Russia steps up to the plate
puremagic
Posts: 1,907
Russia recognizes independence of Georgia's breakaway regions
By DOUGLAS BIRCH
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Russia stunned the West on Tuesday by recognizing the independence claims of two Georgian breakaway regions — South Ossetia and Abhkazia — and U.S. warships delivering aid plied the waters off Georgia in a gambit that the Kremlin saw as gunboat diplomacy.
The announcement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ignored the strong opposition of Europe and the U.S.
"We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a cold war," Medvedev said hours after announcing the Kremlin’s decision and one day after the Russian parliament had supported the recognition.
While the risk of a military clash with the West seemed remote, the lack of high-level public diplomacy between the White House and the Kremlin added to an uneasy sense here of an escalating crisis.
Medvedev’s grim announcement, carried on national television, inspired jubilation on the streets of the rebel capitals. In the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, a parade of cars bearing the South Ossetian and Russian flags blared their horns, women cried for joy and gunmen fired their weapons in the air.
The United States threatened a veto in the U.N. Security Council if Russia asks for international recognition for the territories.
"Abkhazia and South Ossetia are a part of the internationally recognized borders of Georgia and it’s going to remain so," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. President Bush called the Russian move "irresponsible."
Few other countries seem likely to follow the Kremlin’s lead.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, denounced the U.S. use of a Navy destroyer and a Coast Guard cutter to deliver aid to Georgia’s Black Sea coast. "Normally battleships do not deliver aid," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dryly told reporters in English, apparently confusing the word "warship" with "battleship."
The U.S. said it intends to deliver humanitarian aid by ship today to the beleaguered Georgian port city of Poti, which Russian troops still control through checkpoints on the city’s outskirts.
By DOUGLAS BIRCH
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Russia stunned the West on Tuesday by recognizing the independence claims of two Georgian breakaway regions — South Ossetia and Abhkazia — and U.S. warships delivering aid plied the waters off Georgia in a gambit that the Kremlin saw as gunboat diplomacy.
The announcement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ignored the strong opposition of Europe and the U.S.
"We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a cold war," Medvedev said hours after announcing the Kremlin’s decision and one day after the Russian parliament had supported the recognition.
While the risk of a military clash with the West seemed remote, the lack of high-level public diplomacy between the White House and the Kremlin added to an uneasy sense here of an escalating crisis.
Medvedev’s grim announcement, carried on national television, inspired jubilation on the streets of the rebel capitals. In the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, a parade of cars bearing the South Ossetian and Russian flags blared their horns, women cried for joy and gunmen fired their weapons in the air.
The United States threatened a veto in the U.N. Security Council if Russia asks for international recognition for the territories.
"Abkhazia and South Ossetia are a part of the internationally recognized borders of Georgia and it’s going to remain so," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. President Bush called the Russian move "irresponsible."
Few other countries seem likely to follow the Kremlin’s lead.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, denounced the U.S. use of a Navy destroyer and a Coast Guard cutter to deliver aid to Georgia’s Black Sea coast. "Normally battleships do not deliver aid," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dryly told reporters in English, apparently confusing the word "warship" with "battleship."
The U.S. said it intends to deliver humanitarian aid by ship today to the beleaguered Georgian port city of Poti, which Russian troops still control through checkpoints on the city’s outskirts.
SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
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Yes there are governments out there that would kill us for what we post on this message board but guess what I don't live in that country, I live in this one. So I focus on what is broken in my own backyard before I go pointing fingers at my neighbor. While some people on this board may whine over everything and will never be content, the majority have merit to their complaints. This country was founded on an ideal and a philosophy that we are no longer abiding by or living up to. So while some are content with just letting our federal government wipe it's ass with our Constitution and questioning the loyalty/patriotism of those that stand up. Many on this message board are not of that mindset.
Yeah... that'll teach them for exercising their rights.
Maybe we should send the people who want to vote for someone that you disagree with to North Korea, so they can really see what voting is all about.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Believe you me, we have more freedom than you do.
Can I resolve your debate just saying that my country is actually in the worst position right now?
yes because the problem is not knowing that you cannot speak out... the problem is when you live in a country known as a place of freedom of speach... but then you choose not to speak out simply because you know that at any attempt to say a simple truth like, for exemple... "Prodi was like Berlusconi!!!!", or... "a census of gipsies means racism!!!", or... "to have military check points in our towns is against our constitution!!!!"..... then you would look like the devil in person, an alien, a body snatcher... so the only chance you have is just to shut up... :-o
PS.: Georgia, by the way, is not in a better position... look how all the media are spreading all the lies of their president... hell, he almost looks like berlusconi.....
I simply cannot understand why people have to put their noses in something that doesn't concern them without even cleaning in their own backyard beforehand.
Saakashvili is fucking psycho. To say that he resembles Berlusconi is to sayy nothing. I'd say he's more of a Hitler-type motherfucker.
I totally agree... I just dont see much difference between Saakashvili, Putin, Bush and Berlusconi.... the difference is only how big their power is, and what they have to gain by doing this or that..... you are right about the noses, but it seems they have more concerns than us simple people have.... sic!
So why the fuck was Russia invading a soverign country?
All I see is Russia trying to gain some sort of pseudo-Soviet glory about 20 years after the fact by fighting a tiny nation it can't possibly loose against. It was a stacked war in which Russia could do nothing but win.
mainly? Insearch of a warm water port with access to the med, and there are a few oil and gas pipelines they would like to control in the region. Same reason most countries get into conflicts.... resources.
Speaking of ivading a soverign nation and having an easy win.....When is the US getting out of Iraq for starters.
Funny how the US/Israel arm and train and probably goaded Georgia to start this little war and then have the nerve to mouth off about it. Oil, oil, oil, that is why the States have their nose in Georgia and don't like what Russia is doing.
Searchlightsoul, wake up. The matrix has you.
Simply because the US fucked up doesn't make it A Ok for Russia to do the same. But the whole idea of "pre-emption" the US set did make a nice precedent for more of this crap.
I would argue that since I'm not living in either the US or Russia I've got a much less biased perspective than yourself.
No it dosen't. But you can't have it YOUR way and nobody else is going to play the game. I still can't figure out that the people in the States think they own the world and what they do should not be done by any other nation.
You do remember how pissed off the US government was when Russia wanted to put some fun in Cuba. Well using your logic the last thing that the US should have done was sign a pact with Poland. Right!!