Windows to Russia

MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) – Over 1,000 civilians have been killed as the result of an attack by Georgia on the capital of its breakaway republic of South Ossetia, the North Ossetian nationalities minister said Friday.

“According to the South Ossetian information and press committee, the number of fatalities is estimated, according to preliminary information, at over 1,000,” Teimuraz Kasayev said.

North Ossetia is part of Russia.

Georgia launched a major offensive early Friday morning using tanks, combat aircraft, heavy artillery and infantry.

Earlier Colonel Igor Konashenkov, an aide to the commander of the Russian Ground Forces, said about 10 Russian peacekeepers were killed and 30 wounded in the conflict zone.

The Russian Transportation Ministry’s press service said Friday that Moscow would cut air links with Tbilisi.

Georgian military forces have begun retreating from the capital, Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian information and press committee said.

“Using grenade launchers [South] Ossetian local defense forces are destroying Georgian tanks. According to eyewitnesses they [the tanks] are on fire throughout the city,” the committee said in a statement.

The statement also said that most of the city had been devastated by the Georgian military attack, which left the hospital destroyed and the republic’s university on fire.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20080808/115908220.html

Hello,

The point of the South Ossetia War is that Georgia has the backing of the USA. The military exercises that USA had in Georgia, several weeks ago is the prelude to this attack. Georgia was told how and when to attack. The fact that it happened on the opening days of the Olympics is a political slap in the Chinese face!

Now Russia must decide what to do. I think, that Russia will be the bad, evil guy no matter what. So Russia needs to ignore the Western world and their biased attitudes, then slap Georgia back to Tbilisi. (My opinion of course!)

Now, the Cossacks from the Voronezh Cossack District of the Great Don Host have begun assembling volunteers to aid South Ossetia, Ataman of the Voronezh Cossack District Nikolay Sapelkin told Interfax on Friday. Sapelkin said that “The Cossacks cannot remain impartial to the fate of a fraternal republic.” He continued, “In the condition of aggression from Georgia, the Don Cossacks of Voronezh Region, who support the course of the South Ossetian authorities toward independence, are prepared to take a stand among the defenders of the republic.”

Then meanwhile Georgia is attacking Russia peacekeeper’s by deliberately firing to destroy peacekeeper’s positions in Tskhinvali, said the command of peacekeeping forces. “Tbilisi attempts to mislead world community, with no aversion to blatant lie,” spokesman of the command specified. The shells were exploding right in the facilities of peacekeepers, including the barracks, confirmed the reporter of Interfax.

Recent History of Conflict: (for general information)

Georgia and its breakaway republic of South Ossetia have always had an uneasy relationship. The current armed conflict has its roots in a dispute that goes back almost one hundred years.

The first major conflict between the sides took place in 1918-1920. It began in a series of uprisings in the Ossetian-inhabited areas of what is now South Ossetia.

The uprisings were against the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, which claimed several thousand lives and left painful memories among the two communities.

During Soviet times the conflict was frozen because of Moscow’s tight control of the area. However, it began to gain momentum in late 1980s, not long before the collapse of the Soviet Union, amid the rising nationalism among both Georgians and Ossetians.

The influential South Ossetian Popular Front was created in 1988. But in the summer of 1990 the Georgian Supreme Council adopted a law barring regional parties.

This was interpreted by Ossetians as a move against the South Ossetian Popular Front and led to Ossetians proclaiming South Ossetia a Soviet Democratic Republic, fully sovereign within the USSR.

Ossetians boycotted subsequent Georgian parliamentary elections and held their own contest in December. The Georgian government headed by Zviad Gamsakhurdia declared this election illegitimate and abolished South Ossetia’s autonomous status altogether in December, 1990.

Violent conflict broke out towards the end of 1991. Many South Ossetian villages were attacked and burned down as well along with Georgian houses and schools in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.

As a result of the violence, approximately 1,000 people died and about 100,000 ethnic Ossetians fled the territory and moved mostly to North Ossetia, a republic within the Russian Federation.

In 1992, Georgia was forced to accept a ceasefire to avoid a large scale confrontation with Russia. The government of Georgia and South Ossetian separatists reached an agreement to avoid the use of force against one another, and Georgia pledged not to impose sanctions against South Ossetia.

A peacekeeping force of Ossetians, Russians and Georgians was established at the time. And late in 1992 the OSCE set up a mission in Georgia to monitor the peacekeeping operation.

From then, until mid-2004, South Ossetia was generally peaceful.

In June 2004, tensions began to rise as the Georgian authorities strengthened their efforts against smuggling in the region. Hostage takings, shootouts and occasional bombings left dozens dead and wounded.

A ceasefire deal was reached on August 13, but it has been repeatedly violated.

Tensions in the region soared in 2008 and outbreaks of violence became increasingly frequent in the border area.

Georgia said it was an internal affair as the breakaway republic had never been recognized internationally.

The Georgian side repeatedly insisted the conflict could be resolved without outside interference.

However, early on August 8 Georgia launched a massive military offensive to take control of the republic.

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Now Russia must make a decision: Take control of their backyard or let the USA continue to play…….

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Looks like Georgia said one thing then turned around and brutally started a War during a Ceasefire……

Georgian president seeks talks with South Ossetia

Georgia launches major attack on rebel province despite ceasefire

So we went from ceasefire and we will have these talks to full fledge War as confirmed in a report this morning!

Georgia Launched War on South Ossetia

So Georgia has Lied all along about the whole situation……

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hey World: Israel is the one with the firepower…..

Hello,

While drink my morning cup of coffee, I was thinking about Israel and how close they are to striking Iran. I have to say: “If Israel attacks Iran, World War III will loom on the horizon like a dark cloud!”

A couple of issues that Israel has with Iran:

1. Israel, itself an undeclared nuclear power, sees an atomic bomb in Iranian hands as a direct threat to its existence.

2. Israel believes Tehran will have enriched enough uranium for a nuclear bomb by next year or 2010 at the latest.

3. “Israel takes (Iranian President) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statements regarding its destruction seriously. Israel cannot risk another Holocaust,” Mofaz said.

4. Israel has the perception that Washington now prefers diplomacy over confrontation with Tehran.

5. “If Israeli, U.S., or European intelligence gets proof that Iran has succeeded in developing nuclear weapons technology, then Israel will respond in a manner reflecting the existential threat posed by such a weapon,”

Why does the term “Winds of War” seem appropriate to this situation.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Having positioned themselves at captured mountain heights, Georgia’s military first shelled Sarabuk-village of Ossetia and the police checkpoint located nearby.

The attack demolished more than 20 percent of houses in Dmenis-village. There are victims but their number isn’t clear yet, South Ossetia’s authorities announced.

More than 20 percent of buildings have been demolished in Dmenis as a result of shooting. The residents have hidden in cellars, and it is impossible to estimate the losses even approximately. Officers have been ordered to adequately respond to Georgian fire,” South Ossetia’s Defense Ministry announced.

Satikar-village and outskirts of South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali are being shelled as well.

Armored vehicles, artillery, troops are nearing the region, the Defense Ministry said. The Georgians have amassed dozens of tanks and howitzer weapons in Tskhinvali direction.

Looks like Georgia wants war…. (Link)

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

This is how the West looks at Russia and Iran!

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee and thought to myself: “We want to travel but it looks like trouble is in the air!”

So, What do I mean by that? Lets look at….

Georgia Will Levy War on South Ossetia in Fall, Kokoity Said

U.S. says further “punitive” steps against Iran needed The White House said on Wednesday it believed Western powers had to take further “punitive” measures against Iran because Tehran gave no concrete reply to their demand that it freeze its nuclear activities.

Russia says Georgian jets overflew rebel region Russia accused Georgia of sending warplanes into a Georgia’s separatist region of South Ossetia overnight, an allegation swiftly denied by Tbilisi.

Iran is “root of all evil”: Israel PM contender Israeli cabinet minister Shaul Mofaz, a contender to succeed the prime minister, denounced his native Iran on Wednesday as “the root of all evil” and said its nuclear program constituted a threat to world peace.

Kyrgyz police uncover US arms cache

‘Georgian snipers are attacking us’ – Ossetian official

Georgia, Britain to hold joint military drills in September
Georgia and the U.K. will hold joint military training exercises in September at the Vaziani base near the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the South Caucasus country’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

Russia to Set Up Missile Defense Sites in Caucasus, Middle Asia

So between you and I: Looks like the Fall Season maybe an interesting time of the year in this part of the world. Should be a good time to travel, need to go see Israel and Iran, before a war there blows everything up. We are glad that we recently traveled to the Georgia area just before all the issues started in Abkhazia and got to see that beautiful country: before it gets blown up!

I wonder if the world could wait until we get to travel to all the places we want to before they blow each other up?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

As you remember on Wednesdays we publish Stories from Soviet Childhood – my generation was brought up reading the stories, and generation of our parents was brought up on them and we tried to bring up our children by reading them good children books. Today we are finishing a story by Nikolay Nosov “Garderners”. If you did not read the first part please click at the little picture. To the right —->

Garderners

(Part 2)

….Besides, we had only a little bit left to dig now.

The next morning we got up later than the others. Oh dear, how achy we felt! Our arms ached, our legs ached and our backs felt as if they were breaking!
“What’s the matter with us?” said Mishka.
“Too much digging in one go,” I said.

We felt a little better after we had moved about a bit, and at breakfast Mishka started boasting to everyone that we were going to win the banner for sure.

After breakfast we all went off to the garden. Mishka and I didn’t hurry. We had plenty of time!
By the time we reached the plots all the others were busy digging away like beavers. We laughed at them as we strolled by.
“You needn’t try so hard because you can’t win the banner anyway!” we told them.
“You’d better get to work, you two!” they shouted back.

Just then Mishka said: “Look at this plot. I wonder whose it is. They’ve hardly dug anything yet. They must be at home fast asleep.”
I looked at the marker. No. 12. “Why, it’s our plot!”
“It can’t be,” said Mishka. “We’ve done far more than that.”
I thought we had too.
“Perhaps someone has gone and changed the markers for a lark.”
“No. All the other numbers are right. Here’s No. 11 and there’s No. 13 on the other side.”
We looked again and saw a tree-stump sticking up in the middle. We couldn’t believe our eyes.
“Listen,” I said. “If this is our plot what’s that stump doing there? We pulled it out, didn’t we?”
“Of course we did,” said Mishka. “A new one couldn’t have grown in its place overnight.”

Just then we heard Vanya Lozhkin on the plot next to ours say:
“Look, fellows! A real miracle! There was a big stump here yesterday and now it’s gone. Where could it be?”
Everyone ran to look at the miracle. Mishka and I went over too.
What had happened? Yesterday they had less than half of their plot dug and now there was only a small corner left.

“Mishka,” I said. “You know what? It was their plot we dug up last night. And that stump we pulled out was theirs too.”
“It can’t be!”
“Well, it is.”
“Oh, what donkeys we are!” groaned Mishka. “What shall we do now? By rights they ought to give us their plot and take ours. All that work done for nothing!”
“Shut up,” I said. “You don’t want us to be the laughing-stock of the whole camp, do you?”
“But what shall we do?”
“Dig,” I said. “Dig like blazes.”

We picked up our spades. But when we started to dig, our poor backs and arms and legs ached so much that we had to stop. We had worked so hard on our neighbours’ plot that now we hadn’t the strength to finish our own.

Before long Vanya Lozhkin and Senka Bobrov finished their plot. Vitya congratulated them and handed them the banner. They stuck it in the middle of their plot. All the others gathered round and clapped. Mishka couldn’t stand it.
“It’s not fair!” he said.
“Why isn’t it fair?” said Vitya.
“Someone pulled that stump out for them. They said so themselves.”
“It isn’t our fault, is it?” said Vanya. “Suppose someone wanted it for fire-wood. That’s their look-out, not ours.”
“Maybe someone dug it up by mistake,” said Mishka.
“If they had it would be lying about here somewhere.”
“Maybe someone threw it into the river,” Mishka went on.
“Maybe this, maybe that. What are you getting at?” But Mishka couldn’t keep quiet.
“Someone did the digging for you last night,” he said.
I kept nudging him to hold his tongue. Vanya said:
“Maybe they did. We didn’t measure our plot.”

We went back to our own plot and started digging. Vanya and Senka stood watching us and snickering.
“Look at them,” said Senka. “They’re as slow as turtles.”
“We’ll have to lend them a hand,” said Vanya. “They’re way behind everyone else with their digging.”

So they lent us a hand. They helped us with the digging and they helped us to pull out the stump, but we finished last just the same.

Someone suggested putting the scarecrow on our plot since we were the last to finish. Everybody thought that was a wonderful idea and so the scarecrow came to our plot. Mishka and I felt very sore about it.

“Cheer up!” said the boys. “If you do your planting and weeding well we’ll take the scarecrow off your plot.”

Yura Kozlov made a proposal: “Let’s award it to the team that makes the worst showing with the rest of the work.”
“Yes, let’s!” shouted the others.
“And in the autumn we’ll present it to the team with the worst crop,” said Senka Bobrov.

Mishka and I decided to work hard and get rid of that nasty scarecrow, but try as we did it stood on our plot all summer long. When planting time came Mishka got everything mixed up and planted beet-roots on top of the carrot seeds. And when we did the weeding he pulled up all the parsley instead of the weeds, and we had to plant radishes instead. I wanted to quit several times but I didn’t have the heart to leave a. chum in the lurch. So I stayed with him to the end.

And would you believe it, Mishka and I got the banner after all. To everybody’s surprise we got the biggest crop of cucumbers and tomatoes.

There was a fuss!
“It’s not fair,” said the others. “They were behind everybody else all the time and they got the biggest crop. How’s that?”
But Vitya said: “It’s perfectly fair. They may have been slower than all the rest of you but they worked the soil thoroughly and they tried hard.”
Vanya Lozhkin said: “They had a good bit of land, that’s what it is. Me and Senka got a bad plot. That’s why we have a poor harvest although we worked hard too. And they can keep their old scarecrow. They had it all summer.”

“We don’t mind,” said Mishka. “We’ll take it with pleasure.”
Everybody laughed. Mishka said: “If it wasn’t for that scarecrow we wouldn’t have won the banner!”

“How’s that?” everyone asked.
“Because it drove the crows away from our plot and that’s why we have the biggest harvest. Besides, it reminded us all the time that we had to work hard.”

I said to Mishka: “What are we going to do with that silly old scarecrow?”
“Let’s go and throw it in the river,” said Mishka.

We took the scarecrow down to the river and threw it into the water. We watched it sail down the river with its arms spread out and we threw stones into the water to make it go faster. When it was gone we went back to the camp.

That day Lyosha Kurochkin photographed Mishka and me standing on our plot beside the Challenge Banner. So if you would like to have a picture of us we shall be glad to send you one.

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Previous stories:

ZIS

Cucumbers

THE CRUCIAN CARP

Mishka’s Porridge

The Pistol
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Best wishes,

Svet

comments always welcome

Hello,

The word is out that China or Russia could buy Humvee this also falls in place with why would Russia want to buy Chrysler?

The answer is they don’t! (I hope)

Russia has its own version of the Humvee: GAZ-2975 “Tigr” – is Russian high-mobility multipurpose military vehicles, manufactured by GAZ. It is military version of GAZ-2330 “Tigr” and has been sometimes referred to as “the Russian Humvee” (while civil GAZ-2330 has been referred to as “the Russian Hummer”).

So the need to buy GM’s dead weight is not very strong for Russia.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Looks like If Georgia attacks South Ossetia, Abkhazia will in turn attack Georgia to help South Ossetia!
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“If Georgia starts fighting against South Ossetia, Abkhazia will open a ‘second front,'” Abkhazia’s deputy defense minister, Garri Kupalba, told the paper. “Abkhazia will without a doubt take part in military actions.” (Link)
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I also read that Israel is going to stop selling weapons to Georgia, Just one more link to America playing in Russia’s backyard.

“Georgia has become a real goldmine for Israeli arms dealers, who will suffer because of the embargo. Tbilisi had placed orders with several Israeli military manufacturers. Among the weaponry ordered were 70 million rifle cartridges, Merkava tanks, APCs, helicopters, UAVs, fire control systems and night-vision devices.” (Link)

Now the Playing in Russia’s backyard has lead to a statement from Russia: “Russia said on Tuesday it would not remain indifferent if violence continues to escalate in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, Interfax news agency reported, quoting a Russian diplomat.” (Link)
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Looks like the world better get ready, because I feel that Russia is getting a little bit unhappy about Americas interference in South Ossetia, Georgia, Abkhazia and Iran!

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

RBC, 05.08.2008, Moscow 16:46:33.The Russian stock market continued falling virtually across the board in the afternoon today. As of 4 p.m., the MICEX index was down 2.7 percent at 1,412.31 points and the RTS index was down 3.43 percent at 1,830.76 points. Among the worst performers on MICEX were Gazprom (down 4.25 percent), LUKoil (down 3.69 percent), Rosneft (down 5.38 percent), and Uralkali (down 12 percent). Although banking stocks fared better than the market during the day, they also decreased somewhat, as Sberbank lost 1.32 percent and VTB dipped 0.89 percent.

RBC, 05.08.2008, Moscow 15:49:14.Russia’s Economy Ministry has issued a draft proposal for the country’s long-term social and economic development until 2020 for consideration by the government, said Oleg Fomichev, the head of the ministry’s strategic planning and budgeting department. The document is to be considered at meetings that will be chaired by Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov during August and early September, and the Economy Ministry is expected to submit the amended concept to the government for the second time at the beginning of September, Fomichev noted. The government is projected to discuss the concept on September 22.

RBC, 05.08.2008, Moscow 14:23:24.Russia’s inflation amounted to 9.3 percent in the first seven months of 2008 and 0.5 percent in July alone, compared to 6.6 percent and 0.9 percent for the same periods of 2007, respectively, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) reported today. Core inflation (excluding price fluctuations in certain products caused by administrative and seasonal factors) stood at 0.8 percent in the past month and 7.6 percent in January-July.

RBC, 05.08.2008, Moscow 12:20:26.Investor expectations deteriorated in July, following the sharp criticism of the Russian metals and mining company Mechel made by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and concerns arose that political risks to investors would continue climbing in Russia, analysts at Merrill Lynch say. After Mechel had been charged with tax evasion and the implementation of an aggressive and dishonest pricing policy, investors became worried that it was an attempt to redistribute assets in favor of the government, similar to the expropriation of the now defunct YUKOS. Experts believe that although the Russian government has recently tried to reassure investors by several positive announcements, uncertainty will remain during the next few weeks. Freezing domestic coal and metal prices may become an important consequence of the assault on Mechel, analysts note.

RBC, 05.08.2008, Moscow 09:34:03.Severstal has completed the acquisition of the US steelmaker Esmark Inc. through a merger of the Russian company’s subsidiary Severstal Wheeling Acquisition Corp. with the US company. The integrated company’s name is Severstal Wheeling Holding Company, and Esmark’s shares will be de-listed from the Nasdaq.

RBC, 04.08.2008, Moscow 19:48:11.Russia’s Agriculture Ministry has proposed a series of measures to streamline the agricultural land policy which are to be considered at tomorrow’s meeting of the government’s agriculture commission, Deputy Agriculture Minister Alexander Petrikov told journalists today. Among other steps, the ministry suggests that land plots should be handed over to municipal governments after the death of their owners, fines for inefficient use or misuse of land should be increased, and the exact criteria for shifting land plots from one category to another should be clearly defined. To cut land development costs, the ministry suggests that subsidies from the federal and regional budgets should be introduced. These moves are to be implemented within a year. In the mid-term, the ministry proposes to reinforce the governments role in land development, set up a state agricultural land use monitoring system, build an agricultural land registry and restore soil fertility.