Georgia Update

A few things to let our buddy Che know we have not forgotten about Georgia.

24 Aug, 2008 (Multiple)
TBILISI, A powerful blast ripped the air on Sunday near the village of Skra, Gori district, in eastern Georgia. As a result, three tank-cars with oil of a rail train, heading from Tbilisi for western Georgia, caught fire, Tbilisi-based TV companies reported in a live telecast.

According to a preliminary version, the blast took place near the railway on a hill, and then the flames leaped to this section of the railway.

According to preliminary data, there were no casualties as a result of the explosion. The engine driver had time to decouple the rest of the train from the three flaming tank-cars.

The blast and the fire took place two kilometres from the village of Skra, and there is no danger that the fire will spread to dwelling houses. Fire fighters and law enforcers are working at the place of the incident.
-No doubt the engineer’s actions lessoned the impact of this event but I would like for the Russian’s to explain why they are not cleaning up the mess and mines as they leave.

*Skra is located ten kilometres west of Gori and 75 kilometres west of Tbilisi.

Tbilisi – A 35-year-old woman was killed and a man was seriously injured when two landmines exploded near the Georgian city of Gori, media reports said Sunday. Russian armed forces had laid the landmines in the Tsmindatskali area, state television channel Rustavi-2 reported. The woman was in her garden when the mine exploded.
-Anyone with a brain knows mining a garden was not meant to attack a military target. Just another example of Russian war criminals in action. I am afraid as more civilians return more of these Russian “gifts” will be discovered.

In the same area shortly afterwards, a man was injured in a second landmine blast.
-No details as to where this one was located.

The guided missile destroyer USS McFaul, loaded with 72 pallets of humanitarian aid, is the first of five American ships scheduled to arrive in Georgia this week.
-I wanted to end with a positive spin on Georgia. Now that our forces are starting to arrive hopefully a lot of the nonsense will end and the Georgians can start the long process of rebuilding.

Russian’s lie about pullout, no one fooled.

The title says it all. A few Russians will leave but like cockroaches, you never get rid of them all. No Che, I do not think all Russians are cockroaches but your military does tend to entrench themselves, especially when not asked. Politics aside, the world is not buying into the entire we did this because they killed 10 of our soldiers thang.

Will this be the start of yet another Russian land grab? Nah, this was a test and now they know we are watching. Standby and watch the world’s longest pullout. You do have to admire the irony of Chechens fighting for Russia, madness. Maybe they were looking for another elementary school to attack. (Sorry can’t help myself, Chechen solders are scum sucking weasels)

The sad part of all this is all the ex soviet states will want additional US military assurances and until the election we can not guaranty the US will honor any promises. Europe let me bottom line this for you -YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. Damn, that felt good.

22 Aug, 2008, The New Straits Times
Russia said Friday it had completed a pullback of troops from Georgia but the Georgian government challenged the claim while the United States and France called for further withdrawal.

Two weeks after rolling into the former Soviet republic, several columns of Russian tanks and troops withdrew from deep inside Georgian territory and allowed Georgian police to regain control of the key city of Gori.

But a top general said strategic routes would remain occupied and some 500 “peacekeepers” were to remain in a buffer zone around the Moscow-controlled separatist region of South Ossetia.

“The pullback of Russian troops and units passed without incident and was completed on time” at 7:50 p.m. (1550 GMT), Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in a statement released by the Kremlin.

“Thus, the Russian side has fulfilled its obligations” under a ceasefire plan brokered by France, Serdyukov said.

Georgia’s interior ministry, however, said Russia continued to occupy areas of the country, with spokesman Shota Utiashvili saying: “It is not true that the withdrawal is complete.”

US President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed during a telephone conversation that “Russia is not in compliance and that Russia needs to come into compliance now,” a White House spokesman said in Washington.

Bush and Sarkozy, who brokered the ceasefire accord, jointly called on Russia to “continue and complete” its withdrawal from Georgia, a statement from the French presidency said.

Russian troops, sent into Georgia on August 8 to defend South Ossetia against an attack by Georgian troops, rolled northward toward Russia, some flashing victory signs.

Hundreds of soldiers and columns of tanks and trucks could be seen moving north from forward positions into South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another Russian-controlled separatist region.

Some 50 military vehicles including tanks and trucks bearing artillery guns travelled along a main highway between the city of Gori and South Ossetia.

Hundreds of other soldiers were seen going in the same direction earlier.

Police sirens rung out across the still mostly deserted city of Gori after Russian troops left.

“It’s a very good feeling to see the (Georgian) police here. I feel so much better but things are still very hard,” Gori resident Kocha Bzshavili told AFP.

Russia takes control of South Ossetian capital and continues its genocide.

Once again Russia is the aggressor and attempting to force their will on free peoples. They are as always prepared to murder anyone who gets in the way. The Soviet Union may be gone but the mentality remains.

The Useless Nations should prepare a war crimes tribunal; they are going to need it.

James Kilner , 10 August, 2008, Reuters
ERGNETI, Georgia — Russian troops took most of the capital of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia on Sunday after a three-day battle but the United States condemned Moscow’s “dangerous and disproportionate” action.

Russia poured troops and tanks across its southern border into tiny Georgia and bombed Georgian targets after Tbilisi attempted on Thursday evening to retake South Ossetia, a small pro-Russian province which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.

The rapidly escalating crisis has alarmed the United States, Georgia’s main ally, and unnerved investors in Russia, who sold stocks and the rouble heavily on Friday on concerns that the conflict could spiral.
-One break away province will not settle Russian blood lust. This will continue and grow.

Russian officials said they had taken control on Sunday of most of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, which has been devastated by intense fighting.

“As of today most of the city (Tskhinvali) is controlled by Russian peacekeeping forces,”Colonel-General Anatoly Nagovitsyn of the Russian General Staff, told an official briefing in Moscow.
-Peacekeepers are invited in by both sides and are comparatively lightly armed so as not to threaten the opposing sides. They also remain neutral. What the Russian military is doing is called “peace enforcement” which is where a superior force settles a region by force of arms. One side see the troops as heroes and one as invaders.

Georgia confirmed it was pulling back its forces from the town. The secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, Kakha Lomaia, told reporters “military commanders have made their decision to pull back from Tskhinvali this morning.”

Viewed from the town of Gori inside Georgian-controlled territory, Tskhinvali appeared to be quiet. A Reuters correspondent reported hearing only one burst of what sounded like artillery fire from near Tskhinvali.

A Georgian convoy of troops and artillery left South Ossetia through Ergneti, a village just inside Georgian-held territory south of Tskhinvali, but Lomaia said Georgian forces were still fighting inside South Ossetia and had not been defeated.

STRAIN RELATIONS

The White House deplored Russia’s military action, which included bombing raids on at least three Georgian targets outside South Ossetia.
-A polite way to say they are murdering civilians and committing genocide.