Posts Tagged ‘troops’
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 June 15, 2009 - by Venik
Preventing a New Crimean War
Russian troops entering South Ossetia last year after a Georgian offensive to retake the secessionist territory was repulsed by Russia. The Russia-Georgia War in August 2008 has seriously exacerbated Russia’s already damaged relationships with the West. If the Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, had won last November’s election in the United States, the two [...]
Posted on September 6, 2008 - by Venik
Pentagon-Hired Contractor Trained Georgian Army
In the late 1800s, one American poet wrote: “When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.” Since the first day of the war in the Caucasus, people familiar with history started noticing peculiar similarities between Georgia’s attack [...]
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 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 [...]
Posted on August 17, 2008 - by Venik
Holbrooke Paid by Saakashvili?
Richard Holbrooke, the former US Ambassador to the UN and currently the vice chairman of Perseus LLC, is now in Tbilisi accusing the cowardly Russian soldiers of stealing pants off the dead bodies of Georgia’s courageous warriors. Holbrooke is claiming that Russia is about to invade Ukraine and is getting ready to take over the [...]
Posted on August 17, 2008 - by Venik
Reuters Published Fake Propaganda Photos, Part II
Just a quick follow-up to the story below about Reuters publishing fake photos of civilian victims in Gori. Russian bloggers have identified the photographer responsible for most of these images. He turned out to be Gleb Garanich (Глеб Гаранич) – a Ukrainian photojournalist working for Reuters. The photos, as it turns out, might have been [...]
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
The Cease-Fire Deal and Life in Tbilisi
Mark Deen and Reed Landberg of Bloomberg have beat me to the punch with their Russia’s War With Georgia May Reopen U.S. Rift With Europe. Next time I will have to type faster. If you follow the news from Russia and Georgia, you are probably aware of the extraordinary effort by Nicolas Sarkozy to broker [...]
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 [...]
