Posts Tagged ‘tanks’
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 September 4, 2008 - by Venik
Ukraine’s Political Turmoil
The constitutional crisis in Ukraine is a direct result of the threats made by the US and the EU against Russia’s WTO membership bid. In case Ukraine’s political life is not at the top of your list of interests, here is a very brief summary of events from the past week of Ukraine’s turbulent political [...]
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 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 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 [...]
Posted on August 15, 2008 - by Venik
Georgia’s Attack on South Ossetia: Washington’s Role
Elusive NATO Membership At the NATO Summit in Bucharest in April 2008 Georgia was denied Membership Action Plan. Aside from Russia’s vehement opposition, the key issues outlined in the NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan, accepted by Georgia in October 2004, remain unresolved. These issues are: Georgia’s antiquated military equipment, insufficient training and deployability of its [...]
Posted on August 14, 2008 - by Venik
Russians in Georgia: Goals and Consequences
The Christian Science Monitor – of all newspapers – published perhaps the most relevant and concise description of what Moscow has achieved so far with its blitzkrieg response to Georgia’s sneak-attack on South Ossetia. “If the Russians stop hostilities now, they will have redrawn the whole strategic situation in the Caucasus, to the detriment of [...]
Posted on August 12, 2008 - by Venik
Georgia’s Blunder
Saakashvili’s hysterical propaganda aside, it is now evident that Russia’s operation in Georgia was strictly limited to defending the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia against Georgian aggression. Consider the facts: Russia deployed just 6,000 troops in South Ossetia and 9,000 troops in Abkhazia (and even these modest numbers are probably overstated by the [...]
Posted on August 10, 2008 - by Venik
Saakashvili’s Army on the Run
Not three days ago Saakashvili’s US-trained death squads were using Czech-made heavy artillery and US-supplied helicopters to bombard residential areas of South Ossetia’s capital, killing an estimated 2,000 civilians and sending some 30,000 refugees to neighboring Russia. Today, with tails between their legs, Georgian soldiers are running back to Tbilisi, pursued by Russian tanks and [...]
Posted on August 10, 2008 - by Venik
War in Georgia: What’s Coming
The EU wants to blame Russia for the escalating conflict in Georgia, but Brussels cannot ignore the terrible casualties inflicted by Georgian artillery on the civilian population of South Ossetia. Today’s visit to Tbilisi by France’s foreign minister suggests that Saakashvili is being pressured by the EU to back down. The US, on the other [...]
Posted on August 9, 2008 - by Venik
Georgia on a Path to Self-Destruction
I lived in Tbilisi for about a year when I was in sixth grade. Some of my best childhood memories are from that time now more than twenty years ago. My father’s family moved to Tbilisi in 1941, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. My father was three years old then. He spent his [...]
Posted on August 8, 2008 - by Venik
Timeline of Georgia-Russia Conflict
Reuters just published a “TIMELINE – Georgia and Russia’s worsening relations” (August 8, 2008; http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN08472548). As the poor and tiny Georgia, under the guidance of its fearless US-educated leader, is desperately trying to start a war with Russia, I find it is important to amend the Reuters’ accurate but incomplete timeline with some of the [...]
