Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

[North Pole]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

RT interview with Paul Craig Roberts:



Paul Craig Roberts (born April 3, 1939, in Atlanta, Georgia) is an economist and a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as the "Father of Reaganomics".

He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service. He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He was a post-graduate at the University of California, Berkeley, and Oxford University where he was a member of Merton College.
In 1992 he received the Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism. In 1993 the Forbes Media Guide ranked him as one of the top seven journalists in the United States.
His writings frequently appear on Antiwar.com, VDARE.com. Lew Rockwell's web site, CounterPunch, and the American Free Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts

YouTube - RT interview with Paul Craig Roberts

From PRESSTV:

Paul Craig Roberts says that US ordered Georgia to attack S.Ossetia

Former assistant secretary of the US Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts says the Bush administration ordered Georgia to ethnically cleanse South Ossetia.
Roberts, speaking in an exclusive interview with Press TV said that that xxxx Cheney and his neo-con cronies are out of touch with reality because they actually think that they could conquer Russia by pushing Georgia to attack South Ossetia.

Roberts also said that the current administration, guided as it is by neo-con ideologies is capable of creating another world war and using the nuclear bomb for imposing its dominance on the globe.

He said that Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has declared, “In the 21st century nations don't invade other nations.” However In the early years of the 21st century the United States has already invaded two countries and has been beating the drums for attacking Iran.
President Bush, the chief invader of the 21st century, has echoed McCain's claim that nations don't invade other nations.

The former Reagan administration official said that Ukraine, where nationalism has taken hold funded by the neo-con National Endowment for Democracy, will be the next conflict between American pretensions and Russia.

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=66707&sectionid=3510203

[North Pole]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Georgia used US and Ukrainian mercenaries in its aggression against South Ossetia

Posted by Kris Roman on August 15, 2008


Ossetians, Abkhazians and members of other Causaian minorities living in Turkey hold posters of German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Georgian President Mikhail Saakasvili with the words in Turkish that mean ‘ No difference’ as they shout slogans outside GeORGIA.

Simes believes that it is a possible, albeit a hard goal to achieve. Simes is certain that no one in the US political establishment incited the Georgian president to invade South Ossetia. Saakashvili simply overestimated his own significance in Washington’s eyes and misinterpreted messages, which the US administration was sending him, the expert believes.

In its turn, America decided not to fall into Russia’s confidence, especially when Georgian troops retreated beyond South Ossetian borders. In addition, Washington wanted not to keep its front going after the debacle it suffered in foreign politics.

S. Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity stated that Georgia used mercenaries from several countries during its aggression against his nation.
“There were many mercenaries from Ukraine and the Baltic states. We have found dead bodies of African Americans too,” Interfax quoted Kokoity as saying.

The official supposed that it was exactly the reason why the Georgian side had not provided any reports about the losses, which it was suffering during the military operation.

Presidents Bagapsh and Kokoity also accused Western media outlets of the schemed informational war against South Ossetia. They believe that the vast majority of Western news agencies provided the biased coverage of events.
“It was a well-prepared and thought-out action, when there was only one opinion provided – the opinion of the USA, Great Britain and several other countries. Everyone started to support this opinion,” Sergei Bagapsh said.
The president said that there were just a few countries which did not follow the fraudulent trend – Spain, France and Germany.

“The whole of Georgia talks about Russia’s bombing of Tskhinvali and South Ossetia. What are they talking about? One should not believe what the BBC or CNN said or what they will be saying,” he said.

“You may not be a professional, but a Western journalist must have at least an iota of honor and dignity. One should not lose their conscience and decency behind your profession, no matter whom you work for,” Bagapsh said.
“It was the dual informational and armed aggression. Some were wielding guns, whereas others were armed with microphones and cameras,” Kokoity said.
The S. Ossetian president said that he was not going to allow Georgian peacemakers in the republic any longer.

“There will be only Russian peacemakers deployed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” he said.

READ MORE -- http://eurorus4en.wordpress.com/2008...south-ossetia/

[North Pole]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

17 September, 2002, 19:35 GMT 20:35 UK

Caspian pipeline dream becomes reality

After years of being considered a white elephant, a pipeline project, to carry Caspian oil to the world markets, is becoming a reality.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline will start a few kilometres south of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and will run through the territory of neighbouring Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
A special ceremony on Wednesday will be attended by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
The US has sent its energy secretary to join the celebrations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2263611.stm

Aug. 15, 2008

Azerbaijan reduces oil production by 80%

Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 15 – Azerbaijan has reduced its oil production by 80% as oil transport has been suspended via its export pipelines, Baku-Supsa and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC), according to local media.
The daily Yeni Musavat said the country is currently exporting 300,000 b/d of oil instead of the usual 900,000 b/d.
Azerbaijan is losing $50-70 million/day from the shutdown of the BTC line, the paper said. It predicted that Azerbaijan will lose more than $1 billion in revenues, assuming the line is repaired by Aug. 27.
In the meantime, the paper said, Azerbaijan and international oil companies have incurred damage worth $500 million as a result of suspending exports through the Baku-Supsa line and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas line due to the conflict between Russia and Georgia.
However, director of Azerbaijan's Oil Research Center Ilham Saban said losses by the government and oil companies had been mitigated by exports of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.

http://www.ogj.com/display_article/337119/120/ARTCL/none/Trasp/1/Azerbaijan-reduces-oil-production-by-80

Well.... where is dictator Saakashvilli going to get money to buy weapons from Israel now?

xxxish Georgian minister: Thanks to Israeli training, we're fending off Russia

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1010187.html

[skhara]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Russia had been preparing the playing field for several years now, and the Georgians (with their western and Israeli backers) were stupid enough to play Moscow's game. The initial attack by Georgia was what Russia was hoping and praying for.

I have to say that I am really disappointed and extremely nervous about the outcome of this fight. I don't understand why the Russian Federation did not deliver the cou'de gra. Although they absolutely smashed the Georgian army and left them in confusion and disarray, the Americans are essentially replacing everything the Georgians lost and much more. Unless Moscow has something else up her sleave this is extremely nerve-wrecking to me. The fact that Georgia lost is no doubt, but now Washington is pouring in everything its got back in.

I don't understand why the Kremlin didn't demand ceasefire terms that would essentially keep Georgia disarmed, and they should have continued the advance to capture all the Georgian communication outlets (roads, bridges, railroads, airports, and seaports) until such concessions came.

I am also very disappointed the arguments pushed forward by Moscow. Besides the one they made, they should have been pushing that they can not tolerate an openely declared enemy on its Caucasus border.

Either way, now Moscow and Tehran need to aggressively engage each other to stop being so dam reactive to the Anglo-xxx-American axis and start being pro-active to push back significantly to force the squares on the chess board to fall in their camps.

GOD FORBID the Anglo-J*w-American plans for the Caucasus come to fruition.
GOD FORBID the Anglo-J*w-American plans for Iran come to fruition.
GOD FORBID the Anglo-J*w American plans for Russia come to fruition.

[North Pole]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Russia opens ‘genocide’ criminal case on South Ossetia events

TSKHINVAL, August 14 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Prosecutor’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case over the fact of murder of Russian citizens in South Ossetia under the Criminal Code article “genocide,” Igor Komissarov, an aide to the committee’s chairman, told Itar-Tass.

“The Investigative Committee’s main department have instituted criminal proceedings under Article 357 of the Russian Criminal Code- “genocide” based on received information on actions taken by the Georgian armed forces aimed at the liquidation of citizens of Russia residing in South Ossetia and Ossetians by nationality by way of murders and infliction of heavy damage to health,” said Komissarov.

About 100 Russian investigators are continuing work in Tskhinval at present probing into the killings of Russian citizens and Russian peacekeepers.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s actions in South Ossetia are a war crime and an act of genocide against Ossetians, Russian permanent representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said earlier. “At least 2,500 people have already fallen victim to a humanitarian catastrophe in South Ossetia. Since the entire population of South Ossetia is 73,000, proportionately this is the biggest act of genocide in the history of Europe since World War II,” Rogozin told a briefing on Monday.

“The most terrible thing is that this is happening not because of a natural calamity but because of a well thought-out plan of Georgian authorities,” he said. Rogozin spoke in detail about Russia’s efforts to overcome the humanitarian catastrophe, the goals of the operation to enforce peace in South Ossetia and about Russia’s demands to stop the conflict. “Our demands are that the Georgian troops should leave the area where the peacekeepers stay, a ceasefire should be announced, and an agreement on the non-use of force should be signed,” he said. Georgia is showing disrespect for international law and notions of humanity in the conduct of military actions, Rogozin said.

Some day, Russia will raise the problem of genocide of the Ossetian people and ethnic cleansings that Georgian forces have carried out in the unrecognised republic of South Ossetia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday as he addressed a joint news conference together with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“Quite naturally, the problem of ethnic cleansings there does exist, and we’ve been quite resolute in raising the issue and will continue raising it in the future to expose the people responsible for them,” Medvedev said. “However, some of our partners ask us in private conversations for some reason to refrain from raising it,” he said. “Maybe, they feel shy.”

“International law qualifies such problems as a crime, like the slaughter of thousands of people, and it is called genocide,” Medvedev said. “More than that, we’ve said in the past we’re surprised to see the situations where one individual who killed thousands of people is described as a terrorist and a moron while another such individual is treated as a legitimately elected president of a sovereign country,” he said.

“International law doesn’t have provisions for the use of double standards, and we must observe this in political practices,” Medvedev said.

http://itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12962157&PageNum=0

“The city was burnt to the ground, leveled. It’s like Stalingrad. The images are very similar,” said South Ossetian presidential plenipotentiary in Russia Dmitry Medoyev. He added that it is still dangerous to talk over mobile phones, as it may invoke another round of shelling.

http://en.rian.ru/photolents/20080811/115942618_1.html

[North Pole]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Azerbaijan Natural Gas Pipeline to Georgia CLOSED

Oooops....
Where is Saakashvilli going to get money from now?..





Turkey ups gas imports from Iran

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:22:12 GMT

Iran has reportedly increased its gas exports to Turkey after the Russia-Georgia conflict disrupted supplies from Azerbaijan.
British Petroleum announced on Tuesday that it had closed a natural gas pipeline running from the Azerbaijani field of Shakh-Deniz to Georgia and Turkey over concerns of a military conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi.

Reuters quoted a senior source from the Turkish pipeline company, Botas, as saying on Tuesday that the company would increase gas imports from Iran in order to compensate for a reduction in Azerbaijani supplies.

Iran previously exported 12 million cubic meters to Turkey per day but has increased its daily export to 19 million cubic meters since Wednesday, IRNA reported an official in Botas as saying.

Iran possesses the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia. Turkey has been a consumer of Iranian gas since 2001.

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=66576&sectionid=351020103

[Armenian]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

The writer of this article is full of shit. Even with limited numbers of "obsolete hardware" Russian forces 'smashed' into pieces the entire Georgian military in 'two' short days. Russia could very well have sent in its main battle tanks, the upgraded T-72s and T-80s, but it chose instead to send in its old T-62s. According to what I have seen thus far, the Russian military placed its emphasis on 'mobility' and 'special operations' by its special forces/paratroopers. As a result, instead of heavy armor, it sent in large numbers of infantry fighting vehicles and paratroopers. In rugged and forested territory this was the smart thing to do. Russia did not need to send in modern aircraft either. What it needed to get the job done were some close air support aircraft (SU-25s), attack helicopters (MI-24s) and light bombers (SU-24s). What's more, Russia baited Georgians into Ossetia by 'not' placing strong military formations there as it had in Abkhazia. Russia had been preparing the playing field for several years now, and the Georgians (with their western and Israeli backers) were stupid enough to play Moscow's game. The initial attack by Georgia was what Russia was hoping and praying for. Finally, Armenia's tank formations are made up of upgraded T-72's. However, having large numbers of heavy main battle tanks in rugged/forested territory is not very smart, militarily speaking. What is needed in the Caucasus is highly mobile troop formations armed with modern anti-aircraft missiles/anti-tank rockets and modern artillery. Idiots writing articles about military/combat should consult with experts first.

A pretty important article from the Moscow Times on this war and the future of warfare, especially in the former USSR. Armenia needs to learn from these. The writer is Armenian btw.

[Armanen]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

I actually really like Pat, and would have loved to see him as Pres. back in 2000 when he ran. He and Ron Paul would have made a good ticket, but it's over for both of them and of course they would have never been allowed to win.

[yerazhishda]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

[yerazhishda]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

August 15, 2008
Blowback From Bear-Baiting

by Patrick J. Buchanan

This is actually an issue in which Pat knows what he is talking about. I was surprised when I heard him talking on the McLaughlin Group and he pretty much got the conflict spot on.