Scott
Verified User
In another thread, PostModernProphet and I started to converse about the brief Russian intervention in a conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia. Thought it deserved a thread of its own, so I found an article that I think is fairly balanced, in that it presents both the western version (clipped as it may be) -and- the Russian versions of the story. Quoting a bit of it below...
**
Ten years ago Western audiences learned about breaking news. Russia was doing it again – attacking its weaker neighbor Georgia with tanks and warplanes. Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili was giving exclusive interviews right and left, explaining how his country was being attacked because it wants freedom and how the battle was for values, nothing less. Anchors reminded viewers that Georgia provided troops to missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and wanted to be part of NATO.
On the same day Russian audiences learned that Saakashvili went on his latest military adventures, sending tanks and heavy artillery to shell the rebellious city of Tskhinval. Russian peacekeepers stationed there had been killed. President Dmitry Medvedev, visiting the Olympic Games in Beijing, ordered a military response to enforce peace in South Ossetia.
The schism of realities was palpable to those who got their news from sources on both sides. The current expression “fake news” would have been flying around, for sure.
The 10th anniversary of the dramatic five-day war in Georgia comes with a new string of reports. “Ethnic Georgians and Ossetians had lived together peacefully throughout the 20th century,” says NBC News, citing a Georgian expert.
[snip]
History of ethnic divisions
When Georgia regained its independence from a crumbling Soviet Union, it came with the baggage of bitter ethnic rivalries. Georgian nationalists, who were the driving force behind the secession, made little effort to defuse tensions, declaring that their independent state will be for Georgians first and foremost.
Two parts of Georgia did not take this ‘promise’ well. One was Abkhazia, an area in the northwest stretching along the Black Sea and bordering Russia’s Krasnodar region. By the 1990s, ethnic Abkhazians and Georgians were roughly equal in numbers there, and Abkhazians feared forced assimilation under the new government. The second was South Ossetia, a mostly mountainous region in the north, connected with Russia’s Ossetia by a single road under the Caucasus Mountains’ main ridge.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia had bad experiences with an independent Georgia in the early 20th century, when the collapse of the Russian empire festered in all kinds of separatism and nationalism at its outskirts. Both were made part of Soviet Georgia on provision of significant autonomy. Both were denied their wish to leave Georgia and remain part of Soviet Union in 1991, as Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia rose to power.
[snip]
The armed conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia saw hundreds killed, tens of thousands displaced and the land devastated economically. In each area, internationally-approved ceasefire regimes were eventually established, with Russian peacekeepers serving as guarantors of peace.
So, claiming there was mostly ethnic peace in Georgia is misleading at best.
[snip]
Georgia under Saakashvili became a showcase for what a Western-educated leader can achieve in a post-Soviet nation. His anti-corruption reforms, which managed to eradicate low-level graft, and massive infrastructure investments were given a positive spin by the media. His troops were offered training and equipment by allies and an honorary place to serve alongside NATO troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. George W. Bush called Georgia a beacon of liberty during his visit to Tbilisi.
The beacon’s darker aspects were not given much attention. The brutal suppression of mass protests in 2007 – which Saakashvili called an attempted coup sponsored by Russia– were barely accorded a second glance by the Western media. The harsh penal system was deemed by foreign sponsors as a necessity, to purge endemic corruption and organized crime, even as rights groups reported torture was common in Georgian prisons. And, of course, Georgian militarism was not considered as something bad.
[snip]
Five days in August
Bringing Abkhazia and South Ossetia back under control was always a declared goal of the Saakashvili government. In August 2008 he made his bid, sending tanks and heavy artillery to shell the South Ossetian capital Tskhinval. Brigadier General Mamuka Kurashvili, who commanded a Georgian peacekeeper mission in South Ossetia –kept there alongside the Russians and the Ossetians– didn’t hide that bringing the breakaway region to heel was the goal. Later, Tbilisi disavowed his statement and claimed the troops were preempting a Russian invasion of Georgia.
**
Full article:
10 years since Georgia attacked South Ossetia and Russia – not the other way around | rt.com
An independent documentary film was also made on the 5 day war. An article was written about it below, with a link to the video itself within said article:
Documentary on the war between Georgia and South Ossetia - Tears of Ossetia | Donbass Insider
**
Ten years ago Western audiences learned about breaking news. Russia was doing it again – attacking its weaker neighbor Georgia with tanks and warplanes. Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili was giving exclusive interviews right and left, explaining how his country was being attacked because it wants freedom and how the battle was for values, nothing less. Anchors reminded viewers that Georgia provided troops to missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and wanted to be part of NATO.
On the same day Russian audiences learned that Saakashvili went on his latest military adventures, sending tanks and heavy artillery to shell the rebellious city of Tskhinval. Russian peacekeepers stationed there had been killed. President Dmitry Medvedev, visiting the Olympic Games in Beijing, ordered a military response to enforce peace in South Ossetia.
The schism of realities was palpable to those who got their news from sources on both sides. The current expression “fake news” would have been flying around, for sure.
The 10th anniversary of the dramatic five-day war in Georgia comes with a new string of reports. “Ethnic Georgians and Ossetians had lived together peacefully throughout the 20th century,” says NBC News, citing a Georgian expert.
[snip]
History of ethnic divisions
When Georgia regained its independence from a crumbling Soviet Union, it came with the baggage of bitter ethnic rivalries. Georgian nationalists, who were the driving force behind the secession, made little effort to defuse tensions, declaring that their independent state will be for Georgians first and foremost.
Two parts of Georgia did not take this ‘promise’ well. One was Abkhazia, an area in the northwest stretching along the Black Sea and bordering Russia’s Krasnodar region. By the 1990s, ethnic Abkhazians and Georgians were roughly equal in numbers there, and Abkhazians feared forced assimilation under the new government. The second was South Ossetia, a mostly mountainous region in the north, connected with Russia’s Ossetia by a single road under the Caucasus Mountains’ main ridge.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia had bad experiences with an independent Georgia in the early 20th century, when the collapse of the Russian empire festered in all kinds of separatism and nationalism at its outskirts. Both were made part of Soviet Georgia on provision of significant autonomy. Both were denied their wish to leave Georgia and remain part of Soviet Union in 1991, as Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia rose to power.
[snip]
The armed conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia saw hundreds killed, tens of thousands displaced and the land devastated economically. In each area, internationally-approved ceasefire regimes were eventually established, with Russian peacekeepers serving as guarantors of peace.
So, claiming there was mostly ethnic peace in Georgia is misleading at best.
[snip]
Georgia under Saakashvili became a showcase for what a Western-educated leader can achieve in a post-Soviet nation. His anti-corruption reforms, which managed to eradicate low-level graft, and massive infrastructure investments were given a positive spin by the media. His troops were offered training and equipment by allies and an honorary place to serve alongside NATO troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. George W. Bush called Georgia a beacon of liberty during his visit to Tbilisi.
The beacon’s darker aspects were not given much attention. The brutal suppression of mass protests in 2007 – which Saakashvili called an attempted coup sponsored by Russia– were barely accorded a second glance by the Western media. The harsh penal system was deemed by foreign sponsors as a necessity, to purge endemic corruption and organized crime, even as rights groups reported torture was common in Georgian prisons. And, of course, Georgian militarism was not considered as something bad.
[snip]
Five days in August
Bringing Abkhazia and South Ossetia back under control was always a declared goal of the Saakashvili government. In August 2008 he made his bid, sending tanks and heavy artillery to shell the South Ossetian capital Tskhinval. Brigadier General Mamuka Kurashvili, who commanded a Georgian peacekeeper mission in South Ossetia –kept there alongside the Russians and the Ossetians– didn’t hide that bringing the breakaway region to heel was the goal. Later, Tbilisi disavowed his statement and claimed the troops were preempting a Russian invasion of Georgia.
**
Full article:
10 years since Georgia attacked South Ossetia and Russia – not the other way around | rt.com
An independent documentary film was also made on the 5 day war. An article was written about it below, with a link to the video itself within said article:
Documentary on the war between Georgia and South Ossetia - Tears of Ossetia | Donbass Insider
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