US leadership to save the US economy by forcing nations to side with the US against the ``threat``. Stopping financing the US economy would mean abandonning the US, and weakening the US military while the Russian military becomes stronger.

It's a ploy by the militaro industrial complex to make money... and ``saving`` the economy by turning it into a war economy... even without a war. The industry was making too much money during the cold war.

Or it's just a globalist plan to attack Russia because they think they can win. Even analysts in Russia think that the Russian nuclear deterrent will be neutralized around 2015. Which makes the Russian cornered, which implies that MAD, which stopped the nuclear war during the Cuban crisis, will be no longer active around 2015.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


Thankyou for that. I did not realize Russia received an edited version of the news brief. I was under the impression what I was watching WAS the news brief in question.


Aside.

One poster stated something, very sorry for forgetting your alias...

Yes, Russia does need to stop flexing it's muscles. In the interest of peace.
But so does the west... much more so.

South Ossetia and Abkhazia will join the Federation. Which is exactly what would have happened if Georgia had done what was expected of them as a democratic nation and held a referendum.

But sadly, Georgia threw democracy and freedom out the window, and committed genocide on South Ossetia.


Now, Georgia has blood on it's hands, Russia gained the provinces it would have diplomatically anyways, and Georgia now has two new enemies.

Disgusting acts by Georgia.
Questionable acts by Russia.
Kudos to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
... and what the heck does NATO think its doing? They're ripping the rift pretty wide here by supporting a country that committed genocide.

Hopefully NATO doesn't screw this up. Otherwise it will become "morally bound countries" vs. NATO.