Posted on 08/11/2008 11:11:31 AM PDT by kronos77
Belgrade, 11 August (AKI) – The deadly conflict between Russia and Georgia in the breakaway province of South Ossetia is an indirect result of Kosovo's declaration of independence in February, Serbian analysts and politicians said on Monday.
“If there wasn’t a ‘Kosovo precedent’, as the greatest world powers headed by the United States called the secession of a part of Serbian territory, there wouldn’t have been a war in South Ossetia,” Oliver Ivanovic, Serbian government official in charge of Kosovo told the Belgrade daily Blic.
Ivanovic said that Kosovo's example was “inspiring to South Ossetia, so they wanted to strain relations and to define their position.”
Georgia wanted to solve the problem of separatist South Ossetia by the use of force, just like Serbia had tried to do in Kosovo in 1999, he explained. .. Commentator Dragan Petrovic told Tanjug news agency that the United States had encouraged a conflict between Russia and Georgia to strengthen its influence in the region.
“The Americans want to drive a wedge between Georgia and Russia to improve their position in the area because of an oil pipeline, future actions against Iran, to isolate pro-Russian Armenia and to encourage the aspirations of the Muslim population in the North Caucasus,” Petrovic said.
Former Serbian foreign minister Goran Svilanovic said he now saw Georgia as a “Russian sphere of interest”.
He said it will soon “become clear to everyone in Russia, Georgia and the countries in the region”.
(Excerpt) Read more at adnkronos.com ...
Ping!
What one must remember is that South Ossetia is part of GEORGIA, not RUSSIA. If the Georgians went back in to reestablish its authority over its own territory, it has every right to do so. Russia, on the other hand, has no right to invade a sovereign state’s (Georgia) territory merely because some of its population is what Russia considers Russian. Although, even that isn’t exactly true, as there is North Ossetia, a region within Russia made up of, obviously, the same ethnic minority of peoples who aren’t true Russians either, as are found in South Ossetia. So depends on what your definition of Russian is.
Where the US and EU loses their moral authority, and what is, IMO, holding the Bush Admin and the EU back from doing much about this is the fact that we did the same exact thing in Kosovo, which was part of Serbia and was a breakaway republic, just like South Ossetia. We bombed Serbia, just as Russia is now bombing Georgia, for the same reasons, to support a breakaway territory that by virtue of population growth had become almost all Muslim and ethnically more aligned with Albania next door (just like Russia being next door to South Ossetia). And we were the ones bombing Serbia, who was naturally aligned with Russia because both were Orthodox Christian, and our bombing by the Clinton Admin, along with the backing of the EU, in order to establish an independent Kosovo, annoyed the heck out of Russia. So, bottom line, what goes around, comes around. How can we now slam Russia for supporting South Ossetia and for invading Georgia when we did something very similar when we supported Kosovo and bombed Serbia. It’s called our own policies coming back to bite us in the butt. Thanks Bill Clinton.
Of course one can also say, when will it all stop? How many breakaway territories can any country tolerate? Yugoslavia was totally chopped up. Little countries like Czechoslovakia become even more tiny when split in two. What would the US do if say, Texas, or California decided to break off from the US? Russia, who is all for South Ossetia being its own entity, has been fighting tooth and nail against the breakaway republic of Chechnya for years now, not allowing them the same “freedom” as they seem to want for South Ossetia. Plus, of course, oil politics come into play. I believe Russia, if they thought they could get away with it, would like to reincorporate Georgia back into the Russian Federation as they want to get their meat hooks into the oil pipeline that runs through Georgia that via Turkey then sends oil to the EU, bypassing Russia. Russia wants control over all pipelines sending oil to the EU, as they can then manipulate Europe like puppets on a string by controlling all oil spigots to Europe. Whenever the EU would do anything that displeases Russia, she can hike the price of oil, or slow down production, or shut off oil supplies to the EU.
Ah yes, nothing ever quite seems as it really is, when you dig below the surface. Serbia must be laughing their *ss off today as I’m sure they see this as divine retribution. Politics, ain’t it fun?
Russia’s (i.e., Putin’s) crimes don’t need any explanations or apologizes. These types of things remind me of whenever the Soviets did something how people always blamed the West. Putin’s an evil bastard. That’s all.
Putin needs to spend the rest of his days 6 feet under.
What the US did to Serbia regarding Kosovo holds the same moral equivalent. If everyone is so hell bent on holding the Russians to some moral standard, then why isn’t the US obligated to hold itself to that same standard and admit it?
>>why isn’t the US obligated to hold itself to that same standard
Primarily because the interests of countries are not consistent.
For consistency, best to sample a loaf of bread.
The chickens from the bent one and Frau Albright's splendid little war have come home to roost. Anyone who had a brain saw this coming nine years ago.
Liberals are the first ones to claim such stupidity.
How did Georgia come to obtain South Ossetia? Was South Ossetia its ow State at some point in recent history?
Stalin, that infamous Georgian, who hated Russians, inserted it into Georgia. Who knows why, border hijinks in the old USSR.
Here's some background on the South Ossetia, Georgia and Russian conflict.
The "South" Ossetes originally crossed the mountains to escape the Mongol hordes in the 1200s.
Well, brains are not a requirement to work for the State Department.
We had no business recogonizing Kosovo independence which was a bi-partisan doing led by the Clinton administration. Following that logic Alta California, Disricto Mexico! If we become weak enough...Jayson Lewis subbing for Rush reports that the Ruskys moved in Ossetia now are moving on Tiblisi. Course he could be wrong in an earlier conversation with a responding caller he did not challange the callers assertion that China gets Alaskan oil..By law they can’t its all going here to US...
Did anyone think Serbian analysts and politicians would say otherwise?
Another prominent Gerorgian, Iosef Stallin gave South Osetia to Georgia.
Quit making assumptions and you won’t appear to be so ignorant. I never made a such a statement, I’m just showing how idiocy on the US foreign policy front helped set the stage for this situation and that the US needs to start owning up to its own stupid actions.
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