Posted on 08/09/2008 11:10:06 PM PDT by neverdem
GORI, Georgia — The conflict between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia moved toward full-scale war on Saturday, as Russia sent warships to land ground troops in the disputed territory of Abkhazia and broadened its bombing campaign across Georgia.
The fighting that had sharply escalated when Georgian forces tried to retake the capital of South Ossetia, a pro-Russian region that won de facto autonomy from Georgia in the early 1990s, appeared to be developing into the worst clashes between Russia and a foreign military since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Shortly before dawn on Sunday, Georgia’s Interior Ministry said that Russian bombers had begun striking military facilities adjacent to the civilian airport at Tbilisi. The explosions could be heard in the city, said Shota Utiashvili, a ministry official.
He said that Russia had built up large forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia — breakaway regions that have support from Moscow — including as many as 300 artillery pieces in South Ossetia alone. Russian forces, he said, were also poised just over the border at Larsi, a checkpoint, where they could open a third line of ground attack.
As Russia moved more forces into the region and continued aerial bombing, it appeared determined to occupy both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, said Russia’s ambitions were even more extensive. He declared that Georgia was in a state of war, and said in an interview that Russia was planning to seize ports and an oil pipeline and to overthrow his government.
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia left the Olympics in China...
--snip--
Georgian officials said that Russian warplanes had attacked the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, operated by British Petroleum, that carries oil to the West from Asia, but that the pipeline had not been struck...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Georgian men are being detained for possible conscription and Russian passport holders are being jailed as well.
Understood ... but it is pretty much all we're getting at this hour.
that they were trying to protect their borders and citizens from a foreign invader occupying a large portion of their country?
Russia has been trying desperately to block any free press from reporting from the region, but the video footage of russian planes bombing the civilian city of Gori that is not in South Ossetia that came out today was all anyone needed to see to understand what Russia is doing.
This isn’t about South Ossetia. This is about retaking the entire country, installing a pro-Kremlin puppet government, and gaining control of the oil pipelines.
Some of the images would NEVER make it on US networks that's for certain. Saw some pretty gruesome shots of the aftermath of battles.
Apparently they thought the Russian were somewhat civilized and that they would respect international borders. Now the Georgians and the rest of the world knows the truth. Hopefully, this will also point out to the rest of the world why waiting for diplomacy to work within Iran is ludicrous.
Which means Azerbaijan and Armenia are next. The size of the force the Russians are sending into Georgia portrays the real possibility that they have more then just Georgia on their minds. The Russians could be linked up with Iran within a few weeks. At that point, any attack on Iran is also an attack on Russia. They have also entered a mutual defense pact. In the mean time, we appear to have a government (US and EU) that is moving at the speed of molasses.
thx for that feed. We deal with enough BS from the MSM here in the US on a regular basis so no prob reading between the lines.
Didn’t look today but yesterday I saw some of the Georgian websites were getting slammed with a botnet..some getting hit with smaller mid range DDOS...PHP hijinks..some got rooted, etc.
Thanks for the Russki order of battle. Do you know if they are comparable to U.S. Army cavalry regiments and task organized brigades, which have about the same number of personnel and maneuver elements, with slight variation, for all intents and purposes? How about their Air Force regiments, are they comparable to US Air Force squadrons or wings?
Sorry, Russian military is definitely not my area of knowledge, i was copying and pasting from a link I got to a website that is weak competitor to Janes, but I didn’t bookmark it.
The numbers I’ve read,
Georgia claims 10,000 Russians are now in Georgia and the disputed regions.
The Russians claimed 2500, then 3200, then 4500 soldiers in the disputed regions and buffer zone around the disputed Oblasts.
On any given day, Russia has about 100,000 military personnel within a day’s drive of Georgia’s border crossings.
Even before the buildup that started in April, the Russians had 1800 Air Force personnel on the ground in the border region with Georgia. Those facilities alone could support enough flown in air wings to do a shock and awe campaign on Tblisi like what was done repeatedly to Grozny.
And imho, The more I’ve read today, the more I’m under the impression that Saakashvili is either a hotheaded idiot, or his closest advisors are either utterly incompetent or double agents on the FSB payrolls. Most online forum participants claiming to be Georgians, Armenians and Azerbaijanis are all under the impression that Saakashvili is a loose cannon and a hotheaded retard who was escalated well above his aptitude by the Bush administration and CIA during the Rose coup.
Word is Russian ships are now moving into postion to blockade Georgia from the black sea, and over 10,000 russian troops are already moving into South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
There is absolutely no coincidence that this all happened on the day the olympics started. Russia wanted to catch the world offguard and heavily concentrated on something else.
Gee, it would be as if Russia had planned this from the begining and all the troops, tanks, planes, and ships were all there ready to be unleased when Putin said so. I mean, in 24 hours, the russians have mobilized and already moving into a country at lightening speed. The kind of mobilization that would normally take days to weeks to start up.
Russia out of Georgia now. Imperialist Russian occupiers of a sovereign nation. This is another Afghanistan! The Russians are in a quagmire! No more war for oil! Putin lied, comrades died. The Russians didn’t have a coalition, where is the outrage? The UN didn’t approve this war. Why did Putin rush to war? These Neo-coms are all warmongers. Make your paper-mache heads of Putin tonight and let’s take to the streets tomorrow! Notify International Answer and all the other protesters for peace!
Now let’s all hold our breath while we wait to hear any of the above directed towards the Russians.
They must be pissed that some world press ended up around Gori, a civilian city in Georgia, and filmed Russian planes bombing apartment buildings.
I'm sure the Russians you won't be seeing this on the evening news. These are pics of what the russian bombers did to Gori.
Geez... and we had been led to believe that
Russia is a dying civilization with a nonsustaining birth rate.
Russian men have the lowest life expectancy (59) among Caucasians.
Alcoholism is more rampant now than under communism.
Russian women have the highest abortion rate (avg 7) in the world.
Siberia is being depopulated of Russians as the Chinese move in.
The military doesn’t even get paid on a regular basis.
Russia produces few capital goods, only exploits natural resources like any other Third World entity.
So where in the H*LL do the Russians get all these troops, tanks, and tactical aircraft!!?
“So where in the H*LL do the Russians get all these troops, tanks, and tactical aircraft!!?”
They make billions and billions on oil and natural gas exports. With enough money they can rebuild their military infrastructure. We are contributing to the strengthening of our adversaries around the world by our oil dependence.
The conflict is that I'm seeing this from the perspective of 1939 and the cold war tactics in the decades that followed.
Hell, we were still in the depression then.
Not in such great shape on the civilian front right now due to democrat anti-family/anti-business policy.
Yet history teaches us what will happen if we don't respond.
This is so screwed, amigo...
Sure looks like a classic pincers movement to me.
That may have been the Georgians' very savvy way of preventing any further penetration of their country by the Russians.
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