Current News UK | August 14, 2008 | 31 comments

Liveblogging from inside Georgia

source: http://georgiamfa.blogspot.com/

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superkiy
This is a pretty interesting perspective on the Russia-Georgia conflict.

This seems to be a legitimate blog set up by Georgia's Foreign Affairs Ministry to update people on events unfolding in Georgia.

They're keeping a record of the conversation between Russia and Georgia, and also documenting what they claim are specific instances of Russian violations of the ceasefire.

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31 comments // Liveblogging from inside Georgia

  • EddieStarr
    • 0
      EddieStarr  

    • It stinks that a conflict such as this could not be ended over a good lunch and handshake (or two) in decision that the people have sufferd enough and should not have to continue to bear more destruction.

    • 3 years ago
  • abbym0308
  • neocongo
    • 0
      neocongo  

    • LOL

      from the Fox clip:

      "There are gray areas in war, but only when our eye witness accounts happen to contradict our god damn talking points."

    • 3 years ago
  • mondoman102
    • 0
      mondoman102  

    • the russians know what they are doing. first they insure that money is coming in..i.e. pipe line, they control oil out of the entire eastern block.
      they build up their military, knowing that america is stretched to thin in afganistan and iraq, the resources are very low, moral is good but not up for another war in the eastern block. while china and russia are having an economic push, the, americans are loosing their homes jobs, all this was known in the government but to pig headed to do anything about it. russia know the the other nato countries will do nothing but talk. how sad that this administration has put us in this position. great job fellas, know we realy need to get our troops out of iraq and consolidate all our resources. we need to be moving to alternative energy, this will render russians pipeline less of a threat. macain says 'lets drill of the coast" knowing this will not help us anytime soon. the only answer is other forms of energy and feul.

    • 3 years ago
  • brad62
  • brad62
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  

    • Dear Brad62,

      The BBC neutral !!!???

      As in the selling of the Irak invasion you mean ?

      This must be brit humor at its best, some political Mont Python wraped into a Goon Show revival...

      Humor is the politness of despair said the optimist ;)

      The Doctrine of Blatancy works something like this: First identify our (USA’s corporations) area of benefit (where can we maximize our power and wealth?) Next look for locals who will collaborate with us to help achieve our ends. Of course there are always scraps from the table to be thrown to them. And most dogs are satisfied with that.

      Is that sad description is what the Bush Junta has reduced the bulldog to be...say it ain't so !

      I LOVE mother England !

      The best King was Queen Victoria ;)

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
  • brad62
    • 0
      brad62  
    • WhiteNoise:

      Sure, I'll grant you that. Like the BBC's 911 documentary.
      That was funny at best.
      But I'm talking about a source not coming from Russia, I.E. Pravda, U.S.A., I.E. Fox., Or a blog from Georgia

    • 3 years ago
  • sgirgis72
    • 0
      sgirgis72  

    • I think the interesting part of this story is not necessarily what is being said on the blog, you always have to look at these things with a critical eye, but the fact that all governments head to the web and implement technology wherever they can..the world is definitely shrinking.

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • Excerpt:

      In the spirit of spammers who seek "bullet-proof" hosting to remain online despite efforts to take their sites down, the president of Georgia's Web site has been moved to the state of Georgia in the United States to defend against threats real and virtual. It is presently being hosted by Tulip Systems in Atlanta, Ga.

      According to the Associated Press, Georgian-born Nino Doijashvili, CEO of Tulip Systems, happened to be vacationing in Georgia, the country, when fighting started on Friday. "She cold-called the government to offer her help and transferred president.gov.ge and rustavi2.com, the Web site of a prominent Georgian TV station, to her company's servers Saturday," the AP said.

      The president of Poland also has given Georgia space on his Web site to distribute official information.

      And Google has come to the rescue of Georgia, too. Ill-served by besieged local infrastructure, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has begun communicating through a blog hosted on Google's Blogger service.

    • 3 years ago
  • brad62
  • Vierotchka
  • SwiftlyTilt
    • 0
      SwiftlyTilt  
    • Vierotchka:

      But Russia also (although alledgedly) carried out Cyber attacks against Estonia, when it took down that statue of a Russian WWII soldier.

      It seems that Russia is just as likely to throw a reckless temper tantrum when things don't go its way.

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Vierotchka:

      There again, the cyber attacks against Estonia were shown not to stem from the Russian government at all, many of them came from Sweden. There is a very large minority of Estonians in Sweden, Estonians who had to flee Estonia because they were against Hitler and the Nazis while most Estonians were for Hitler and the Nazis, and slaughtered thousands of Jews.

    • 3 years ago
  • SwiftlyTilt
    • 0
      SwiftlyTilt  
    • Vierotchka:

      Do you have the article or know where I can find it, that states that most of the cyber attacks against Estonia, orginated from Sweden?

      I remember there was a bit of an issue with celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII, because of Estonia's support for the Nazis.

      Vierotchka, I hope you understand that I do not think that Russia is to blame for everything, but at the same time, like most "major" countries, including mine (the US), it recklessly pursues items on its agenda over the overall good for the global community.

      I think just as Russia has a justifiable fear of being encroached by the West (I really don't see the need for the early radar detection system in the Czech Republic), I think the West and countries such as Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania have a justifiable fear of Russia trying to maintain supremacy in what it considers its "sphere of influence..."

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Vierotchka:

      I didn't say most, I said many. I read about it at the time, I didn't bookmark it. If I have a bit of spare time, I'll do a search.

      The Baltic states have nothing to fear from Russia so long as they don't become Bush and Neocon whores and allow the US to install ballistic missiles aimed at Russia on their land in exchange for billions of dollars and weaponry.

    • 3 years ago
  • SwiftlyTilt
  • brad62
  • clayjj05
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  

    • He's not alone ;)

      Putin Walks into a Trap

      By Mike Whitney

      13/08/08 - The American-armed and trained Georgian army swarmed into South Ossetia last Thursday, killing an estimated 2,000 civilians, sending 40,000 South Ossetians fleeing over the Russian border, and destroying much of the capital, Tskhinvali. The attack was unprovoked and took place a full 24 hours before even ONE Russian soldier set foot in South Ossetia. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans still believe that the Russian army invaded Georgian territory first. The BBC, AP, NPR, the New York Times and the rest of the establishment media has consistently and deliberately misled its readers into believing that the violence in South Ossetia was initiated by the Kremlin.

      Let's be clear, it wasn't. In truth, there is NO dispute about the facts except among the people who rely the western press for their information. Despite its steady loss of credibility, the corporate media continues to operate as the propaganda-arm of the Pentagon.

      South Ossetia was a trap and Putin took the bait. Unfortunately for Bush, the wily Russian prime minister is considerably brighter than anyone in the current administration. Bush's plan will undoubtedly backfire and disrupt the geopolitical balance of power. The world might get that breather from the US after all.
      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20508.htm

      *************************************************************

      Whoever we are, where ever we're from, we should have noticed by now our behaviour is dumb, and if our chances are expected to improve, it's gonna take a lot more than trying to remove, the other race, or the other whatever, from the face of the planet altogether. We are dumb all over & a little ugly on the side.

      Some Scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. - Frank Zappa

      EXECUTIVE RESUME
      http://whitenoise.webnode.com/

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • If it is by Georgia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, it can only be propaganda and a very far cry from Citizen Journalism. It is known that since the cyber attacks, the Georgian government has moved its websites to blogspot.com - you seem to have walked straight into the trap.

    • 3 years ago
  • SwiftlyTilt
    • 0
      SwiftlyTilt  
    • Vierotchka:

      Good Morning Vierotchka,

      Still portraying Mother Russia as the victim I see.

      Unfortunately, I do agree with you that there is a difference between Citizen Journalism and a Government Blog. Briefly looking through the Georgian blog, it does seem that its biased toward their interpretation of events, which is to be expected. I'm sure Russia's version of events are not completly transparent and unbiased....

      However, I like how you mention the following:

      "It is known that since the cyber attacks, the Georgian government has moved its websites to blogspot.com "

      You mean the cyber attacks that Russian nationals (and possibly the Government) are orchestrating against Georgian sites? Especially the one where they have a photo montage of Saakashvili and Hitler... that's blatant propoganda, especially by your standards...

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Vierotchka:

      And with regard to facts, perhaps you might find this interesting:

      http://www.crn.com/security/210003769

      Russia Might Not Have Attacked Georgian Websites, Researchers Say

      Security researchers say that the recent cyber attack on Georgian Websites might have been initiated by random hackers, not from the Russian government, as previously thought.

      In the wake of the Russian military attacks perpetrated against Georgia last week, Georgian government Websites, including the official site of President Mikheil Saakashvili, as well as other news sites were pummeled with defacement and denial of service attacks that effectively halted the nation's ability to disseminate information about the crisis.

      Following last week's bombings, the Georgian Foreign Ministry issued a report accusing the Russian government of waging a cyber war and redirected viewers to a new domain.

      "A cyber warfare campaign by Russia is seriously disrupting many Georgian websites, including that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a blog post.

      Some security researchers corroborated that the cyber attack initially appeared to originate in Russia. Other security researchers suspected the notorious criminal underground organization Russian Business Network of initiating the cyber attacks.

      RBNexploits, a blog site which tracks RBN activity, claimed that Georgian servers had been taken under Russian control as of Thursday and warns viewers that the information may be fraudulent.

      "Conventionally they are normally adept at trying to hide their true origins. For such a siege on the scale of this one they are openly showing more of their routing than they would like to, which will assist us now and in the future. In this case it helped pin point some obviously forged web sites, which are now offline, and assist in rerouting. Good lessons for future cyber wars," it said.

      Yet despite what Georgian officials proclaim as an outright information war on its cyber infrastructure, other security researchers contend that there so far is not enough solid evidence to confirm where the attacks were sourced and by whom.

      "Many outlets are claiming that the Russian government is behind the attacks, but no one seems to have any proof," said Mike Johnson, blogger for cyber watchdog group ShadowServer Foundation, in a blog post. "Unfortunately, we have no proof either. And we have no proof to the contrary. What I can say, without a doubt, is that only the perpetrators know for sure who is behind it."

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Vierotchka:

      As for the photo montage of Saakashvili and Hitler... that's not exactly blatant propoganda, especially by my standards, that's childish hatred and totally inept. Much as I detest Hitler with all my being, I have to admit that Hitler actually fought with great honour and courage on the front in WWI, which is a damn site more than Saakashvili can lay claim to. Saakashvili is simply a cheap Bush whore.

    • 3 years ago
  • SwiftlyTilt
  • Vierotchka
  • joshuaheller
    • 0
      joshuaheller  
    • Image

    • New technology and blogging make Citizen Journalism possible. It's time like this, that bloggers give the best insight into a crisis. This story hasn't really been picked up by any other news sources.

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
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