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POPSRA's Daily Russian News Blast
US to modify or jettison missile defense plans? NATO chief to meet with Russian envoy; Lukaschenko sends out mixed messages. South Ossetia denies book burning; think tank leader says Putin could be heading for Brehznev-style decades in power; Medvedev finds inspiration on blogosphere. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has suggested the traditional ally of Russia must 'move away from dependence on just one country, even one that is near and dear to us'. The Moscow Times reports that the authoritarian leader has emphasized ties with Russia, whilst on a rare visit to EU-member state Lithuania. The Russian Foreign Minstry has said that the criminal investigation into charges of forgery against RIA Novosti's Tbilisi bureau chief is politically motivated. South Ossetia has denied bonfire-style burning of Georgian books and other classic works at the state university. An op-ed contributor in the Moscow Times is disturbed by what makes it onto Russian bookshelves.
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POPSEvolution of the Species It has long been agreed that Africa was the sole cradle of human evolution. Then these bones were found in Georgia...
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POPSGeorgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (L), surrounded by his guards, enters the Mukhrovani military base where some soldiers staged a mutiny, some 10 km (6 miles) east of Tbilisi May 5, 2009. Georgia put down a mutiny at a military base on Tuesday and accused Russia of financing a coup to stir up trouble on the eve of NATO war games in the ex-Soviet republic.
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POPSRussia to Oust Canadian Diplomats Georgian Defense Ministry spokesman David Dzhokhadze said in the capital Tbilisi that no battlefield maneuvers were planned until at least May 11. Until then, organizational meetings would dominate proceedings, he said. Mr. Dzhokhadze said Georgia expects 15 countries to take part in the exercises after official notification from Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Serbia that they wouldn't take part. Armenia, which is dependent on Russia for its economic survival, said Tuesday that its military wasn't taking part. Mr. Dzhokhadze said Georgia had received no official confirmation of that. Georgia put down a mutiny of several hundred army officers of a tank battalion near Tbilisi on Tuesday.
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POPS Doubting Der Spiegel " is a direct echo of Russian rationalization to go into Chechnya," says Goltz. "But it is also the basis of virtually any country's decision to re-establish control over breakaway pieces of real estate and mafia dens, ranging from the U.S. South in 1861 to Italian efforts to trim the mob in Sicily." Goltz also has concerns about the article's information quality, including what he called the "burying" of Russia's distribution of passports to separatists halfway into the story, which served as the immediate cassus belli for Russian intervention. He also notes that the cell phone intercepts which point to Russian military movement well before originally acknowledged went unmentioned. The leak itself might also be reason for pause.
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POPSGeorgians Rally Against Their President This is the fruits and blow-back from his invasion of South Ossetia which provoked Russia to defend and counter-attack and Georgia was defeated in short order (while the MSM propaganda machine blamed Russia for a "unilateral assault" on Georgia). The president calls for unity to "liberate Georgia" while thousands want to be "liberated" from him! President Saakashvili is Georgia's "Bush".
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POPSGeorgia on my Mind, Again. Attack each other now!!! Ms Burjanadze strongly denied that anyone from her party was involved in buying or storing weapons and said that the government was mounting "a campaign of terror against her". "We are familiar with such video evidence and how it is made up," she told a news conference. The BBC's Tom Esslemont in Tbilisi says it is unclear from the government videos whether anyone arrested was planning to use the guns in anti-government activity, and the interior ministry spokesman said he did not want to politicise the arrests. But they come just weeks before a planned opposition-led demonstration and against the backdrop of an increasingly bitter feud between the two sides, our correspondent says. ... BBC
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POPSRussian Passports For Akhalgori Residents For example, the following testimonies from local residents are cited. Natela T: "Our neighbour saw with his own eyes stockpiled Russian passports in the regional office. Where we live they have already given us our salary in roubles (instead of lari), but the Ossetian administration is still not saying anything about passportization. What's going to happen next, I can't say." An Ossetian woman (her name was not given): "Some people living in Akhalgori have already got the necessary documents ready - a copy of their identity card and two photographs. But the Georgians are holding back for the time being. They are waiting until the Georgian government introduces dual citizenship. The Ossetians will clearly immediately take up Russian citizenship. When there was Georgian rule here, they didn't place us in any important positions, there wasn't a single Ossetian in the government structures.
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POPSTel Aviv to Tbilisi: Israel's role in the Russia-Georgia war The question remains as to why Israel was involved in the first place. There are several reasons. The first is simply economic opportunism: for years, especially since the 11 September 2001 attacks, arms exports and "security expertise" have been one of Israel's growth industries. But the close Israeli involvement in a region Russia considers to be of vital interest suggests that Israel might have been acting as part of the broader US scheme to encircle Russia and contain its reemerging power.
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POPSWhy did the West ignore the truth about the war in Georgia?
Thank goodness, they might be thinking at the US State Department and the British Foreign Office, for the financial crisis. Were it not for the ever-blacker news about the Western world's economy, another scandal would be vying for the headlines – and one where the blame would be easier to apportion. It concerns our two countries' relations with Russia and the truth about this summer's Georgia-Russia war. Over the past couple of weeks, a spate of reports has appeared in the American and British media, questioning many assumptions about that war, chief among them that Russia was the guilty party. Journalists from the BBC, The New York Times and Canada's Embassy magazine, among others, travelled to South Ossetia, the region at the centre of the conflict, in an effort to establish the facts. Not the "facts" as told by the super-slick Georgian PR machine at the time, nor the "facts" as eventually dragged from the hyper-defensive and clod-hopping communicators of the Kremlin. But the
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POPSCold War Hawks Nesting With Obama Read the whole article for Scheer's view on the business of Hawks in Obama's camp. Disturbing, to say the least, isn't it? Too may Hawks are pouncing on Obama's popularity and could easily co-opt what could have been a new way to Peace. Alas, I am pessimistic about this not-so-new set of policy advisors, like Zbiegnew Brezinski. He reminds me of that ass Kissinger...
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POPSOSCE 'failed' in Georgia warnings Was it deliberate that the reports were ignored? Who else knew of Saakashvili intent to invade? How much more blood is on Bush's hands? The killing of civilians to achieve ethnic cleansing is so reminiscent of Israel methods in the M-East. Of course the Georgian troops were all trained by IDF officers, so any regard for human life is pointless.
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POPSGeorgia Claims on Russia War Called Into Question The war was started at the night of opening Olympic Games in Beijing, when ancient traditions of mankind do requiring to stop any hostile actions anywhere in a world. That did means nothing for challenged medieval vassal, blinded by his grandiose ambitions and brainless geopilitic from overseas. It is the shame Georgian and Russian people, centuries living together in peace and friendship, now become enemies. Who's malicious mind have denigrate them to that low point?
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POPSGeorgia Says Russia Has Massed 7,000 Troops In South Ossetia Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, from Georgia on Aug. 26. Only Nicaragua has followed suit. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sept. 8 that his decision to recognize the regions was ``final'' and ``irrevocable.'' Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the following day that Russia had agreed to deploy about 3,800 soldiers in each region. A European Union-brokered cease-fire agreement that ended the fighting in Georgia requires Russia to remove its forces to their pre-conflict positions. Russia sent about 10,000 soldiers into Georgia during the fighting, according to state-run news service RIA Novosti.
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POPSSeparatists 'to host Russia bases' Maybe it was a good move to have Palin as a candidate - prevents Alaska from breaking away as the Russian states did. America could give Alaska to the neocons and tell em all to go live there. They could rename the State, Armageddon.
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POPSAbkhazia asserts control over Kodori Gorge in dispute with Georgia Dzhonua scoffed at Tbilisi’s assertions that Georgian forces stationed in the Upper Kodori Gorge had been acting in a law-enforcement capacity, rather than as regular soldiers. "Police don’t need bunkers, grenade launchers howitzer batteries," Dzhonua said. "Do your police in America need this? ? Everything that was needed to start a war, it was all there." Georgian officials were in Geneva for the October 15 talks with Russia and were not immediately available to respond to Abkhaz allegations. Abkhaz officials say that a ban has been put on media visits to the Upper Kodori Gorge so long as unexploded ordnance remains in the area. "There’re a lot of mines, unexploded ammunition, explosive devices, so we stopped journalists from visiting," de facto Deputy Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Gari Kupalba told Western reporters on September 30.
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POPSGeorgia better be careful who they trust During a recent trade mission to Georgia, Ambassador John K. Veroneau, stressed the American government’s commitment to helping the Georgian economy regain traction. " he I spoke with are very bullish on Georgia’s future," Veroneau told EurasiaNet. "I think they see Georgia as a very strong market to be in for the long term."
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POPSOSCE talks on observers for Georgia stalled Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking in Tskhinvali recently said "There is no sense in monitoring agreements that Saakashvili broke," He also said that, from Moscow’s viewpoint, it is now up to "independent and sovereign" South Ossetia to decide whether to let the OSCE monitors redeploy. "Russia is a member of the OSCE and, as such, we guarantee that no longer will issues concerning South Ossetia be discussed at the OSCE in the absence of Tskhinvali’s representatives,"
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