Backgrounder to the Russian invasion of Georgia
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Anonymous05 Sep 2008 08:37
Well done, Toomas.
You leave us with a mystery, however, when you state that the Georgians fell into the Russian trap. Tell us how the Georgians might have avoided it.
Toomas Merilo05 Sep 2008 10:53
Good point, some point out that a chess [i]checkmate[i] analogy might have been more precise. How could the trap have been avoided? Well, they point out that had Georgia not responded to the ever increasing numbers of Georgians killed by the “rebels”, its pro-western government would soon have been toppled. They did however respond. In either case [i]checkmate![i]

One doesn’t normally see a checkmate coming, but afterward analysis of the moves may be edifying. Exactly at what point did the Russian’s [i]checkmate[i] become manifest? Your move!

Seek first to understand.
hhhmmmmmmhh05 Sep 2008 12:38
Anonymous05 Sep 2008 13:25
The chess analogy is a good one.
Putin probably decided on this adventure when Kosovo got its independence. It was hardly spontaneous. Just to get the military units into place was a matter of a few months work.
The Georgians saw it coming, but there was nothing that they could do to prevent it.
When Putin finishes the job in Georgia, he'll be looking at the Baltics and the Ukraine.
ooooohhhhhhh05 Sep 2008 15:03
Maxim07 Sep 2008 12:55
It's really interesting watching the threads of a once positively-minded Canadian community who were hell bent on believing that nothing, but nothing could stop peace from being the one and only tool that would surpass all our past fears and trepidations, are now singing a completely different tune to a few years ago. I remember only too well the comments emanating here regarding my lack of confidence in the EU providing the necessary conditions of peace and security that most of my compatriots were only too gullible on swallowing hook, line and sinker, calling me some of the rudest and unprintable names one could imagine. And today? They have come round full circle and are now singing exactly the same tune I have been singing all along. Though they are slow learners, at least they get credit for acknowledging their mistakes in thinking too positively about the EU and NATO, who it seems are making constant amends with Russia and the only fools left at the round table are those who never in their wildest dreams could imagine that the Finnish President would rap Estonian over the knuckles for being overly critical of Russia. Friends-I welcome you to the fold and hope there are many more people who will soon begin to see the light from the darkness of EU hogwash!!!
Unanymous07 Sep 2008 13:36
Maxim -- how can you state that the names that you have been called here are unprintable? They were printed weren't they.
Your mind is such a mess.
Anonymous07 Sep 2008 21:44
"During the Russian fomented, funded and otherwise aided civil war, the minority Abkhazians drove out all other ethnicities except the Russians. They accomplished this via massive massacres and terror. This was ethnic cleansing. Abkhazia is today a depopulated region."

Reference please - that's a pretty serious claim. If true it should be widely circulated.
Toomas Merilo07 Sep 2008 22:15
A fairly accessible overview is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

The case finally reached the International Criminal Court (ICC) this year.
Toomas Merilo07 Sep 2008 22:27
Not unexpectedly, I hit the “send” button prematurely. For the UN resolution see:

http://www.un.org/News/Press/d...

And thanks for asking. Few have seemed to have been interested in the past.
also08 Sep 2008 07:23
Anonymous08 Sep 2008 23:38
Thanks for these links.
This background information should be compiled and sent to every newsroom in Canada and the US.
Mini10 Sep 2008 13:22
Maxim, your hyperbole and audactity are only exceeded by you bad memory. Estonians, yes applauded Estonia's accession to NATO and the EU, but retained a healthy skepticism as to their security guarantees and apprehension about the continuing intimidation from Moscow. Go back and read what was written at the time.
Maxim10 Sep 2008 16:15
Healthy skepticism?? That's a pretty stupid alternative to outright blasphemy! The fact is that I have been dogged to death about my comments being so critical of the EU and NATO that it has been suggested as the whether I even have a right to call myself a citizen of the EU. What my critics cannot respond to is the fact that since Georgia's crisis began, Ilves has been crying foul about European security-and rightly so-although the true is now out of the bag. And that is that no recently adopted EU state has ANY right to feel secure enough from attacks from Russia, since it is now abundantly clear that Europe cares enough about Russia to have her as an ongoing partner at all levels of interaction possible. Even Halonen said we have no right to be overly critical of Russia, and warned Estonia from taking too harsh a stand. There is enough change that has taken place to draw new security lines across Europe. NATO and the EU are making minced meat of their own policy by not being able to provide fully-backed guarantees to the Baltics that provocation from Russia will in no way result in a new occupation of these states. The EU is unable to provide any guarantees whatsoever against the possible reoccupation of Estonia from Russian troops. Period!
to Maxim11 Sep 2008 08:22
For your information, Maximahv, The EU is primarily an economic coalition. By contrast, NATO is a military pact.
For someone so stupid, you certainly know how to strut like a know-it-all.
from Parnu23 Sep 2008 09:35
I know that the EU was supposed to be an economic coalition...but why do you have to see the flags posted everywhere here which I've noticed while living here. I first I worried, that all it does is replace the red hammer & sickle flag. I am missing the Estonia that was Estonia when it got it's freedom back. When it didn't care who was who and what happened, just that they were free again. Now I feel like they pushed the buttons too far, defining our granparents & parents' labels of eachother again, and going overboard with the whole EU and NATO thing. I've spoken to many Esto's here, and despite their fears that Russia would want Estonia back and another invasion, there are many of them feeling the same way. And missing Ruutel!
Mini11 Sep 2008 08:55
Maxim, your analysis of the current security/insecurity paradigm is logical. What we resent is your constant harping on Estonians abroad who in your estimation are too gullible, naive and devoid of the political spohistication to spot power shifs as they occur. Sometimes distance provides a sharper focus of developments.
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