Posted on 08/09/2008 1:11:46 PM PDT by valkyry1
"It looks very strongly like the war is escalating both in the region of South Ossetia and now also in Abkhazia," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who chairs the group, told reporters in Helsinki on Saturday.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, Chairman of The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, alludes that war has spread to Abkhazia.
Sic transit mundi?
I guarantee the Ukranians are watching this very carefully. They need to gain NATO membership ASAP.
I read a post somewhere, they said we should grant Ukraine immediate NATO membership, I agree.
ping
And then Russia plays this game with Ukraine, we would be expected to become involved against Russia with armed forces?
It won’t fly. I guarantee that the electorate here would
not support their sons being in harms way over any of the
former Soviet republics.
Yup.
Expectations of a quick solution should be kept low, Stubb said. "On a scale of one to 10, we are at about two."
Stubb also said there was no question the current conflict was a war. "This is a war, no doubt about it. There is no reason to call it anything else."
"Russia is at the moment a party in this conflict, not a mediator, and that has to be mirrored when ceasefire and peace talks begin," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, current chairman of the 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told a news conference.
Aug. 10, 2008
Home Russia Prepares for Naval Blockade of Georgia
Ships are grouping in the Black Sea near the Georgian aquatic border. A unnamed naval source has said that the move is necessary to prevent arms deliveries to Georgia by sea. He added that the naval blockade of Georgia will help avoid escalation of military actions in Abkhazia. Radio station Echo of Moscow reports that several Georgian Internet publications have confirmed that the Russian Black Sea fleet is regrouping.
Witnesses say that several Georgian military vessels attempted to approach the coast of Abkhazia. The Interfax correspondent in Sukhumi reports that the Georgian attempt was countered by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which opened preventative fire. The Interfax information was confirmed by enforcement bodies in Abkhazia.
Apparently, after Georgian forces were repulsed from Tskhinvali, air connections with Georgian were broken and Georgian military activity was suppressed and Russia began economic suppression.
Georgia in the meantime is accusing Russia of attempting to blow up the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Georgian Minister of Economic Development Ekaterina Sharashidze stated that Russian Air Force planes attacked the pipeline, but missed their target. “That makes it clear that the targets of the Russian military were not only Georgian economic objects, but international objects on Georgian territory,” she said. Reports were received throughout the day that Russian military planes struck targets in Georgia, however, they were military, not economic.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline runs a total of 1768 km., of which 443 km. stretches through Azerbaijan, 249 km. through Georgia and 1076 km. through Turkey. Construction of the pipeline began in 2003 and it began to pump oil on May 18, 2005. About 1 million barrels of oil per year are pumped through the pipeline. Construction of the pipeline cost $4 billion, not counting the filling of the pipeline, financial servicing or interest costs. The shareholders in the pipeline are BP (30,1%), AzBTC (25%), Chevron (8,9%), StatoilHydro (8,71%), ТРАО (6,53%), ENI (5%), Total (5%), Itochu (3,4%), Inpex (2,5%), ConocoPhillips (2,5%) and Hess (2,36%).
Azerbaijan halts oil exports via Georgia ports: state oil firm
5 hours ago
BAKU (AFP) — Azerbaijan has halted oil exports via the Georgian ports of Batumi and Kulevi due to clashes between Russia and Georgia, the head of the state oil company said Saturday.
"Since last night the import and export of oil through the Georgian ports of Kulevi and Batumi have been halted," said Rovnag Abdullayev, the head of the Azeri state oil company SOCAR, in televised comments.
"This is due to armed actions in the area of the Georgia-Ossetia conflict."
He added that SOCAR was "looking into the possibility of exporting oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, but the capacity of this pipeline is quite low," in a reference to a route that links the Azerbaijani capital to the Russian Black Sea Coast.
Earlier Saturday Russian planes staged a raid near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a major international oil route that runs through Georgia, but did not damage it, Georgia's prime minister said. In recent years Georgia has become an important transport route for oil from Azerbaijan and other Caspian Sea oil producers, allowing Western oil firms to bypass Russia's oil pipelines.
"RUSSIAN aircraft have launched a new bombing raid on a Georgian-controlled part of the separatist Abkhazia region, Georgia's Public TV reported."
"Russian aircraft attacked the village of Chkhalta in the Kodori Gorge region, the only part of Abkhazia controlled by Georgia, the report said."
It appears Putin has left the Olympics, Bush needs to come back here also if he has not left already.
“Russia’s actions in South Ossetia are totally legitimate,” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, visiting an adjacent region of Russia to which thousands of refugees have fled”
Is he treating this as a civil war?
The best I can tell no.
He is painting Georgia’s actions as criminal against the people of South Ossetia, while Russia’s actions are totally legitimate. Also he has mentioned Georgia’s desire to become part of NATO.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/10/content_9113234.htm
Putin says Russia’s actions in South Ossetia well-founded
From Pravda as follows
“Putin believes that Georgia’s aspiration to become a member of NATO is not based on Georgia’s wish to become a part of the global international security system and contribute to the strengthening of international peace.
“It is based on an attempt of the Georgian administration to get other countries involved in its bloody affairs,” he said.
Where is our dog in this hunt?
Time to think this through
I would, or not? Did I say or insinuate any view point/opinion on either side of that?
Those and and more are good questions to ask though.
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