The White House has orchestrated the current conflict between Russia and Georgia in South Ossetia, a high-ranking Russian official says.
In a Friday press conference, Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Security Committee Vladimir Vasilyev said without US aid, Tbilisi would have been unable to start military operation in South Ossetia.
Georgian military forces launched a large-scale military offensive against South Ossetia on Thursday evening. Russia, in response, moved its forces to the region.
The battles between Georgian and Russian forces have left at least 1500 people dead.
Vasilyev said the situation in South Ossetia draws parallels to the wars in Iraq and Kosovo.
“The further the situation unfolds, the more the world will understand that Georgia would never be able to do all this without America,” the Russian official added.
According to Vasilyev, the US State Department refused to comment on reports by South Ossetian defense officials that Georgia was planning an imminent aggression.
“In essence, the Americans have prepared the force, which destroys everything in South Ossetia, attacks civilians and hospitals,” he expounded.
South Ossetia is officially a Georgian province but a large number of its population of 70,000 possess Russian passports and have strong links with North Ossetia, a Russian territory.
This is a blog entry, not a news article, but it makes the same argument:
War Between Russia and Georgia Orchestrated From USA
I might add that your comment about Georgia’s surprising success in shooting down Russian aircraft is quite insightful. Apparently Georgia was well-prepared and was armed with state of the art weaponry.
I was also amazed to see Georgian troops boarding a railway car to head off to battle. How could Russia have left logistics lines wide open? How hard would it be to take out a railroad? It’s pretty clear that Russia’s response is a lackluster one at best.
It’s beginning to look like the whole provocation was intended to gain leverage over Russia prior to an attack on Iran:
Israel freezes defense sales to Georgia
The officials said the freeze was partially intended to give Israel leverage with Moscow in its attempts to persuade Russia not to ship arms and equipment to Iran.
No more arms to Georgia as long as Iran gets none from Russia.
Best Regards,
Q
It appears that the Georgians used a modernized version of the S-200 missile to shoot down the Tu-22M3. What they used for the SU-25 is unknown for the time being, but it could have been a very short range system since the Russian SU-25 must have been low to provide CAS or to strike.
I also have seen reports that the Georgians have lost all their SU-25s.
“No more arms to Georgia as long as Iran gets none from Russia.”
Maybe, but now that the war has started and is likely to finish on terms favorable to Russia, that isn’t much leverage anymore. And make no mistake, despite missteps, the Russians will win this war and Georgia wont have stomach for another one. Saakashvili may not even be in power a year from now.
Besides, its only a useful concession if Israel were the primary source of arms, not just and additional source after the U.S. and NATO.
My guess is that the russians maybe issed off enough to step up arms sales to Iran, Syria and …indirectly…to Hizbullah.
My guess is that the russians maybe issed off enough to step up arms sales to Iran, Syria and …indirectly…to Hizbullah.
To say that the Russians are pissed of is actually an understatement. I am following plenty of Russian internet forums right now and I can tell you that the Russians are totally friggin raving outraged not so much at the Georgian attack, but at the grotesquely uniform anti-Russian position of the West. This is, I think, the biggest story of all in all this and I will write a separate analysis about this once things settle down a little. But the bottom line is this: The West and its allies (Ukraine) are now clearly seen as enemies by most Russians and, sadly, I think that this perception is correct.
The absolutely mind boggling difference in treatment of the Kosovo issue versus the South Ossetian issue will not be accepted by Russia.
Kosovo itself was bad, but Kosovo + South Ossetia is simply unforgivable and, from now on, I expect the anti-US anti-EU and anti-NATO stance of Russia to harden very, very strongly.
The West are not the only ones questioning Russia’s motives:
http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2373298
There’s plenty of blame to go around. Too much meddling in the affairs of independent states, too much strong-arming, too much death. Its true it makes the West look bad to support the Kosovo campaign and then oppose this, but it also makes Russia look bad to oppose Kosovo but then support this.
BTW, if you think the Western media is being pro-Georgia now, just see what heppens if Russia crosses out of “disputed” territory and into Georgia proper.
Apologies, forgot to include HTML tags
Here
Vladimir Socor info:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Socor
http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/opinion/vladimir_socor_hound_for_hire.html
This former propagandist for the CIA backed Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe is about as representative of Western propaganda as the Jamestown Foundation (which was founded with the help of DCI Casey)
BTW, if you think the Western media is being pro-Georgia now, just see what heppens if Russia crosses out of “disputed” territory and into Georgia proper
Frankly, I don’t think anyone in Russia has any illusions about the Western media anymore. Not only that, but some degree of reality is actually creeping into even the most obtuse places:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/world/europe/10diplo.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
VS,
Interesting info on the Jamestown Foundation. I went to the article linked to by anon. They had a whole different twist to things. I swear you would think that Russia was the one who had initiated hostilities, if they were your only source of info. Here’s an excerpt:
“Although the blow had been expected in upper Abkhazia and may yet materialize there, Russia shifted the direction of attack to the South Ossetian front. The brazen attacks during the night of August 7 to 8 in South Ossetia left Tbilisi with no choice but to respond.”
Really turns things on their head.
With regard to Socor, he has a column at the Wall Street Journal. ‘Nuff said.