Russia’s Strategy of Manipulation
The director of Russia’s FSB intelligence service is accusing the Georgian government of being a secret ally of al-Qaeda, taking the country’s anti-Georgian rhetoric to a new height. Russia is apparently unsatisfied with absorbing Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the Georgians, but what else do they want?
The FSB director said that Georgia’s intelligence services have been holding meetings with members of al-Qaeda and providing them with safe harbor, arms, and training in order to carry out attacks against Russia.
“They perpetually undertake to deliver weapons, explosives, and financing for subversive acts on high-security sites in Dagestan — first and foremost on oil and gas pipelines,” he said.
The Russians have long accused Georgia of sponsoring terrorism, but alleging a tie to al-Qaeda is a bold accusation, one designed to woo the West, rally the Russian public by accusing Georgia of essentially waging war on them, and justify some sort of action in the future. Deflecting attention away from Russia’s inability to prevent attacks like those that occurred in August by blaming foreign actors is also in the government’s interest.
The new accusation towards Georgia may not be just a new round of political rhetoric, but could be setting the stage for some sort of action to finish off its unfriendly neighbor. In its previous conflict with Georgia, Russia took advantage of internal conflicts to excuse its intervention, arguing they were protecting a Russian minority. It is probable that the Russians used proxy forces in Georgia to create those conditions in the first place.
The Russians again tried this strategy in May. Following Russian warnings of dire consequences if Georgia agreed to hold NATO exercises on its territory, a coup against the government was launched at the Mukhrovani base near Tblisi. The Georgian military responded, thwarting the coup and arresting its commander. Georgia found evidence of Russian involvement and said the coup was financed and coordinated with Russia.
One of those arrested was a former Georgian special forces major who confessed that the Russians were behind the action and that, according to the plan, 5,000 Russian soldiers were going to intervene once a march towards Tblisi had begun. The testimony is supported by the fact that on April 21 it was reported that Russia had moved its forces to within 25 miles of Tblisi. The Russians likely decided against intervention due to the quick failure of the coup and the inability of the resistance to spark a popular uprising.
It is time to increase our presence in Georgia. Pre-positioning a few fighter aircraft will raise the stakes and discourage intervention. These were good allies who stood beside us in Iraq.
It’s Bushes fault.Ryan,you more then anyone should know this. Obama can’t be wrong visa vie Europe!
Why should the Georgians trust the Americans? You Americans screwed them over once? Why shouldn’t you screw them over again? What credibility do you have, anyway? The “full faith and credit of the United States?” What a joke!
Ryan’s question at the end of the article is the one that should be looked at seriously. Obama does not flinch at throwing allies under the bus – any Israeli can tell you this – and sacrificing Georgia (who cares about the Kavkáss anyway, right?) to appear to have gained on the Persians, who are pissing on Obama’s shoes, may look good to the idiot. He is that stupid to fall for such a maneuver. Apparently, Harvard grads are the ones who need to be banned from the White House….
Obama’s only strategy is to broadly accommodate the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s principals. This means Russia, since Russia is the most overtly aggressive. We live in a curious world where Russia openly enables all crises on Earth from Pyongyang to Tehran to Caracas, and yet not one statesman formulates his public relations strategy around this simple fact. It would seem that Russia’s only requirement is to carry out its re-absorption of former Bloc and Union states in a way that is palatable to the Western electorates. One wonders what fait accompli this strategy will culminate in.
Georgia will fall. Another crisis is approaching in the MIddle East. Ukraine will either be co-opted via parliament or invaded, or both. The real “war for oil” is waged by Russia, and Michael Moore says nothing, and everyone tells you you’re paranoid. The public fisc is governed by fools; the public imagination is governed by prostitutes. Who cares what happens in Central Asia? We are invincible and eternal. Those Vandals are just barbarians. Now – where is my internet flutegirl…
Bush dropped the ball when it came to Georgia, but also many EU countries were dragging their feet on bringing Georgia into the EU and NATO. The other issue is we screwed up with Kosovo, setting the precedent the Russia used to invade Georgia.
Ruvy there are some Americans, sadly not the ones running the show, who honor our obligations and are willing to stand by our allies. However our resources are not infinite and our allies in the EU aren’t honoring their obligations either. You’re right there are many foreign leaders that are pissing on Obama’s shoes and telling him its raining. The pathetic part is he believes them.
Not to worry. Pootie is a dictator and tyrant. So Russia doesn’t gain ANYTHING long term from his actions, he does. His gains will not outlive him. When Pootie dies, Russia will return to 1991. It will be like the time between then and Pootie’s death never happened for Russia.
And yes, the fall of Georgia IS Bush’s fault. Just as Pooties rise to power was the Fault of Bush, Sr.
In the end it doesn’t matter. One way or the other the Usurper will be gone in a few years. The damage he has done will take longer to repair than that, but it isn’t fatal. Having a representative government, America will learn from the process.
30 years from now, America will be stronger relative to the rest of the world then it was before Obama.
There were several reasons Russia lost the cold war. None of those issues have been addressed. So Russia will lose the “new” cold war also. If Russia was able to make the changes it needs to ‘win’ a new cold war, there wouldn’t be a cold war.
Capitalist Democracies are he most effective social system humans have developed. Any sort of despotism will lose when competing against a capitalist democracy. No matter what label that despot hides under.
Despots have their moments but then they die and their deeds die with them.
To 3. Ruvy
While I believe the US should be taking a stand and yes obama is giving away countries like the elitists did in the 30s… the end run is the US can’t be everywhere. The Euros are 100x more to blame for these problems and have 100x more to gain by doing something. They have no intent to do anything because they are cowardly POS.
The world have forgotten what leftism brings…. its time the world remember and see first hand what left wingers like hitler, stalin and others do once you give them power.
To 6. John “birther” Samford
“Capitalist Democracies are he most effective social system humans have developed.”
Your wrong in that… it should be Capitalist Republics…. of course I don’t think any of those exist any more… in fact I don’t think we will have any more Capitalist Democracies after the One gets his way.
So in the 1990′s we promised not to expand NATO up to Russia’s borders, and what did we do(?), we expanded NATO up to Russia’s borders. Out of one side of our mouths we talk about Russia’s history (and therefore fear) of being invaded from east and west, and out of our other side we beat our chests about Georgia and support the Chechen jihad. How would you react if Russia was fomenting revolution in Mexico and putting missiles on the other side of our southern border. You duplicitous of the West, you are only good at stabbing the Orthodox in the back like you did in 1204.
8. Arius
Its nice to know that we still have some stalin supporters out there that are honest enough to directly support stalin.
Yes, the US can’t be everywhere, which is why we should ditch the fair-weather friends in Western Europe in favor of our true friends in Eastern Europe. I can only hope that the Eastern Europeans will forgive us for pandering to spineless scum for so long. We have betrayed them, and it’s high time we get our priorities straight. Tear down every single American military base in Western Europe and move them to Poland and Georgia. We should’ve blown up the Russia oil fields and pipelines last year for the stunt Russia pulled. I’m disgusted by Bush’s cowardice, and I’m even more disgusted with Obama’s malice.
What a joke. Russia only cares about Russia and isn’t EVER going to help us with Iran. Russia has too much of a financial stake in Iran to ever give it up. To say that they will help us with Iran if we throw Georgia under the bus is simply a fantasy. Obama reminds me of Charlie Brown. Lucy always held the football and asked Charlie Brown to kick the football. As soon as Charlie Brown ran up to the football, Lucy would pull it away from him, making him fall flat on his butt. Well, Putin is Lucy and Obama is Charlie Brown, Georgia is the football and Obama is about to fall flat on his butt. How pathetic. Still don’t believe that Obama is willing to give up Georgia? Just ask Poland and the Czeck Republic how good American guarantees are.
Robot & myth, what funny nics for history experts !
forget us, pleaaaaaaaaase ! I’m sure things will get better afterwords!!!
get a green card for those poor eastern europeans that still have the american dream in mind, but hurry up, there’s not many left candidates !
But do you have the means to welcome t’em ?
If I could through france, italy, germany, norway, sweden and a few other countries to the wolves of russia without having poland and other good countries effected I would do it in a heart beat… someday you whiny brats are going to have to stand on your own 2 feet instead of cowering behind the US for everything.
Its nice to know that we still have some stalin supporters out there that are honest enough to directly support stalin.
Actually Stalin is more popular among Georgians than Russians.
And yes, the fall of Georgia IS Bush’s fault. Just as Pooties rise to power was the Fault of Bush, Sr.
The rise of Putin and his friends is well documented. It was Clinton’s fault. His bombing of Serbia was for Russians the final straw – coming after nearly a decade of economic rape by stooges of Soros, Goldman Sachs, and other Westerners, and their oligarch friends. Yeltsin’s failure to prevent the Serbia attack convinced the Russian security establishment that he would have to go.
Robot
yeah, good luck with t’em !
uh, France doesn’t need your help, fortunately we have enough good sense to care for ourselves and avoid “screw-drivers” drinks
To 15. Marie Claude
France didn’t need our help to stop ww2 either… and that turned out just lovely.
Robot, not yours, but may-be your father’s !
14. coisty: bravo to your post. I forgot to mention the bombing of Yugoslavia by Clinton which started Russia’s turn away from the West to alliance with China (SCO); that India is also involved. The West will come to regret it. It is already too late for the West that has lost the resource wars and doesn’t yet realize it and will pay dearly for it.
“So in the 1990’s we promised not to expand NATO up to Russia’s borders, and what did we do(?), we expanded NATO up to Russia’s borders.”
Evidence please! This is another bit o’ Russian propaganda. Show me the treaty that the USA ratified making the promise you claim was made.
What is really pathetic is that the Russians are almost always the only ones falling for their propaganda.
Arius, exactly why are you blaming something that happened in 1204 on the USA? I didn’t get that at all.
“The rise of Putin and his friends is well documented.” I’m sure. That, of course, is NOT the same as being factual. More popaganda.
Bush Sr. was manning the Oval office when the Soviet Union imploded. He is the one that did nothing when Yelstin took over as the next Russian despot.
If Russsia was going to weaned away from “The tyrant is dead, Long live the tyrant” government ( absolutism, IIRC ) then there was about a 2 year window in which to talk Yelstin into holding elections and NOT running in them. Bush Sr. didn’t see that, so Pootie had the period while Yelstin was dying to plan his take-over. If it wasn’t Pootie, it would have been somebody else. I doubt he was the only one a plottin ‘n a plannin. He just won. I’m willing to consider that it might not have made any difference. Maybe the Russians are like the Afghanis, and just too thick to understand representative government. You cannot force democracy on people. Democracy is bottom-up. They have to want it, to understand what the advantages are and what is required of them as citizens.
Raoul Castro said it best. Socialism teaches the people to act like little chicks. To lay around the nest with their mouths open waiting for momma ( big government) to drop a worm in. Capitalism means getting out and finding your own worms.
To 17. Marie Claude
I lost several members of my family in WW2… and I’m sure when I have to travel to europe or some other god forsaken hole to deal with WW3 my family will shrink again due to your complete and total cowardliness.
cowardiness isn’t a french quality, but rather awariness, and nor mouthiness is, but got to say that you’re using it a lot
To 21. Marie Claude
“cowardliness isn’t a french quality, but rather awareness” history begs to differ….
in your fairy tales
It is both a mistake and dangerous to judge the french cowards for what happened in May of 1940.
Study the history. In 1939, the French Foreign Minister was trying to get Hitler to combine German and France to rule Europe together. Hitler, of course, had other ideas.
The problem with France in the pre-WW2 period wasn’t cowardly Frenchmen, but cowardly French politicians. Americans are in the same position today. America isn’t lacking the capacity to win the WoT or make Pootie STFU, we are lacking the will. Cowardly politicians.
Islam lacks the capability to destroy America. American politicians lack the moral courage to make the hard choice and destroy Islam. So it’s a race to see if Islam gains the ability before American elect a politician with the balls to kill a few million people.
That is why I will vote for Sara.
I don’t have time to rebut all the Russophobic idiocy here, so I’m just going to copy and paste my comment from the Belmont Club. At least one person here – Arius – pointed out how NATO has been expanded up to Russia’s borders and the hypocrisy of how the U.S. would react if the Russians/Chinese put a missile defense system and radar in Cuba or Venezuela. And good to see Marie Claude from the BC rebut the usual pointless French-bashing, and myth-buster promote nuclear war as the solution to the Georgian aggression.
IF Russia is so hellbent on avenging the collapse of the USSR…why are they:
1. Allowing our troops and materiel to transit their country to Afghanistan (oh wait, after eight years it’s now just a dirty trick to keep us fighting over there in the “graveyard of empires”)
2. Buying U.S. govt debt – including at the time of the Fannie/Freddie collapse, Moscow was the 4th largest holder of gov housing backed short term paper. Or do you think Hank Paulson was in Moscow in July 2008 for no reason? It seems the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing, in the sense that one part of the gov had its hands out to the Russians, and the other was helping Misha Saako plot his proxy war against them and feeding his delusional fantasies of easy victory (here’s looking at you, Randy Scheunemann, a real man of genius who tried to throw Palin under the bus after people like him drove the McCain campaign into the ground).
3. STILL propping up the U.S. dollar by buying dollars in intl markets – check the ruble fluctuation rate. Not to mention all those steel mills the oligarchs bought and took a bath on since steel prices collapsed in 2008.
Yes Russia is dealing with a weak horse. But that isn’t necessarily good for Russia. Cheap Afghan heroin is flooding the Motherland, even on a larger scale than the flood of drugs that came in the late Seventies (not that I’m saying that was a conspiracy to weaken USSR…BUT…the Cold War was dirtier than a lot of people here would like to acknowledge, and perhaps the boys of 9 Rota were premature drug warriors…or anti-jihadis, if Oriana Fallaci was right).
I’m glad another commenter here mentioned it, if you don’t trust Soros because he made a billion betting against the Pound and spent hundreds of millions to fund the Left, why on Earth would you trust his stooges in Ukraine and Georgia?
Soros’ problem now is that the Chinese can outbid him for buying Moldova. The cute “Twitter Revolution” which was almost identical to the Rose and Orange Revs failed last year, but nobody noticed. Then BAM! Beijing steps in with a billion dollar loan. Meanwhile, Belarus has been transformed from Kremlin stooge to victim of Russian energy imperialism practically overnight, coinciding with that country negotiating a $10 billion dollar from the EU. So no, they don’t give a crap about your democratic credentials, as long as you’re not in the Kremlin or you have oil in Central Asia or a way to build pipe to bypass Russia…
John Birther, 1940 ALSO was a Brits defeat, the French died up to 100000 for that the left Brit troops could rejoin their island !
In 1939, the French Foreign Minister was trying to get Hitler to combine German and France to rule Europe together. Hitler, of course, had other ideas.
I’m not aware of theis particular aspect, could you give me more precisions ?
Daladier wasn’t the coward that that is uselly related, he wouldn’t have signed the Munich agreeement if the Brits were’nt, cuz the country that had the most experienced German wars were the French, but at this state, he knew that he couldn’t undertake a war without the Brits, but they weren’t ready !
(if you want sources, I can provide them, but in french)
Agree with Marie Claude. The Brits were pitifully unprepared for war in July 1939. Stalin saw that they could offer at best one fully equipped division on the Continent and perhaps a half division that was unready and decided to sign the pact with Hitler instead of allying himself with the Western allies.