tagged w/ Mikhail Saakashvili
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Hey everyone - It's Tuesday. A couple of stories for you today and some links below. I'm definitely interested in hearing your opinions on the war in Afghanistan. Do you think it's going well? Do you think the US should still be there? Do you think American public opinion still supports it?Hey everyone - It's Tuesday. A couple of stories for you today and some links below.... more
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Engdahl: NATO exercises in Georgia are a provocative move against Russia by the Pentagon.
The Real News Network spoke to William F. Engdahl, economist and author of Full Spectrum Dominance. Engdahl says that the NATO exercises in Georgia are provocative to Russia because of the uncovered fact that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was behind the offensive in South Ossetia last August, while he was in the process of applying for NATO membership. Engdahl also says that the NATO countries are interested in securing alternatives to the Russian stronghold over European oil and explains that the missile defense program NATO wishes to install in Eastern Europe and Georgia has less to do with Iran than Russia.
F William Engdahl is an economist and author and the writer of the best selling book "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order." Mr Engdhahl has written on issues of energy, politics and economics for more than 30 years, beginning with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. Mr. Engdahl contributes regularly to a number of publications including Asia Times Online, Asia, Inc, Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine; Freitag and ZeitFragen newspapers in Germany and Switzerland respectively. He is based in Germany.Engdahl: NATO exercises in Georgia are a provocative move against Russia by the... more
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NATO drills, Russian bases, opposition blockades and military mutinies: A radical solution for Georgia.
"I am a Georgian. So I don't speak for Russian or US interests," says renowned Georgian newspaper Publisher Malkhaz Gulashvili. As Georgia and the surrounding region undergo further militarization by the two superpowers, Gulashvili provides a radical proposal to help create a peaceful and independent Georgia.
Malkhaz Gulashvili is the Owner and Publisher of the Georgian Times, a newspaper from Tbilisi, Georgia that is published in Georgian, Russian and English.
See Part 1 at:
http://current.com/items/90028350_the-georgian-trap-part-1.htm
See Part 2 at:
http://current.com/items/90028379_the-georgian-trap-part-2.htmNATO drills, Russian bases, opposition blockades and military mutinies: A radical... more
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Malkhaz Gulashvili: The US strategy was to initiate the process of Russia's disintegration.
Earlier this winter, Real News Senior Editor Paul Jay was in the Republic of Georgia to find out more about the roots of that country's August 2008 war with Russia. Here is the second part of his interview with renowned Georgian newspaper publisher, Malkhaz Gulashvili. One outcome of the war was Russia's recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, something Russia was previously unwilling to do. Gulashvili believes that this was an objective of the United States, as it will inspire existing independence movements in other Russian territories, leading to the inevitable disintegration of Southern Russia. In support of this view, violence between independence fighters and Russian forces in the Northern Caucasus has grown significantly since the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The important thing for Gulashvili, is that Georgia never again be the location where the US and Russia work out their energy conflicts through war.
Malkhaz Gulashvili is the Owner and Publisher of the Georgian Times, a newspaper from Tbilisi, Georgia that is published in Georgian, Russian and English.
See Part 1 at:
http://current.com/items/90028350_the-georgian-trap-part-1.htm
See Part 3 at:
http://current.com/items/90028397_life-between-empires-the-georgian-trap-part-3.htmMalkhaz Gulashvili: The US strategy was to initiate the process of Russia's... more
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As thousands demanded Saakashvili's resignation, Paul Jay investigated the roots of the 2008 Russia-Georgia War.
For five straight days, thousands of Georgians filled the capital of Tbilisi demanding the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili. Saakashvili is under fire for his handling of the August 2008 war with Russia. Real News Senior Editor Paul Jay was in Georgia earlier this winter looking to better understand the causes of conflict in this resource-rich region.
Malkhaz Gulashvili is the Owner and Publisher of the Georgian Times, a newspaper from Tbilisi, Georgia that is published in Georgian, Russian and English.
See Part 2 at:
http://current.com/items/90028379_the-georgian-trap-part-2.htm
See Part 3 at:
http://current.com/items/90028397_life-between-empires-the-georgian-trap-part-3.htmAs thousands demanded Saakashvili's resignation, Paul Jay investigated the roots of... more
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Independent OSCE observers are refuting Georgian claims of Russia's "unprovoked aggression". These claims, if you remember, are central to the West's support of Saakashvili (who's seen as having his hand forced by tricksy Russians) and denouncements of Putin/Medvedev "disproportinal" response.
NYT wrote:
TBILISI, Georgia — Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.
Georgia moved forces toward the border of the breakaway region of South Ossetia on Aug. 7, at the start of what it called a defensive war with separatists there and with Russian forces.
Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.Independent OSCE observers are refuting Georgian claims of Russia's "unprovoked... more
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Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili said the victory of either Barack Obama or John McCain would satisfy him, Interfax reported.
According to Saakashvili, he spotted the most correct theses about Georgia in the program of Barack Obama, while John McCain and Obama’s mate Joe Biden (whom Saakashvili called the vice president) were the long friends of Georgia.
We’ve got $1 billion and a few more billions from Europe thanks to the personal impact of Sen Biden, Saakashvili said.
The friendship of John McCain and Mikheil Saakashvili is no news. Two policymakers even water-skied in 2006.
Democrat Barack Obama has defeated Republican John McCain to make history as the first black to be elected U.S. president.
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I think the poor man is somewhat deluded - Biden had absolutely nothing to do with the EU's contribution to Georgia. I also think he is simply trying to save face, he must be sorely disappointed that his best American buddies, neocons John McCain and Georgia-paid lobbyist Randy Scheunemann, were so soundly defeated. He has recently sacked the top general of the Georgian army and reshuffled his cabinet, putting the blame on all but himself for Georgia's defeat in its reckless and stupid attack and war of aggression on South Ossetia. He is currently facing a great deal of criticism, and the opposition is quite vociferous in its criticism of and attacks on Saakashvili.Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili said the victory of either Barack Obama or... more
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William Engdahl: Russia's response to Georgia's offensive sends shock-waves throughout the region. Part 1 of 2
Russia flexed its military might over the weekend, testing a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile. The tests come amid increasingly strained ties between Washington and Moscow, following US ally Georgia’s military offensive in South Ossettia in August. Author and Political Economist William Engdahl says " Russia's response to Georgia's military offensive has sent shockwaves throughout the region."
F William Engdahl is an economist and author and the writer of the best selling book "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order." Mr Engdhahl has written on issues of energy, politics and economics for more than 30 years, beginning with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. Mr. Engdahl contributes regularly to a number of publications including Asia Times Online, Asia, Inc, Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine; Freitag and ZeitFragen newspapers in Germany and Switzerland respectively. He is based in Germany.
See Part 2 at: http://current.com/items/89412399_europe_fumes_over_wall_street_meltdown
William Engdahl: Russia's response to Georgia's offensive sends shock-waves throughout... more
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An influential group of Georgian opposition leaders has mounted a blistering political campaign against U.S.-backed President Mikheil Saakashvili, accusing his government of running an autocratic regime that tramples human rights and stifles democracy.
The timing could embarrass the Bush administration, which is pressing NATO members to approve an action plan for Georgia — a key step toward full membership — at the organization's meeting in December.
The claims by many in the opposition, some of which have been affirmed by a top Georgian human-rights official, go to the heart of Washington's rationale for backing Saakashvili as a democratic force in a region where Russia is trying to re-establish dominance.
Saakashvili had widespread support even among the opposition immediately after the August war with Russia, but the country's domestic problems were quick to resurface, said Salome Zurabishvili, who previously served as foreign minister under Saakashvili.
"The balance has shifted," she said. "The main problem for Georgia is a lack of democracy."
Zurabishvili, like other opposition leaders, emphasized that she's pro-Western and doesn't support Russia, which seized two Georgian rebel enclaves and marched its forces within 25 miles of Tbilisi during the invasion.
"I think the big confusion in the American policy . . . is to confuse support for a country and its democracy with the support for a small group of people," Zurabishvili said of Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, and his allies.
The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, which monitors the government's human rights record, had no comment for this story.
Other opposition members, especially those in parliament, strike a softer tone.
"Of course we disagree about a lot of things with the president's party, but we agree about" the need to maintain cooperation with Saakashvili after the war with Russia, said Gia Tortladze, an opposition member in parliament.
Saakashvili has said repeatedly that he's committed to building a democratic state. He told the U.N. General Assembly last month that his government is launching "expanded democratic initiatives" that include greater independence for the parliament and judiciary, greater funding for opposition parties and a series of legal reforms including jury trials and lifetime judicial appointments. It will amount to a "Second Rose Revolution," he said, referring to the 2003 movement that ousted pro-Russian leadership.
His opponents are unconvinced, however.
While Georgians have more freedoms today than they did under Soviet rule, Saakashvili's critics say that in the years since the Rose Revolution, he's dramatically consolidated state power under his office, taken control of national television and demonized his opponents.
"He is building an authoritarian regime here," said Levan Gachechiladze, an opposition candidate for president earlier this year who finished second with about 25 percent of the vote. "The West closed its eyes because they were not ready . . . to change their so-called democratic star."
Saakashvili's unchecked centralization of power, people such as Gachechiladze maintain, allowed the president to launch an ill-advised military strike against the separatist region of North Ossetia in August. That move led to a five-day war with Russia that ended in crushing defeat.
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More at link.An influential group of Georgian opposition leaders has mounted a blistering political... more
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By Charles Clover
A powerful car bomb exploded yesterday near a military base used by Russian peacekeeping troops in Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, killing at least seven and injuring three, writes Charles Clover in Moscow.
It was the worst act of violence since the end of the war in mid-August, and threatened a fragile peace accord in which Russia has pledged to withdraw its troops from positions in central Georgia and back to South Ossetia and Abkhazia by October 10. Russian officials said they were still investigating the blast. Some feared it could be used to justify any delay in the withdrawal.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008By Charles Clover
A powerful car bomb exploded yesterday near a military base used... more
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Five weeks after the war in the Caucasus the mood is shifting against Georgian President Saakashvili. Some Western intelligence reports have undermined Tbilisi's version of events and there are now calls on both sides of the Atlantic for an independent investigation.
(long story continued at link)Five weeks after the war in the Caucasus the mood is shifting against Georgian... more
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Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had long planned a military strike to seize back the breakaway region of South Ossetia but executed it poorly, making it easy for Russia to retaliate, Saakashvili's former defence minister said.
Irakly Okruashvili, Georgia's leading political exile, said in a weekend interview in Paris that the United States was partly to blame for the war, having failed to check the ambitions of what he called a man with democratic failings.
Saakashvili's days as president were now numbered, he said.
The former defence minister's remarks are significant because Saakashvili has always maintained Russia started the war by invading his country. The Georgian president said he handed EU leaders last week "very strong proof" that Moscow was to blame, though he did not give details.
But Okruashvili, a close Saakashvili ally who served as defence minister from 2004 to 2006, said he and the president worked together on military plans to invade South Ossetia and a second breakaway region on the Black Sea coast, Abkhazia.
"Abkhazia was our strategic priority, but we drew up military plans in 2005 for taking both Abkhazia and South Ossetia as well," Okruashvili said.
There was no immediate reaction from Saakashvili's officials to his remarks.
While in office, Okruashvili was an outspoken hawk, overseeing a military buildup and calling for Georgia to take back South Ossetia -- his birthplace -- by force.
But in the interview he fiercely criticized Saakashvili's handling of the war, which he said was launched in haste, without diplomatic support and failed to take account of a build-up of Russian forces in the region.
(more below)Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had long planned a military strike to seize... more
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McCain's neocon foreign policy adviser has been a lobbyist for arms companies & Saakashvili's Georgia.
Randy Scheunemann, John McCain’s Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, Lobbyist, and a former director of the neo conservative Project for a New American Century. A group which advocates global strategic and ideological predominance of the United States through military force. He has been a Republican political insider In Washington since 1986. He served on the staffs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and as National Security Adviser to Senate Republican and Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Trent Lott from 1993-99. He was also McCain’s defense and foreign policy advisor during the bid for the White House in 2000. About his relationship with McCain the web site RIGHT WEB reports: He introduced the senator to the foreign ministers of Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia as they tried to win admission to NATO, and a representative of Taiwan as it lobbied for free trade, records show.
Mr. Scheunemann also accompanied Mr. McCain to Latvia in 2001 and Georgia in 2006. He has led 3 lobbying firms, SCHEUNEMANN & ASSOCIATES, ORION STRATEGIES and the MERCURY GROUP. He has lobbied for among others: Arms manufacturers and gun associations, Oil Firms, And represented foreign governments Including Georgia. The Wall Street Journal reported that “Mr. Scheunemann's firm (Orion Strategies) has earned more than $2 million since 2004 lobbying U.S. officials, including Sen. McCain and his staff, on behalf of various clients including Georgia, records show. His lobbying for Saakashvili has led to the inference by Journalist Robert Scheer on TruthDig, Conservative Columnist Pat Buchanan on Creators Syndicate, and indirectly Vladimir Putin of Russia, to suggest that he had something to do with Georgia’s attack on the breakaway region of South Ossetia in early August. Randy Scheunemann has been described as John McCain’s Henry Kissinger or Zbignew Brzeniski.
Senior Analyst at Political Research Associates, Chip Berlet is a veteran freelance writer and photographer who specializes in investigating right-wing social movements, apocalyptic scapegoating and conspiracism, and authoritarianism. A PRA staffer since 1982, he has written, edited and co-authored numerous articles on right-wing activity and government repression for publications as varied as the The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Progressive, The Nation, The Humanist, and The St. Louis Journalism Review. Mr. Berlet edited Eyes Right! Challenging the Right-wing Backlash, co-published by PRA and South End Press (1995), a popular primer on the right. He is also co-author with Matthew N. Lyons of Right-wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, published by Guilford Press (2000).McCain's neocon foreign policy adviser has been a lobbyist for arms companies &... more
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Georgia should hold a referendum, but has begun war with Ossetia
History of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic: the Political scientist Natalia Narochnitskaja has reminded legal aspects of an exit of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic from Soviet Union.Georgia should hold a referendum, but has begun war with Ossetia
History of the... more
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Global Research Editor's Note
The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) is an intergovernmental body with 56 member States. It is currently chaired by Finland. The OSCE works closely with the UN, NATO and the EU. It is not by any means a pro-Russian organization. In fact quite the opposite. The report is a slap in the face for the US. It also points to massive media disinformation regarding what actually happened.
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30/08/2008 17:07 BERLIN, August 30 (RIA Novosti) - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has accumulated evidence pointing to "numerous wrong decisions" made by Georgian leaders that led to a military crisis with Russia, Der Spiegel said on Saturday.
In a report to be published in its Monday edition, OSCE military observers in the Caucasus described detailed planning by Georgia to move into South Ossetia which contributed to the crisis, the German magazine said.
The report also backed up Russian claims that the Georgian offensive was already in full swing by the time Russian troops and armored vehicles entered the Roksky Tunnel, on the border with Russia and South Ossetia, to protect its peacekeepers and the civilian population.
The OSCE report also contains suspected war crimes committed by Georgians, who ordered attacks on sleeping South Ossetian civilians.
Georgia attacked South Ossetia on August 8 in an attempt to regain control over the separatist republic, which split from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.
Most people living in South Ossetia have Russian citizenship and Moscow subsequently launched an operation to "force Georgia to accept peace." The operation was concluded on August 12.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed decrees Tuesday recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states and called on other countries to follow suit.
Russia has accused Georgia of committing "genocide" by launching the offensive in South Ossetia. Russia is calling for an international war crimes trial for the Georgian leadership, which Moscow says is responsible for massive loss of life in South Ossetia.
Global Research Editor's Note
The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE)... more
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Just as I predicted and posted on several threads about the Russia-Georgia-NATO-EU crisis, the EU rules out sanctions against Russia - the EU is far too dependent on Russia for its natural gas and much of its oil to accept sanctions against Russia which would simply cut off delivery of said natural gas and oil in return.Just as I predicted and posted on several threads about the Russia-Georgia-NATO-EU... more
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This critique of the general American response to the crisis in Georgia was published in the right-wing newspaper The Washington Times, interestingly enough. This critique of the general American response to the crisis in Georgia was published... more
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by Eric Margolis
The Bush administration appears to have pulled off its latest military fiasco in the Caucasus. What was supposed to have been a swift and painless takeover of rebellious South Ossetia by America’s favorite new ally, Georgia, has turned into a disaster that left Georgia battered, Russia enraged, and NATO badly demoralized. Not bad for two days work.
Equally important, Russia’s Vladimir Putin swiftly and decisively checkmated the Bush administration’s clumsy attempt last week to expand US influence into the Caucasus, and made the Americans and their Georgian satraps look like fools.
We are not facing a return to the Cold War – yet. But the current US-Russian crisis over Georgia, a tiny nation of only 4.6 million, and its linkage to a US anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe, is deeply worrying and increasingly dangerous.
On 7 August, Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ordered his US and Israeli-advised and equipped army to invade the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has been struggling for independence from Georgia since 1992. Most of its people were Russian citizens who wanted union with Russian North Ossetia.
If not directly behind Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia, Washington had to have been at least fully aware of Saakashvili’s plans. The Georgian Army was trained and equipped by US and Israeli military advisors stationed with its troops down to battalion level. CIA and Israel’s Mossad operated important intelligence stations in Tbilisi and coordinated plans with the Saakashvili, whose political opponents have long accused him of being very close to CIA and the Pentagon.
Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia was launched while the world was absorbed by the Beijing Olympics, and Prime Minister Putin was in the Chinese capital. The attack was clearly planned to be a lightening strike that would occupy all of South Ossetia and then Abkhazia before Moscow could react, presenting the Kremlin with a fait accompli.
Who in Bush’s or Cheney’s office approved this stupid adventure? Why did the very smart Israelis get sucked into this imbroglio?
Saakashvili’s stealth "coup de main" quickly turned into a disaster. Russia’s 58th Army responded by routing Georgian forces and delivering a humiliating strategic and psychological blow to the Bush administration. Saakashvili fell right into Moscow’s trap.
Georgia and Russia have been feuding since 1992 over two Georgian ethnic enclaves, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whose people differ in ethnicity and language from Georgians and who wanted to rejoin Russia.
The young, US-educated Saakashvili became Georgia’s president in 2003 after an uprising, believed organized by CIA and financed by US money, overthrew the former leader, Eduard Shevardnadze. I came to know and respect Shevardnadze in Moscow when he was Mikhail Gorbachev’s principal ally and architect of Soviet reform.
Had the able, clever Shevardnadze still been in power, this misadventure would never have happened.
Saakashvili quickly became the golden boy of US rightwing neoconservatives and their Israeli allies, who held him a model of how to turn former Russian-dominated states into "democratic" US allies. Georgian critics claim Saakashvili kept power by intimidation, bribery, and vote rigging. The youthful Georgian leader, his head swelled by promises of US support and NATO membership, launched a war of words against Moscow.
Amazingly, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a supposed Russian expert, even publicly assured Saakashvili that the US would "fight" for Georgia. Washington’s latest fiasco falls squarely into her lap.
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Read the whole article at link.by Eric Margolis
The Bush administration appears to have pulled off its latest... more
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