Ok, so I am Daniel Usenko, the person who wrote the post. (by the way, you can go directly to the post, which is here: http://danielusenko.wordpress.com/ and if you are doubting the fact that its me, please write to my email that you’ll find on the website and I will confirm it ) Obviously there is much confusion about the info that I presented, so I will try my best to answer the numerous concerns I read about on this forum. My points are the following:
1. I am NOT a “Russian living off of American Taxpayers in the USA”. Who even put that up? I never said that. I am a Russian who has lived in Seattle WA for the past 12 years, PAYING taxes, not living off of them.
2. PERSONAL HISTORY: My dad is Ukrainian, mom is Russian. I was born in Russia, but grew up in Sukhumi, capital of Abkhazia. I was 7 years old when the war of 1992 started between Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia. I have many crazy stories of near death experiences (as you can imagine). Thankfully my family survived. At 8 years old we moved to Russia. At 11 years old I moved to the USA.
3. HISTORY: Here is a brief history of the Caucus land. Pre-Soviet situation: Abkhazia, Georgia and Ossetia are independent and separate. When the Soviets came into power, they absorbed the three nations as “republics”. When Stalin came into power, he decided that he should expand Georgia, since he himself is Georgian and have Abkhazia and Ossetia to Georgia (he took away the status of “republic” or “autonomous” from those two). When the Soviet Union broke up, Abkhazia and Georgia also wanted to separate from Georgia, and a war broke out (1992). This is the war I lived through. A year later the war ended and Abkhazians, Ossetians and Georgians agreed to keep the three separate. Now, when current Georgian President Saakashvili was running for office, he got elected because he promised to get Abkhazia and Ossetia back. So several days ago, he was trying to fulfill his promise, get them back.
4. It seems that people are confused why I am sure that Georgians would attack Abkhazia and slaughter my family that lives there. Well I do not have formal proof, but the reason I am sure of it is because I know the history and the dynamic of the place. I know that Georgians hate Abkhazians and are bitter about the loss of the 1992 war, and that Abkhazians can’t stand Georgians. I have been through the conflict and I know the hatred between ethnic groups there—everybody has someone killed by the other side during the 1992 war, so just trust me, it’s bad. Plus, I have relatives there that are scared to death that Georgians might attack them because they know they want to. Saakashvili has become president of Georgia because he promised to take Abkhazia and Ossetia back. And also, there were military maps found that revealed Georgia’s plans.
5. BRUTALITY: Most of you do not realize how brutal those wars are. I have heard numerous stories (not from the media, but from civilians there). For instance, I have heard a story how a pregnant woman and her husband (civilians) were taken by soldiers simply because they were of the different ethnicity; they took them to the forrest; the husband was tied to the tree, woman raped in front of him, then they jumped on top of her stomach to kill the baby, and then killed all of them.
6. RUSSIA—I am not a supporter of Russia just because I am Russian. I honestly do believe those that say Putin has evil agenda. But I am not a so concerned of the treatment of Russia, as I am concerned about how American backs Georgia. The bottom line is that Georgia started the war and Saakashvili is lying about...well, almost everything. Yes, the Russia striked back, and I am sure they killed the civilians too. And yes, it is wrong to go into civilian towns and kill innocent people. I am NOT saying Russia is innocent. What I AM saying is that Georgia is who started this war, regardless of how you put it (even if you say “russia would’ve attacked anyways—what kind of argument is that. You can’t punch your little brother and then say “he would punch me first if I didn’t punch him first”. Ridiculous). What I AM saying is that Russia is right to protect Ossetia, even though they may not be doing it the best way possible. And what I AM saying is that the media is lying to us.
7. BIAS BIAS—So this seems the heart of the problem. Most of you are blaming me for “Being a Russian citizen who is biased” and “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about because his family is in the pro-Russian Abkhazia”, and so forth. I am obviously blaming the United States for being bias and lying. And so it goes back and forth back and forth. You yell “lier” and I respond with the same.
So here is my response to all those who have dismissed all that I have said with statements like “Oh, he’s just brainwashed by Putin and his media”, “Oh, he’s Russian, he has a bias”, and so on.
A. I have lived in the States for over half of my life and I would rather see America do well because it is good for me—I live here. I have supported America in the war on Iraq (I really thought they had good will). Basically, I would want to rather be part of a country that is the good guy, and it would be nice to say “I left an evil empire and now I am here with the good guys”
B. I realize that I may be one-sided, and I apologize for that. I do believe, honestly, that the Russia regime AS A WHOLE has evil aspirations. I do not believe they conducted themselves as well as they should’ve with this conflict.
C. So it is easy to believe that I, a person who lived in the region and has heard BOTH sides of the story, that I am being biased, but why doesn’t anyone of you ask yourself where you’re getting your info from? The American media. Stop for a second and think—maybe you’re being lied to? Basically my point here—there is more reason to think you’re brainwashed than I am because my information sources are numerous, but yours are mostly the American media. And also, I do understand that it is hard to believe that EVERYONE is just lying. I know, it’s crazy, I can’t believe it myself. By hey, please do hear the other side.
There have been so many questions and concerns, and I cannot answer them all. PLEASE PLEASE, if you have a question to me, do not put it on this blog; instead email me at photodu@gmail.com or call me directly and I’ve love to talk—425.772.3037.
daniel
yes, yes, yes, how exciting.. and tomorrow you can go to the zoo.
I can’t believe that your family would want to be part of the new Soviet Union. I believe you when you say that the Georgians and Abkhazians hate each other but Georgia has made great strides in the last few years to become more western and less corrupt. It seems like the Georgians have finally been cleansed from your new Soviet state though. You should be proud. The suffering that is coming to the Russian people will probably rival the last century’s and your family gets to be part of it.
Why does every other nation that was under the Soviet jackboot side with Georgia?
Sorry, but I find you full of shyteski. In the blog entry posted here initially, somehow you neglected to mention you were Russian, something you were more than willing to admit in the past when you weren’t parroting Russian war propaganda. And, as Orwell once noted, omission is the most powerful form of lie. You’re just a low-grade shill. Call home and tell the boyz to send a better grade of propagandist.
So, we are misinformed. Whoopsie do! You (and I) are misinformed reading in the paper about a traffic accident on Highway 101. Ever seen Rashomon?
You too possess information from one side of the conflict. I'd like to hear from a DanielUsenko on the other side, who also has a family there and has seen the suffering.
As for the Western media, why is it that the Eastern media, in the countries formerly occupied by your countrymen, agrees with the misinforming American MSM. Do they take orders from Dan Rather? Why is it that those leaders travel to Tbilisi and not to Moscow to show their support?
I think you're skating on thin ice here. Claiming victimhood is an old trick to start a war. We have seen it in 1938 & 9, we are seeing it now, we see it in our perfect court system, and I see it in the corporate world where discrimination and sexual harrassment victimhoods are so often trump cards of scumbags, no different from the scumbag sitting in the Kremlin.
just a question for you: why do the russian people hate freedom and civilization?
A little background on the hostility you are finding here.
It was your brave countrymen who raped and burned everything all the way from the Dniepr to Berlin, “liberating” countries along the way, who mass murdered in Katyn, who raped Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and other countries, and got away with it all to this very day. Credibility? Zero, zilch, goose egg!
Compare yourself to the forever guiltridden Germans!
See post #130. That’s believable.
According to your history of the region, Abkhazia and Georgia have hated each other since pre-Soviet times. You grew up in Abkhazia during a bloody war with Georgia. (You are also of Russian birth). So the two main cultures in your youth seem to be Russian and Abkhazian.
So, when war breaks out between a country you were born in and the country your new homeland was fighting, you give an “un-biased” opinion that Georgia is at fault. That is why people don't trust you.