[InABunkerUnderSF]

Kosovo is an excuse not a reason.

Russia is out to take control of Caspian oil resources. Georgia is first, Armenia will fold, Azerbaijan will be isolated and the West will be screwed.

Anyone gullible enough to think that this has anything to do with Kosovo is ignoring the realities of Russian history and the global economy. It’s Cold War II boys and girls and unless we loose it’s going to go on for a long, long time. You are either on our side or the Russians side. Get over the Kosovo delusion.

[1rudeboy]

Bingo.

[gitmogrunt]

Baloney

[TigersEye]

Kosovo is an excuse not a reason.

Exactly right. Even Serbia isn't playing the "Kosovo" card to defend Russia.

Moscow’s Actions in Georgia Have Undermined Russia’s Ties with Serbia

[Bokababe]

"Anyone gullible enough to think that this has anything to do with Kosovo is ignoring the realities of Russian history and the global economy."

Quite the opposite, anyone "familiar with Russian history" knows that the 1999 NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia is what brought Putin to power to begin with. Ordinary Russians were absolutely horrified by it, and Russia realized that Yeltsin was just getting used and abused by the US. In 1999, Russians came to the conclusion that the US wasn't going to behave like "the moral force for good" that we had always presented ourselves as.

Of course "it's Cold War II again", but only because we squandered our "Cold War I" win by thinking that there were no consequences to treating the entire world as though there were no more rules to international diplomacy -- there was only raw power, and we had it so screw everybody who gets in our way.

There is a large difference between "siding with Russia" and understanding how we screwed up our real opportunity with Russia, post Cold War I. Learning from mistakes, produces improvement. Denial of mistakes just produces more of the same lousy results.

"Kosovo" does NOT justify Georgia, only because our actions in Kosovo were never justified to begin with. It does however explain Putin's rise to power, and it explain Russia's sense that there are no more "international rules" period -- raw power is all that matters, the rest is window dressing so let the world bitch about anything it wishes, including Georgia, but there is nothing that they can do about it.