Kevin Drum links to an article by Jonathan Landay indicating that the United States did its best to restrain Georgia, and that while it anticipated a strong Russia reaction within South Ossetia, it didn’t foresee the larger Russian counter-offensive. This runs strongly counter to Adrian Bloomfield’s Telegraph account, which suggests that the US gave tacit […]
Tag: confrontation in the caucases
The Times has a fairly grim account of the Georgian retreat from Gori: The Georgian Army was in complete disarray last night after troops and tanks fled the town of Gori in panic and abandoned it to t
For what it’s worth. What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed
Fox News (which has been solid on this thus far): Russian forces swept across Georgia on Monday, capturing the town of Gori and moving to within 35 miles of the capital city Tbilisi, FOX News confirmed. Georgia reportedly was rushing more than 1,000 troops to Tbilisi in anticipation of a battle with Russian troops. Russian […]
For alcoholics, angry loners, and the unemployable who happen to have 50 minutes to kill…. Heilbrunn is a little bit more Realist than myself, but I think that we have pretty similar instincts r
A brief round-up; I’ll have more tomorrow on Russia-NATO and Russia-US relations specifically. At this point the situation in Georgia doesn’t seem to have changed radically from what it wa
This looks like a surrender to me: Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said its soldiers were observing a cease-fire on orders of the president and declared the move in a note handed over to Russia’s envoy to Tbilisi. A spokesman for the Russian Embassy confirmed the Georgian note was received; the Russian Foreign Ministry had no immediate […]
I am told by a source that Izvestiya is claiming that an American working with Georgian forces has been captured by the Russians. Here’s the link; as I don’t read Russian, I can’t co
The plot to distract the world from the glory of the 2008 Olympic Games continues to unfold: Russia has not accepted Georgia’s cease fire offer. Georgia claims to have fully withdrawn from South
Bringing you the news the other blogs won’t [okay; some of them will]… Here are some questions, and some attempts at answers. What are the latest developments? The fighting continues, including airstrikes near the main Georgian oil pipeline and in the port city of Poti, which is a major oil export terminal. Putin has indicated […]
Last post was getting a little clogged… The NYT is reporting a bunch of interesting stuff, not least this: The de facto government of pro-Russian Abkhazia asked United Nations peacekeepers to de
Your morning Confrontation in the Caucasus (somebody tell me if CNN picks up that catchy alliteration, so I can sue) update: Georgia claims to have shot down ten Russian aircraft; the Russians say the