Breaking News- Medvedev orders end to Russian operations in Georgia

[War on Want]

You want them back to the way they were before 1993?  Well no wonder you're on their side here (that and your hatred of all things American) they certainly are acting like they did pre '93.

Dude, if you haven't noticed 99% of the Left dispises Putin, Yeltsin and all of them. Stop acting like we do. We dislike authoritarianism as much as conservative does we just have different methods of opposing it.

[Iosif is a COTHO]

Very good article on this in the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081401360.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008081401253&s_pos=

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[War on Want]

Yeah I wasn't sure if you knew what you were talking about or not.  That was the year I graduated High School, how old were you?

Does it matter? You insist on talking about other things before you were born like you are very knowledgeable.

[GMantis]

I wouldn't be happy with anything short of independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The chances this agreement leaves for it are very slim.

You are mistaking both of them for actual states as we understand them in the West. They are nothing more than puppet states, governed by Russia. The vast majority of the government officials in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are Russians, usually Putin's former buddies from the KGB. They use the two countries for their mafia operations as well as keeping Georgian sovereignty in check. Abkhazia's supposed "democracy" is a farce: the Russians ensure only the candidates they support win. South Ossetia doesn't even bother. The Russians have supplied Abkhazians and Ossetians with Russian citizenship even though many haven't ever stepped foot in Russia. Russia has even passed laws that treat the two provinces as part of Russia, a point emphasized by the military takeover of Abkhazia a few months ago.

The governments of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have no popular support and it is likely that they don't view independence from Georgia as an important objective (the South Ossetian referendum was quite clearly heavily rigged). Just look at Adjara, the third Russian puppet state in Georgia, which was retaken by Georgia in 2004 fairly easily and successfully.

This is not about Abkhazia or South Ossetia. Neither of them are real sates. Its about Russia and Georgia, and the Abkhazians and Ossetians are being used by the Russians to threaten and attack Georgia.

Adjaria has a Georgian population and did not have a war with Georgia. Abkhazia had a Georgian majority, which was mostly forced away after a war with Georgia. Ossetia has an Ossetian majority. They had a war with Georgia which resulted in many Ossetian refugees to North Ossetia. Last week, regardless of who started the war, their main city was destroyed by the Georgian army.
I wouldn't mind an explanation of why do you think Abkhazia and South Ossetia would welcome reunification with Georgia.