Sunday, August 10, 2008

Goliath wins


No shocker here; in my dictionary this is called a retreat. The best reason is on the right.
Georgia says its troops have withdrawn from the breakaway region of South Ossetia and that Russian forces are in control of its capital, Tskhinvali.

An government spokesman told the BBC it was not a military defeat but a necessary step to protect civilians.

But a Russian military spokesman said Georgia had not withdrawn its forces and the situation remained tense.

Russian PM Vladimir Putin has suggested it is unlikely that South Ossetia will re-integrate with the rest of Georgia.

Meanwhile, Russian warships are being deployed to impose a naval blockade on Georgian ports on the Black Sea coast to prevent arms and military shipments, Russian media reports say.

Georgia says an additional 10,000 Russian soldiers have crossed into South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region.
I don't think this is quite over. The bear is not sated.


UPDATE: Nope, not even close.
Separatist authorities in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia mobilized the army and called up reservists Sunday to drive Georgian government forces out of the small part of the province still under Georgian control.

The move dramatically raises the stakes in the conflict between Georgia and Russia over another separatist province, South Ossetia. With most Georgian troops concentrated on fighting Russian troops in South Ossetia, it could be hard for Georgia to repel the Abkhazian offensive.

In addition, Russia troops were seen moving through Abkahzia toward the border with Georgia, which lies on the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia.
...and NATO and the USA won't do anything about it. Not a thing but talk; and Russia knows it.
UPDATE II - Electric Boogaloo: I'm watching oil prices on Monday.
The conflict in the Caucasus today spread to Georgia's second breakaway province of Abkhazia, where separatist rebels and the Russian air force launched an all-out attack on Georgian forces.

Abkhazia's pro-Moscow separatist leader Sergei Bagapsh said his troops had launched a major "military operation" to force Georgian troops out of the mountainous Kodori gorge, which Georgian forces control as a strategic foothold in the breakaway Black Sea territory.

He said "around 1,000 special Abkhaz troops" were involved. They were attacking and pounding Georgian positions using "warplanes, multiple rocket launchers and artillery", he said.
...
Georgia said Russia had landed 4,000 troops in Abkhazia last night - a subtropical exclave on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, which abuts the Russian resort town of Sochi,
where Vladimir Putin has his summer residence.
...
Ukraine also warned that it might not allow Russian ships deployed off Abkhazia to return to their base in the Crimea.

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