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POPSKremlin Unleashes "Mafia-on-Steroids" Style Chechen Thugsby
merrie Yesterday 12:44 AM 
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........continued........ to disband the unit. The generals refused. At the time, their stubborn support for the outlaw Yamadaev Brothers seemed baffling - a quiet Chechnya was a longstanding Russian goal. But last week, it all made sense: Putin's military, which had been planning the invasion of Georgia for many months, intended to unleash the worst criminals in uniform it had on the Georgian people. Why? Two reasons: First, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wants the Georgians to suffer - to really suffer. And Chechens are the world's subject-matter experts in atrocities. Second, this gives the Russian army itself a veil of deniability: When Putin's spokesmen insist that the Russian military isn't involved in the worst savagery in Georgia, they're technically telling the truth (if we don't count air attacks and artillery bombardments), since the Chechen thugs on their payroll are on the job.
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POPSRed Primer for Children and Diplomats Part II by Victor Vashi Red Army invasion of Georgia The Red Army invasion of Georgia also known as the Soviet-Georgian War (February 15 – March 17, 1921) was a military campaign by the Soviet Russian (RSFSR) Red Army against the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) aimed at overthrowing the local Social-Democratic (Menshevik) government and installing the Bolshevik regime in the country. The conflict was a result of expansionist policy by the Soviets, who aimed at control of the same territories which had been part of Imperial Russia until the turbulent events of World War I, as well as the revolutionary efforts of mostly Russia-based Georgian Bolshevik elite, who did not enjoy sufficient support in their native country to seize power without foreign intervention. Copy of the New York Times article at link: http://sweetness-light.com/archive/russians-overrun-georgia-republic-1921
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POPSRussia's Ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin Brands Saakashvili a "Nazi" The ministry cited new operations by Russia, including the re-occupation of a military base in Senaki in the west of the country where explosions were heard by AFP. US officials said Russia had moved short-range SS-21 missile launchers into South Ossetia since fighting there halted last week, and has yet to give any sign of a significant pullback of its troops from Georgia. Instead, there were indications that Russia was adding troops and equipment to its force in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, strengthening its hold over the breakaway Georgian regions, the officials said. Russia denies deploying the SS-21s. The withdrawal will not be implemented "very swiftly", a defence ministry official was quoted as saying Tuesday in the Russian daily Kommersant. "Nobody is planning to withdraw the Russian contingent very swiftly, as there is no such necessity," he said.
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POPSGerman Chancellor Says That Georgia Can Join NATO Any Time It Wants Pounding Georgia, with a small military that isn’t set up for battle with a larger adversary, into submission is one thing. Trying to bluff NATO with a second rate military (and despite its size, it’s not a top shelf force) won’t be so easy. The Russians, of course, were steaming over Georgia’s desire to join NATO in the first place: Moscow is furious at Georgia’s attempt to join NATO. The Western military alliance is divided over how fast to accept Georgia, but has indicated that membership is a matter of when, not if. Hoo, boy, are they gonna hit the roof over this one.
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POPS Russian's Break Agreement As Usual 14.08.08 13:19 Declaration of U.S. support to Georgia has increased the aggression of Russia and instead of pulling out from the city of Gori, they have reinforced their positions there, ousted Georgian police and journalists from the city. Reporters say they are hearing explosions from the entrance of the city; Ossetian gunmen have abducted several vehicles of various TV crews, reportedly, Niva, Jeep and Mercedes type cars. Russians did not stop the robbers. Ossetian militant was even threatening the reporter of the Rustavi2 with a gun. Despite numerous evidences of various reporters, Russian general denies the abduction. Georgian Security Secretary, who was waiting for the settlement of situation in the city, and the team of reporters have been evacuated from the city. Russian general says he is no responsible for the security of journalists and says no exact date when Russian will leave the city.
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POPSIs Georgia a democracy? You wouldn't recognize it as one. Its standout characteristics are suppression of dissent and manipulation of the West
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POPSInvading Georgia Was Easy, Mr. Putin Will Pay A Political Price
The Russians said their General Prosecutor's Office would undertake a "genocide probe" in South Ossetia, and they called for putting President Saakashvili on trial at the Hague for "war crimes." As it happens, Chapter 1, Article II of the U.N. Charter, signed amid the smashed borders of World War II, forbids Members from the "use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state." The U.S. and France should force Mr. Putin's U.N. ambassador to veto a Security Council resolution describing his week-long mockery of those words. Additionally, a genuinely independent prosecutor investigating war crimes might examine the Russian bombing runs over Georgia and the looting of Georgian villages by Ossetian militias. An intriguing article by Pavel Felgengauer in Novaya Gazeta, the Russian newspaper, argues that an examination of the movement of the ground equipment and ships used in the strike against Georgia required planning that predated August
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POPS "Just Call Me Papa Joe".......or Else Lenin, the Tsar's nemesis, was third with nearly 187,000 votes. The top dozen included Peter the Great, Pushkin, Catherine the Great, Yuri Gagarin, Boris Yeltsin and Ivan the Terrible.
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POPSRussians Defy Cease-Fire: Troops In Georgia Digging In
Elsewhere in Georgia, it appeared very clear that Russian troops were staying put, building ramparts around tanks and posting sentries on a hill near Igoeti, a central Georgia town only 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tbilisi. Russian troops still effectively control the main artery running through the western half of Georgia because they surround the strategic central city of Gori and additionally the city and air base of Senaki in the west. Both cities are on the main east-west highway that slices through two Georgian mountain ranges. Russia also confirmed Sunday that it had taken over a major power plant in western Georgia. Rice noted that the text of the cease-fire, negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current leader of the European Union, outlined a very limited mandate for the soldiers that Russia calls peacekeepers who were in Georgia when hostilities escalated. She said these soldiers can go on limited patrols within the two separatist areas but in Georgia
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POPSThis War Report Has Been Approved By Your Government "Apparently, in the view of our corporate news editors and managers, it is important for Americans to fully witness the bloody horrors of war when that war is being fought by Russia, but we are to be carefully protected from seeing such things when they are being perpetrated by our own centurions. We aren’t even allowed to see the grievous injuries and death being suffered by our own troops. And, of course, don't feel to good about the quality of the coverage of the Russian/Georgia conflict either. This too is biased. Indeed one reason we are shown all the carnage is that the US government has been backing Georgia, and there is evidence that the US even encouraged the Georgian attacks on ethnic Russians which provoked the invasion. The US also has obligingly airlifted Georgian troops back from Iraq to Georgia. This is not news. This is propaganda, pure and simple. "
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POPSThe Russians Have Always Favored Overkill Vladimir Putin had ordered the assassination of Russian journalists and capitalists before Litvinenko, of course. But the Litvinenko murder defined him for the world -- or at least the sane and sensible fraction of the world --- just as Don Corleone in the Godfather ordered the decapitated horse's head to be placed in Jack Woltz' bedroom. Like the bloody horse head, Polonium poisoning signaled a public but deniable threat to Putin's enemies: Defy me, and I can use the rarest poison in the world to kill you anywhere I choose. And I will get away with it, because everybody else is cowed. Which is exactly what happened. Putin never paid a price, and in the manner of bullies everywhere, he was emboldened when the Brits failed to respond to Litvinenko's assassination in the middle of London. That is why Putin's invasion of the small, free, and democratic Republic of Georgia was predictable. Today the Russian threat to the Ukraine is just as obvious.
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POPSDems Parroting Russian Propaganda Robert Scheer... Is it possible that this time the October surprise was tried in August, and that the garbage issue of brave little Georgia struggling for its survival from the grasp of the Russian bear was stoked to influence the U.S. presidential election?
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POPSGeorgia Says Russians Bombing, Looting Gori
"The border has been along this river for 1,000 years," separatist official Ruslan Kishmaria told AP on Wednesday. He said Georgia would have to accept the new border and taunted the departed Georgian forces by saying they had received "American training in running away." An APTN television crew in Gori saw some Russian armored vehicles Wednesday morning near a military base there. Puffs of smoke in the air indicated some military action. An AP photographer saw several Russian troops and two armored vehicles on the northern outskirts of the city. His driver went further up the road and ran into Russian military volunteers, who warned that Russian forces would soon shell Gori. Georgia insisted its troops were driven from Abkhazia by Russian forces. At first, Russia said separatists — not Russian forces — had done the job. But the claim rang hollow — an AP reporter saw 135 Russian military vehicles heading toward the gorge Tuesday and Russia is the military patron for the separa
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POPSIsrael Backs Georgia in Caspian Oil Pipeline Battle with Russia until a "durable peace" is reached. "As soon as a durable peace takes hold we need to move forward with dialogue and peaceful negotiations." DEBKAfile’s geopolitical experts note that on the surface level, the Russians are backing the separatists of S. Ossetia and neighboring Abkhazia as payback for the strengthening of American influence in tiny Georgia and its 4.5 million inhabitants. However, more immediately, the conflict has been sparked by the race for control over the pipelines carrying oil and gas out of the Caspian region. The Russians may just bear with the pro-US Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambition to bring his country into NATO. But they draw a heavy line against his plans and those of Western oil companies, including Israeli firms, to route the oil routes from Azerbaijan and the gas lines from Turkmenistan, which transit Georgia, through Turkey instead of hooking them up to Russian pipelines.
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POPSObama Co-opts Sarkozy's Actions Is there anything that he and his followers won't attribute to "the One" in the chase of the presidency? I'm sure Sarkozy will be none too pleased. Way to win friends and influence people, there dude...
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POPS"Dangerous and unstable" "The people that are pulling McCain's strings are the people who want to push us into a new Cold War with the Russians"
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POPS Answering Russia 10. Announce the creation of a new information network, much larger and better funded than Voice of America or Radio Free Europe to deliver Internet, TV and radio broadcasts into neo-Soviet Russia so that Russians can learn the truth about their country.
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POPSI Hear that Bus A Coming "if Russia continues on this course, it must face isolation in the international community -- a longer range risk to its own well-being." OHHH strong response... the Russians are askeered of that one... You were very, very bad. Go sit in the corner... Brzezinski is a confidant to Obama. Naive and stupid. I wonder if the Georgians hear Obama's bus rolling towards them?
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POPS200 Years of Diplomatic Relations~ US and Russia Highlights of Russian-American cooperation: Russia-U.S. trade has been growing by nearly 30% a year since 2004, exceeding $25 billion in 2006. In 2006, U.S. investments in Russia increased by nearly 50%. There are now more than 800 U.S. companies operating in Russia. They have created over 100,000 jobs. Russia is the second largest buyer of American Boeing 787 aircraft after Japan. In turn, the Boeing Corporation intends to buy titanium from Russia. In 2007, the United States issued nearly 20% more visas to Russian tourists and businesspeople, and 30% more to students, compared to last year. Over 90% of Russian applicants were granted US visas.