On May 2, 8:18=A0am, "Henry Alminas" <halmi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> ... space" matushka is in the process
> of engulfing her neighbors yet one
> more time. =A0These activities need to
> be closely monitored by the Balts. =A0Akin
> to the case in Georgia matushka planted
> great numbers of her colonizing
> kiddies in the Baltics (post war) =A0and has been
> making noises about "protecting her
> compatriots" for some time now.
>
> One should note, however, that rather than
> the "bull in the china shop" approach used
> in Georgia they are engaged much more
> subtle moves.
>
> Why - one might ask. =A0The answer is very
> simple the Baltic countries are in NATO
> - even if largely symbolically. =A0Thus the
> Kremlin is not quite sure as to the reaction
> of this organization to its more crass (and
> more natural for russkies) activities. =A0As a
> result it has restricted itself to doing "spade
> work" in preparation of getting the Baltic
> countries into a Georgian position. =A0It is
> investing massive efforts (and funds) in
> driving a wedge between the Baltic countries
> and other club members within NATO as
> well as the EU. =A0This effort has been but
> moderately successful. =A0 On the other hand
> the Kremlin has lots of time.
>
> Certainly Europe, Rather than being mesmerized
> by the ****ographic spectacle of the ongoing
> krautoid-russkie fornication, needs to wake
> up and understand that the Kremlin is playing
> the same old russkie game - a game that has not
> even gained much in sophistication over the many
> centuries.
>
> Surely even in societies, completely submerged
> within a "I got mine/wanna get mine" mentality,
> there must be =A0individuals with enough
> intelligence to recognize the game and enough
> intestinal fortitude to condemn it and counteract
> it.
>
> That is all I ask.
>
> Best - - Henry
>
> For educational purposes only:
>
> From: The Jamestown Foundation
> (Eurasia Daily Monitor)
>
> ANNEXATION AND MILITARIZATION OF
> ABKHAZIA CONTINUE APACE
> By Vladimir Socor
> Thursday, May 1, 2008
>
> Russia has again challenged Georgia and the West in Abkhazia,
> this time with military action. Its first challenge had been
> President Vladimir Putin''s April 16 decree, authorizing direct
> official relations between Russian government bodies and the
> secessionist authorities in Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia
> =A0regions (see EDM, April 18). This unilateral move
> amounted to official ""legal"" recognition in terms of Russian
> law, formalizing Russia''s de facto annexation policy in the
> two territories.
>
> This move is now being followed up with overt militarization
> and cross-border acts of aggression in Abkhazia.
>
> On April 20 a Russian MIG-29 fighter plane shot down a
> Georgian unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle (UAV) over
> =A0the Gali district in southern Abkhazia, deep inside the
> internationally recognized Georgian territory and airspace.
> The Israeli-made, Georgian- operated UAV is an unarmed drone,
> =A0merely a flying photographic and video camera, used by
> Georgia ''s Internal Affairs Ministry to ascertain Russian
> military movements in Abkhazia. The drone transmitted in
> =A0real time the images of the Russian plane approaching and
> firing an air-to-air missile at the UAV. Posted by Georgian
> =A0authorities on you.tube, the film corroborates Georgian radar
> data tracking that same MIG-29 as it gained altitude over the
> Russian-held Gudauta military airfield, flying over the Gali
> district and then turning north into Russian airspace. Georgia
> =A0immediately proposed to Russia to exchange radar and any
> other data on the incident. As of April 30 the Russian side
> had not responded (Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
> statements, April 21, 26, 30; Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
> statement, April 29).
>
> Moscow claims that any one of the new NATO member
> countries with residual MIG inventories might have staged
> the incident in order to provoke Russia. Minister of Foreign
> Affairs Sergei Lavrov told this tale to the European Union
> during high-level meetings on overall EU-Russia relations
> on April 29 and 30 in Luxemburg (Interfax, April 29, 30). This
> claim brings a slight variation to the master theme that
> Georgia fires at Georgian targets in order to accuse Russia,
> as Moscow insisted after the Russian air attacks in March
> and August 2007 over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, respectively.
>
> Unwittingly contradicting Moscow''s version of the April 20
> incident, Abkhaz authorities were quick to claim that they had
> themselves shot down the Georgian UAV (Apsnypress, April
> 21). Although inherently absurd, this claim could have prompted
> international inquiries to Russia about its illegal arms deliveries
> to Abkhaz proxy forces, inside the internationally recognized
> Georgian territory. Such inquiries have yet to come, however.
>
> By shooting down the UAV, Moscow almost certainly aimed
> to reduce Georgian (and, by implication, Western) ability to
> monitor the next Russian military moves into Abkhazia,
> which have been underway since at least April 29. On that date
> =A0Russian convoys of artillery, armored vehicles, and additional
> troop units crossed the internationally recognized Russia-
> Georgia border at the Psou River, into the secessionist territory.
> Moscow has announced that its troops opened and are manning
> a number of new ""border checkpoints"" on what Moscow
> described as a Russian-Abkhazian border, which is actually the
> =A0Russian-Georgian border in international law (Interfax, April 29,
30).
>
> Moscow claims, as Lavrov told the EU in the Luxemburg meeting,
> to be ""preventing bloodshed"" and ""protecting Russia''s citizens""
> in Abkhazia, in response to Georgian troop deployments in the
> upper Kodori Valley. The United Nations Observer Mission in
> Georgia (UNOMIG), however, indirectly refuted that accusation
> by announcing that it had not observed any such Georgian troop
> deployments. UNOMIG monitors the area alongside Russia''s own
> =A0""peacekeeping"" troops. On the whole, Moscow ****trays its latest
> military moves as an increase in its ""peacekeeping"" operation.
> =A0Russia did not prenotify, let alone request consent from, the legally
> =A0sovereign Georgian government or any international organization.
>
> These moves violate multiple international legal norms and
> specific agreements. Russia''s ""peacekeeping"" operation is
> nominally a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
> operation, an illusion accepted for convenience by the UN.
> =A0Although this cover does not make the Russian operation a
> legal one in any sense (the CIS has no authority to mandate
> peacekeeping operations), any additions to the operation
> would necessitate approval by CIS countries'' heads of state,
> =A0at least on paper. Aware that it could not muster such approval,
> Moscow has moved unilaterally, thus discrediting both the
> CIS in its pur****ted peacekeeping role and the UN for its
> =A0acceptance of that pretense.
>
> Furthermore, Moscow is now openly erasing an internationally
> recognized border through military force. It also exacerbates its
> =A0continuing breach of the Treaty on Conventional Forces
> in Europe (CFE) by augmenting the Russian heavy weaponry
> in Abkhazia, which is also Georgian territory from that treaty''s
> point of view. Russia has deployed ""unaccounted-for treaty-limited
> equipment"" (UTLE) in Abkhazia and other secessionist territories
> =A0for the past decade, above treaty ceilings and beyond international
> verification. Some of that hardware (as well as lighter weaponry)
> =A0has been placed at the disposal of unlawful secessionist forces.
> Russia also holds onto the Gudauta base and is apparently using
> it, despite Moscow''s 1999 commitment to vacate the base by 2001.
>
> International and Western organizations have, on the whole, tacitly
> =A0tolerated Russian militarization measures in Abkhazia from the
> 1990s to now. These organizations and leading Western nations
> =A0will risk their credibility if they continue such tolerance after
Mosco=
w''s
> latest, overtly military moves.
Note the kremlin blubbering behavior...
'Nyet nyet.. you cannot violate the sacred international borders of
Serbian Kosovo...'
-but-
'Da da.. we must send in our soldati to protect the puppet controlled
rebel regions of Georgia...'
|
