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OK, it looks as if Russia is trying to do to Georgia in re South Ossetia what NATO did to Serbia in re Kosovo; I'm a little surprised I haven't heard Russian politicians making the comparison explicit. Except that Kosovo did not seek immediate merger with Albania, whilst I suspect the resolution of the current mess may well have South Ossetia become part of Russia de jure rather than the current de-facto status.
Time to import more wine, maybe. My sympathies are generally with Georgia, small democracies starting off with quite a lot of points in their favour against Russia, except for the major detail that, as far as I can see, Georgia started this debacle. They can't have expected the Russians to behave other than they have, so what did they expect to achieve?
Has Lebanon been war-free for long enough to contemplate a visit? My plans for Easter 2009 are still unformed.
Time to import more wine, maybe. My sympathies are generally with Georgia, small democracies starting off with quite a lot of points in their favour against Russia, except for the major detail that, as far as I can see, Georgia started this debacle. They can't have expected the Russians to behave other than they have, so what did they expect to achieve?
Has Lebanon been war-free for long enough to contemplate a visit? My plans for Easter 2009 are still unformed.
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Date: 2008-08-10 06:22 am (UTC)Like much of the world, it's not a good place to worry about "who started it". But for Russia to claim (in I thought fairly explicit analogy with Kosovo) that the Georgians have been indulging in ethnic cleansing in a region which their army has been present as peace-keepers for years, and in which their army officers have been integrated into the South Ossetian government, is more than a bit rich.
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Date: 2008-08-10 07:34 am (UTC)I think the Russians made the comparison around the time that Kosovo actually declared independence?
Incidentally the thing about Kosovo that makes me twitchy is: if it's about self-determination, why are the majority-Serb bits that are contiguous with the rest of Serbia, being included in Kosovo?
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Date: 2008-08-10 07:44 am (UTC)what did they expect to achieve
Date: 2008-08-10 10:07 am (UTC)It would have been insane to imagine either that Russia would stand by, or that NATO wouldn't.
Georgia's decision-makers could of course be deluded, it wouldn't be the first time a war started that way.
Perhaps it was a deliberate attempt to make Russia play its hand now rather than at some point in the future.
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Date: 2008-08-10 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-10 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-11 07:46 am (UTC)