(and make no mistake, Russia has never stopped thinking of us and the rest of the democratized world as their adversaries) don’t start whining it’s everyones fault but yours
“The American side in fact armed and trained the Georgian army,” ITAR-Tass quoted Putin as saying in the interview. “Why hold years of difficult talks and seek complex compromise solutions in interethnic conflicts? It’s easier to arm one side and push it into the murder of the other side, and it’s over.”
when you’re facing the consequences, even from China.
According to ITAR-Tass, he also said: “If my guesses are confirmed, then the suspicion is raised that somebody in the United States purposefully created this conflict with the aim of aggravating the situation and creating an advantage … for one of the candidates in the battle for the post of U.S. president.”
Oh, please! That’s just plain pathetic and smacks of projection when you consider it’s the Russian military that’s been present in Abkhazia and S. Ossetia since 1994 and began sending even more unannounced Russian troops into the area well before August. Mr. Putin embarrasses himself and his country with his ridiculous and unsupported claims.
Contrary to the above AP video report, Michael Totten is now in Tbilisi, Georgia and writes in his report, The Truth About Russia in Georgia:
Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.
Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.
It’s rather lengthy, but well worth the time to read the whole thing.
10:38 pm EST
UPDATE @ 11:45 pm EST: Forgot to mention that if you think Russia isn’t conducting an information war, think again. Even McClatchy reported the Russian claims regarding Tskhinvali, Georgia and genocide were unsubstantiated after an unescorted trip through the city.
