The Russians claim they just want to help the separatists in South Ossetia. But if you look at the map, the attacks cover much of country, including pipelines that supply 1% of the world's oil supply. It's hard to believe the Russia's superior forces couldn't secure South Ossetia without crippling the entire Georgian economy.
Daily Mail-Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili called for a ceasefire and accused Moscow of mounting an unprovoked invasion that put ‘the entire post-Cold War order of Europe and the world at stake’.
But Moscow said that the conflict could not be resolved unless Georgia withdrew from its breakaway region of South Ossetia. The alarming developments followed a second day of drama and bloodshed in the pro-Western country in which:
• Russian jets widened the
offensive by bombing the central Georgian town of Gori – Joseph
Stalin’s birthplace – in an attack on military targets that Georgian
authorities claimed killed 60 civilians, and attacked the port of Poti.
•
Georgia claimed that Russian troops had opened a new front by moving
into another disputed province, Abkhazia, which has also suffered from
ethnic tensions.
• Georgia declared a state of war, recalled all its
2,000 troops from Iraq and ordered a mass call-up with reservists being
sent to the war zone to ‘defend the motherland’.
• Russia claimed
that it had ‘completely liberated’ the capital of South Ossetia
Tskhinvali – a claim denied by Georgia – after flying in elite troops
in an operation Moscow said was intended to force Georgia into a
ceasefire.
• Georgia claimed to have shot down 12 Russian combat aircraft – but Moscow confirmed that only two planes were missing.
•
Georgia may pull its 35-strong Olympic team out of the Beijing games
because of the Russian military attacks, the country’s National Olympic
Committee said.
The Russians are asking the Georgian government to withdraw from their own territory.
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As you can see, the air strikes in Poti are about as far from South Ossetia as one can get, and Georgia's tiny military is grossly over matched.
Russia's invasion of Georgia strikes a blow to the West on many levels. In addition to the aforementioned oil pipeline, support in Iraq of 2000 troops, and attempts to join NATO make the tiny former province of the USSR an irresistible target for Putin.
(...) the Georgian parliament has approved a presidential decree declaring a state of war for 15 days against Russia.
Meanwhile, at the Olympics...
The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he witnessed a heated discussion between the two leaders.
‘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,’ he said.
Mr Putin later accused Georgia of seeking ‘bloody adventures’ and trying to drag other countries into a military conflict in South Ossetia.
‘Georgia’s aspiration to join Nato... is driven by its attempt to drag other nations and peoples into its bloody adventures,’ Mr Putin said during a meeting in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, some of which was shown on TV.
It appears the Russians are using a divide and conquer strategy to restore it's USSR borders.
Global Security-The military actions in South Ossetia are not just a confrontation between Georgia and its breakaway republic, says Viktor Mizin, a political analyst from the Institute of Strategic Assessment in Moscow. “What we see here is not just a confrontation of minor republics but probably the confrontation between, I am sorry to say that, Moscow and the entire West because now Russia is basically protecting its clients and its own citizens. Up to 80 per cent of South Ossetian population have Russian passports,” Mizin says.
GS also has background on Abkhazia.
Strategypage has more background and an update on the Russia/Georgia conflict.
