Russian warplanes attempted yesterday to cut off the oil that supplies much of Europe when they repeatedly launched missiles at the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline through Georgia. In addition, Russian planes bombed the international airport at Tbilisi, as well as the oil port of Poti on the Black Sea.
"This clearly shows that Russia has targeted not just Georgian economic outlets but international economic outlets as well," said a Georgian official.
The widening war between Russia and Georgia stems from a dispute over the area of South Ossetia, a region claimed by both countries. South Ossetia won it's independence from Russia in 1992. Georgia, an ally of the United States in Iraq has recalled all 2000 of its troops from that country, as well as calling up its national reserves.
Over the weekend, the United States began the evacuation of all American civilian personnel from Georgia, along with similar efforts by other European nations. President Bush has called for a Russian ceasefire to allow for peaceful negotiations to take place. Russia has announced that it will not stop the attack until Georgia withdraws its people and claims from South Ossetia.
At the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush were witnessed in a heated discussion. "The President and Mr Putin were in an animated conversation two seats in front of us and I imagine they had a few things on their agenda," said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Georgia is one of several former Soviet satellite countries that gained independence from Russia following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Like several other such nations, Georgia has become a staunch ally of the United States and a defender of freedom for other countries. Nearly a dozen former soviet bloc countries have troops supporting the US efforts in Iraq.
Efforts have been made in recent weeks to fast track Georgia into North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which has a provision that if any NATO country is attacked, all alliance nations will come to their aid. Several former Soviet nations have applied for admission, causing Moscow some discomfort.
Russia is accused in this war of engaging in ethnic cleansing, siding with a Russian minority against a majority Muslim population. As in so much of the region, the issues are complicated.
The area known as Abkhazia has been split apart by Soviet design, and resettled and repopulated for their own purposes. An explanation from The Jamestown Foundation:
Abkhazia, populated by a predominantly Muslim people, was a constituent Soviet republic until 1930, when Stalin incorporated it into the Georgian SSR, which is Orthodox Christian. Also on Stalin's orders, large numbers of Georgians were resettled in the area, making the Abkhazians a small minority in their own country. Like other unrepresented local minorities in Georgia, they were subject to discrimination and persecution.
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As in Abkhazia, a movement for South Ossetia's independence from Georgia was revived under the politically more relaxed atmosphere of the late 1980a. Ossetia, whose population is of Iranian descent, had been divided into two parts under Stalin. North Ossetia was incorporated in the Russian SFSR, while South Ossetia became an autonomous region of Georgia. The conflict began in 1989, when the South Ossetians, who comprise two-thirds of the region's population, called for greater autonomy and eventual reunification with their northern brethren. But these demands were fiercely resisted by local Georgians, who feared that the region would be annexed by neighboring Russia. Following clashes between Georgian and Ossetian irregulars in 1990, the Tbilisi government abolished South Ossetia's autonomous status and declared a state of emergency in the area.
Never an easy region to understand, this conflict would appear, once again, to be a legacy of Soviet intervention in the past century. Once again flexing its political muscle, Moscow is attempting to expand its influence in the region, and to gain control of one of the most important oil pipelines in the world.
Do not look for either a quick, or an easy solution to this conflict. Russian influence on the United Nations Security Council will prevent any resolution by that body, and the logistics of time and distance will prevent any substantive American or European aid.
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and now Russia is escalating the fighting well past just "defending" the "Russian" citizens in South Ossetia.
Georgia elected a president that ran on a platform of "uniting" Georgia with South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia hasn't made things to quiet about their attempts to fulfill the pledge to retake the "break away" regions.
Russia gave citizens of South Ossetia, Russian passports, making those citizens "Russian." Russia also had a sizable "peace keeping force" in South Ossetia. From an unreliable source; in 2006 South Ossetia voted in favor 99% to 1% to stay independent of Georgia. Georgian President is trying to "build genuine democracy" by forcefully taking over South Ossetia [at about 4:00]
Russia military is moving outside of the conflict zone into Georgia proper and it appears Russia wants to remove the head of state in Georgia.
"He, [Zalmay Khalilzad, United States' ambassador to the UN] charged that Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, had said as much Sunday morning in a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, telling her “that the democratically elected president of Georgia ‘must go,’ “ Mr. Khalilzad said"
Both sides are using highfalutin propaganda and appear to have a fondness of the fromer Iraqi Information Minister