Thursday 28 August 2008

Georgia

A fascinating and detailed account of the lead-up to the Russian-Georgian war from Michael J. Totten.

And an interesting view on the Russian strategy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

When even the basic facts are disputed it's hard to make any sensible judgement.

But how is it that the US is not accusing Russia of starting the conflict rather than simply calling Russia's response dissproportionate?

That is odd given the number of US spy satellites up there, would not any significant Russian troop movements have been detected?

Chertiozhnik said...

True, it is all very murky.

I suspect the US is being diplomatic because there is nothing they can do about it in the short term so no point in sabre-rattling.

I wonder what NATO could do anyway, really, to guarantee the independence of countries like Georgia or the Ukraine if pushed.

Anonymous said...

Probably not a lot they should do.

If the public is to support it a key factor of any treaty organisation, NATO included, must be some correspondence of risk and obligation. Those two countries are massively at risk but could play little part in gauranteeing the freedom of the other members.

Chertiozhnik said...

And the Russians are handing out Russian passports in the Crimea - EU "soft" diplomacy vs their "soft" qnnexation. I wonder who will win.