Posts Tagged ‘Saakashvili’
Posted on February 18, 2010 - by Venik
Mistral for Russia
France’s decision to sell four Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Russia was met with heavy criticism in the US, Georgia and the Baltic States. Interestingly enough, Russia’s decision to buy the four vessels for more than $2 billion was met with a lot of criticism within Russia as well. This is really the first time in [...]
Posted on October 1, 2009 - by Venik
War in Georgia: Reviewing EU Findings
As some of you may have heard, the international fact-finding mission (IIFFMCG) organized by the EU to investigate the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia has finally released its final report. As was expected, most of the blame for starting the war went to Georgia. Russia’s “fault”, according to the investigators, for the most part [...]
Posted on August 7, 2009 - by Venik
Happy Anniversary, Misha
Tweeter celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Georgian-Russian war by setting it’s Web servers on fire. (For those of you with long-term memory problem, here is a brief recap of the events.) The Unix gurus at Tweeter’s datacenter blamed the downtime on unspecified hackers unleashing a DDoS attack. According to some networking experts interviewed by [...]
Posted on November 7, 2008 - by Venik
Saakashvili’s Endgame
As waning wartime patriotism in Georgia gives way to realistic assessments of the facts, Saakashvili can now see the end of his political career rapidly approaching. As predicted, the situation in Tbilisi is developing rapidly and Saakashvili may be expected to make his endgame early next year, probably soon after Obama’s inaugural speech in Washington. [...]
Posted on October 3, 2008 - by Venik
Pirates, Tanks and Conspiracy Theories
An Israeli-owned cargo ship, sailing under Belize flag with Russian and Ukrainian crew, carrying to Kenya Soviet-made main battle tanks for the army of Sudan is being boarded by Somalian pirates; the ship is surrounded by US Navy cruiser and destroyer, as well as by two Royal Navy frigates, as the Russian Navy dispatches its [...]
Posted on September 4, 2008 - by Venik
Photos: Georgian Army Before the War
As the Georgian Defense Ministry sacked its Army chief and the Deputy Chief of General Staff, lets take a look at what the Georgian army once was, with the help of some American tax dollars. Watching these ridiculous displays of crispy US-made uniforms and Israeli multiple-launch rocket systems atop shiny Mercedes-Benz trucks, Saakashvili couldn’t wait [...]
Posted on September 1, 2008 - by Venik
Human Rights Watch Misidentified Cluster Bomb
Human Rights Watch has published a photo of what it claims to be a Russian RBK-250 cluster bomb found in the Georgian village of Ruisi, near the border with South Ossetia. The caption to the photo published by HRW reads: “Georgians look at the remains of a bomb dropped by a Russian aircraft on the [...]
Posted on August 28, 2008 - by Venik
The War in Georgia
For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to collect as much information as possible about the situation in Georgia. I talked to more than a dozen Russian and US military experts, got in touch with my contacts in Tbilisi and North Ossetia, and exchanged information with dozens of journalists in Moscow and here in [...]
Posted on August 25, 2008 - by Venik
Saakashvili Finally Loses It
Ever since Georgia launched its military operation against South Ossetia, killing Russian peacekeepers and hundreds of its own civilians, many have been asking the same question: has Saakashvili gone stark raving mad? It’s now official: yes. In his latest interview to Financial Times, Saakashvili revealed dark depths of madness that made even Putin shudder: “The [...]
Posted on August 23, 2008 - by Venik
Old Dogs, Old Tricks.
Just finished reading “How to Deter Russia”, by William Courtney and Kenneth Yalowitz (The Washington Post, August 23, 2008, p. A15). Courtney is the former US Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Georgia. Yalowitz is the former US Ambassador to Belarus and Georgia. It is absolutely astonishing how two diplomats with so much relevant experience can misinterpret [...]
Posted on August 22, 2008 - by Venik
US Confirms It Knew of Georgia’s Plan to Attack South Ossetia
In its August 22 issue, the Russian business daily Kommersant published the interview with the new US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrly. As should have been expected of an experienced diplomat, Ambassador Beyrly said a lot about nothing. Although he did bring up a couple of points worth mentioning. John Beyrly is a fluent Russian [...]
Posted on August 21, 2008 - by Venik
Georgia’s Propaganda War
Saakashvili must be still under the impression that his presidency will be saved by the outgoing Bush administration. Georgian propaganda warriors continue with their efforts. The New York Times decided to jump on the bandwagon: In the Georgian village of Shindisi on Wednesday, three journalists from The New York Times were present when a researcher [...]
Posted on August 19, 2008 - by Venik
Latest Developments in Georgia
The Independent just published the most ridiculous timeline of Russia’s operation in Georgia. It is not surprising since the article relies on analysis by Pavel Felgenhauer – Russia’s leading quack in the field of military pseudo-analysis distilled for amateur foreign journalists who can’t read. The problem with “A new world order: The week Russia flexed [...]
Posted on August 17, 2008 - by Venik
Russia’s War Booty
Strength and composition of the Georgian army are a big mystery. I checked over a dozen of authoritative sources and no two report the same numbers. Jane’s published a detailed list of major weapons acquisitions by Georgia since 2000. However, in the past few days the Russian military captured weapons not previously known to be [...]
