Missuppfattning (?) om Rysk-Georgiska konflikten

Med tanke på kommentarena från herrarna på Cornucopia så skriver jag ned lite om konflikten mellan Ryssland och Georgien.

CNN skriver bland annat i sin "Fast facts":

"April 21, 2008 - Georgia accuses Russia of shooting down an unmanned drone over Abkhazia on April 20. Russia denies the claim.

April 29, 2008 - Russia sends more troops to Abkhazia to counter what it says are Georgia's plans for an attack.May 26, 2008 - A UN investigation concludes that the drone shot down on April 21 was struck by a missile from a Russian fighter jet.May 30-31, 2008 - Russia sends several hundred unarmed troops to Abkhazia, saying they are needed for railway repairs. Georgia accuses Russia of planning a military intervention.August 7-8, 2008 - South Ossetian separatists begin attacking Georgian peacekeepers, ending a ceasefire. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili sends troops into South Ossetia. Russia responds by moving its troops to the border, flying aircraft over Georgia, and beginning air strikes in South Ossetia.August 8, 2008 - The United States, Great Britain and NATO call for a cease fire of military hostilities by both Russia and Georgia.August 9, 2008 - A delegation of EU and US diplomats head to Georgia to resolve escalating tensions."

Huffington Post skriver:

"The encirclement of Russia — in particular the expansion of NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia — became central tenets of post-Soviet American policy, and for the ascendent Neoconservatives the break-up of the Russian federation was the ultimate stated goal.

Even as American political groups backed reformist parties in Russian elections, Putin emerged as a powerful and popular President of Russia in large measure due to his steadfast opposition to the continuing humiliation of Russia at the hands of American and NATO policies. He worked steadfastly to solidify Russia’s security perimeter and to return prestige to the Russian state. Putin’s ambitions were not secret, and his hostility to U.S. and European designs on Ukraine was well established.

Events in Georgia in 2008 presaged what was to come in Ukraine. After Georgia elected a pro-Western government, Russia intervened militarily — ostensibly to protect the ethnic Russian populations within the Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Vice President Dick Cheney decried Putin’s action, declaring that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community.”"

Så Georgien blev attackerat först?

Utklipp av artikel i The Guardian:

"Not only does the report by Tim Whewell – aired this week on Newsnight and on Radio 4's File on Four - find strong evidence confirming western-backed Georgia as the aggressor on the night of August 7. It also assembles powerful testimony of wide-ranging war crimes carried out by the Georgian army in its attack on the contested region of South Ossetia."

En annan artikel från Der Spiegel:

"The truth about the war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia in August 2008 sounds somewhat convoluted, at least as expressed in the final report of the independent EU fact-finding mission charged with establishing the causes of the conflict. "Georgian claims of a large-scale presence of Russian armed forces in South Ossetia prior to the Georgian offensive on 7/8 August could not be substantiated by the mission," reads the document, which was published Wednesday. To put it more simply: It was Georgia who started the war."

Slutgiltligen information om den dåvarande presidenten i Georgien, Mikheil Saakashvili från Wikipedia. Där framgår bland annat:

"He was widely regarded as a pro-NATO and pro-West leader who spearheaded a series of political and economic reforms. In 2010, he had a 67% approval rating^[11] despite being criticized by the opposition for his alleged authoritarian tendencies and electoral fraud.^[12]"

^{"Since December 2017 Saakashvili is suspected (by the General Prosecutor of Ukraine) of receiving financing from a "criminal group" linked to the ousted (during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution) Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.[26][26][27]}"

^{"In September, 2012, during Saakashvili's presidency, a video taken inside Tbilisi prison Gldani #8 showing prisoners being beaten and sodomized was released to the public.[79] Georgian Minister of Correction, Probation and Legal Assistance Khatuna Kalmakhelidze was forced to resign over the scandal.[80] Human rights organizations including the U.N. Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement expressing outrage over the video.[81][82]"}

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