no, the languages are completely different and not related at all, even the looks are different. And yes, they want to join Russia, not Georgia, simply because Russia will offer them a better life/wages etc. comparing to Georgia. The closest nation to them is North Ossetia, which is a russian region with their own president as well. If Im not mistaken they just have a different accent and minor language difference.
nah, Im one and a half hour drive from the north ossetia to the west, in another south russian region. Yes, they are for independence 100%. However, after they become independent they will join Russia. They cant say straight away that they want to join Russia, cos it will be harder to do that way. Thats just my opinion. Why do you think the majority of them got russian passports.
It was all sorted out long time ago When my grand grand dads and mums were fighting the Russian Empire. Update: Seems like at 23:49 local time the georgians stopped firing south ossetian capital after 5 hours of striking. And Abkhaziya (the 2nd breakaway republic) joined this war against georgia on the other front earlier.
NFC in the absence of foreign journalists in South Ossetia I think you should be the DP roving reporter! Jump in a car and report back from the frontline!
haha Ive got nothing to do with them, although Im relatively close)) Internet is the power))) Probably CNN laptops cannot work under fire)) If there will be a bigger enemy right on our borders no one will ask me anyways, I will have to go and fight. Saying that though, there are few thousands volunteers from the bordering south russian regions (including 1K from Abkhaziya) came to south ossetia to fight.
Today i saw something like the war spread to Abkhazia, do you know anything about it mate Edit: There it is http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_pFj41BrbIfhfxvfkJBbZiG3BzgD92ER6KG0
Yes, I told in the above post of mine that Abkhaziya joined the war. The story here is that Abkhaziya and South Ossetiya made an agreement if Georgia attacks one of them, the second one will help. They are both small republics and nations comparing to 5 millions of georgians. So, basically, they just stepped in today, a bit late, but its better late than never as they say ? Separatists? Haha, they saying like it is a georgian territory, it has never been a georgian territory, it was a breakaway territory with their own gov. and president and forces, etc. and after 16 years they become separatists?))) Very funny. A province usually means under control, not in this case.
South Ossetia is a fake 'republic' of only 70,000 people that Russia is using in a power game to counter the only real democracy in the region. Georgia is also site of the only pipeline carrying cacacus oil that does not run through Russian terrority.
Russia has sent 500 armored vehicles into South Ossetia. Gerogia has reported destroying 40 Russian tanks and downing 10 Russian jets. The Russians have escalated the fighting and have bombed Georgian cities. The Abkhazia seperatists have also launched an offensive againsy Georgia. The underdog in the fighting is Georgia againts a county 240 times it's size with 30x the population.
wow, In the media there were reports that the United States is an alley with Georgia and may be sending troops to Georgia. Also Georgia will be withdrawing up to 2,000 troops from Iraq. I sure hope to god that U.S and Russian troops don't engage in a firefights. That would not be good.
Sorry bogart but from where I stand it seems that Russians are kind of restraining from using brutal force. They only bombed the city where huge amounts of Georgian soldiers are gathering just 25km from the S. Ossetian border preparing to go into the offensive...( according to BBC journalist who was walking among soldiers who were sitting in front of civilian buildings ... check BBC). That is legitimate military target. Also the port where marine forces are stationed is legitimate military target ! If you take a closer look at equipment russians are using it is kind of old and certainly there is no laser guided bombs, missiles and still civilian casulties on Georgian side are smaller than on Ossetian. If we take a quick look at recent history we can see that Nato with its laser guided, precision bombs and missiles was also able to miss and kill civilians. But then those civilians killed were just "collateral damage" In my opinion the ones who escalated the fighting were Georgians who used MLRs ( multi rocket launchers ) on a tiny little city, the capital of S. Ossetia. I might add that from Georgian point of view that was also legitimate military target since the "rebels" were there. In 2 days of heavy fighting it is seen that Russians were not quite prepared for this kind of escalation while Georgians are prepared and are shelling S. Ossetia like crazy. Makes you wonder who planned this Sure Georgia is underdog here but from the looks of it Russia at this time is showing great restraint. They can easily bombard the hell out of Georgia if they choose to. From political view Russian tactics amazes me since they copied our western rhetoric. They mention genocide, innocent women and kids, etc. They are peacekeepers who just want to make peace and prevent Georgia doing ethnic cleansing and genocide over Ossetians. Pretty smart move and Nato or west, whatever must be quiet and watch while Georgian president with EU flag behind him urges the world to stop Russia. Let us remind again that those Russian soldiers ( peacekeepers ) are there under UN resolution....if that means anything...It looks like UN is just something in the air last few years and everyone just interprets international laws as they choose. Oh and they do talk about territorial integrity these days. Makes you wonder again
Don't worry they won't. There will be some sort of help, aid from US but I don't think US soldiers will go and fight Russians at this time over this "problem". Two superpowers are just playing and using proxies all over the world to do the job for them. Curse of small nations and/or countries.... One side always rants but cannot do anything about it. ( put US or Russia into "One side" )
LOL. US are not going to help Georgia. Maximally they will borrow few planes to their 2000 troops in Iraq to move fast back to Georgia to fight. But US, EU, NATO etc are just too busy with other conflicts to do something. US probably couldn't send any significiant amount of troops there without disbaning its other conflicts - Iraq etc... And take into consideration that Russians got there just 150 tanks and some infantry troops - nothing massive. If Russians wanted, they could start a full-scale offensive and own whole Georgia in few days/weeks. They are not going to overtake Georgia. South Ossethia and Abkhaziya will be enough for them. For Christ's sake, these people have already voted two times in referendum to become independent and join Russia. Both referendums were successful. Moreover, SO and A have been de facto independent since 1990 and Georgia has had no influence there. They were just not recognize by western nations.
The issue with South Ossetia is that a population of 70,000 people voted to succeed from Georgia with 3900 km2. This problem could come back to haunt Russia in the future. I don't believe it was a good move for the Georgians to escalate the conflict. But you can also see the aggressiveness of the separatists. Abkhaziaat the same time has launced an attack to drive Georgian forces out of the Kodori Gorge.
Abkhazia and Osetia have a treaty to help each other if attacked by Georgia. US unfortunately set the standards for international law. Which is: 1. "MIIGHT IS RIGHT." 2. US is always right. US under Clinton and Bush missed the opportunity to take the leading role in the world after the fall of the comunism. Don't beleive what they tell you from Washington. US uses too much violence to be recognized as a world leader and is almost always biased when it comes to judge problems in the world .