Posted on 08/15/2008 11:32:48 AM PDT by Schnucki
The other half of the diplomatic pincer movement took place in Sochi, as the German Chancellor Angela Merkel used a pre-planned trip there to try to lean on the Russian president to withdraw his troops.
The talks were short. Afterwards it appeared there had been no meeting of minds. Russia said it was too late to turn the clock back.
“Nobody rejects the principle of territorial integrity as one of the fundamental principles of international law,” said Dmitri Medvedev. “But if we look at this concrete situation we see it is very complex. Unfortunately, after what has happened, the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia could hardly live together in one state with the Georgians.”
Medvedev had tried to show Merkel images of Georgian atrocities. She said she did not need to see them. He replied that he did not need to “prove anything”.
Merkel said: “I made it clear that, first of all, it is always very sad if there are victims and in this case there are so many victims. Secondly, I said that even if I take the Russian version of events into account, I considered some of the Russian actions not to be reasonable, in particular the presence of the Russian troops in the core regions of Georgia.”
Within a couple of hours of the talks Russia decorated 23 soldiers involved in the fighting. Two have been declared “Heroes of the Russian Federation”.
I was there many times in the late 90's and they were well then. Now they are all about power and might and being strong and everyone being afraid of them.
And the ones who go the extra mile and beat puppies to death get an extra "V" for valour device on their “Hero of the Russian Federation” ribbon. ;-)
“Nobody rejects the principle of territorial integrity as one of the fundamental principles of international law,” said Dmitri Medvedev. “But if we look at this concrete situation we see it is very complex. Unfortunately, after what has happened, the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia could hardly live together in one state with the Georgians.”
Oh I see, the Russians, out of the kindness of their heart, is taking this land.
Here’s an idea! All the people that want to be Russian, let them move to Russia! Everyone who stays, gets to be Georgian. How about brokering that deal, eh Medvedev? The land stays as property of Georgia.
Somehow I don’t think they will accept that, the humanitarians that they are.
I think thier humiliation in the late 80’s and 90’s has garnered this. Like a man who beats his wife and children because he feels so utterly impotent. They enjoyed being feared and have no concept of friendship and just plain goodness. I’m sure there are good people there, but the country as a whole seems derelect of wholesome good nature. And they have taken the drive for ambition and turned it into wanting domination through brute force rather than success.
They just made an argument for Chechnyan independence.
Arm the Chechnyans to hit inside Russia.
Yes, and God help us all. Wasn’t that also a component in Nazi Germany?
Not a bad idea!!
Unfortunately, there are very disturbing parallels here between Germany after WWI and what it turned into, and what is happening in Russia right now.
Hitler got his rise promising to set right the "treachery" which came out of the Great War. Of course, Hitler blamed it on the Jews and the Holocaust was the direct result.
Interestingly enough, Hitler *delivered* on his promise when the Wehrmacht overran the French -- he redid the Treaty of Versailles, in the same railroad car, and even found one of the original signers of the WWI armistice to sign France's surrender.
In essence, WWII in Europe was fought as revenge for the humiliation Germany suffered in WWI.
It reminds me of the dems who lost to Bush twice,they are still mad!!!
The Berlin based SDP members in Merkel’s coalition are literally bought and paid for puppets of Gazprom and the Kremlin.
Merkel, SDP members outside Berlin, and Germans in general are being held hostage by the virulent corruption and treason of Schroeder’s Berlin SDP.
The parallels are even stronger to the events of the Russian Revolution/Civil Wars of 1917-1925. Not only are the actors the same, the tactics and propaganda are almost exactly replaying themselves today.
Your claims of intimate background knowledge of German politics would be a tad more convincing if you hadn’t misspelled the name of the SPD 3 times.
Both SPD and SDP are correct in English, SDP is the older original abbreviation when the party was openly Marxist, and the one I use because it is the Marxist platform of the old SDP youth movement that the Berlin based members of the party continue to espouse.
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