Quote: Simon Stratton @ August 12 2008, 8:54 AM BSTThis may have been already answered, but does anyone know the history here? Did Russia give Georgia the Ossetia province when the USSR broke up? And in that case, why do they now want it back - apart from an excuse to depose the pro-Western Georgian Government?
Finally a question to the point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_South_Ossetia_war should clear up at least the basic points.
Quote: Simon Stratton @ August 12 2008, 8:54 AM BSTThis may have been already answered, but does anyone know the history here? Did Russia give Georgia the Ossetia province when the USSR broke up? And in that case, why do they now want it back - apart from an excuse to depose the pro-Western Georgian Government?
I'm not too good with the background of the region (I'm sure sooty can expand on it here, if he can manage facts without speculation and bizarre statements 
), but the reason for the invasion is supposedly that South Ossetia has a large population of Russian citizens, who the Russian Government claims were being attacked (or something) by the Georgian police/military, and thus needed protecting.
Everything seemed so much clearer when we has the USSR. It was a black day when the Iron Curtain fell.
Quote: chipolata @ August 12 2008, 10:38 AM BSTEverything seemed so much clearer when we has the USSR. It was a black day when the Iron Curtain fell.
Basically:
Commies = bad
Russian establishment = commies
Russian establishment = bad
Russian women can be quite sexy. Look at all those hot Ruskie tennis playing girls. And remember Tatu? They were hot.
Quote: WrongTale @ August 12 2008, 10:29 AM BSTFinally a question to the point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_South_Ossetia_war should clear up at least the basic points.
Ta.
"In the early 2000s, it was reported that 95% of population in South Ossetia were Russian citizens"
Well, Russia did pop over there with a load of trucks and give out free Russian passports. It's all about the oil, as usual.
Quote: Aaron @ August 12 2008, 10:36 AM BSTI'm not too good with the background of the region (I'm sure sooty can expand on it here, if he can manage facts without speculation and bizarre statements
Not feeling the love today.
Quote: chipolata @ August 12 2008, 10:44 AM BSTRussian women can be quite sexy. Look at all those hot Ruskie tennis playing girls. And remember Tatu? They were hot.
Not quite sure what political point you're making, but I agree with it.
Tatu were rougher than Izal bog roll sprinkled with sand.
Quote: sootyj @ August 12 2008, 10:51 AM BSTTatu were rougher than Izal bog roll sprinkled with sand.
They were quite sexy in that video where they wore schoolgirl uniforms and got rained on.
Quote: chipolata @ August 12 2008, 10:44 AM BSTRussian women can be quite sexy.
They're like the anti-French.
Quote: sootyj @ August 12 2008, 10:51 AM BSTTatu were rougher than Izal bog roll sprinkled with sand.
Carla Bruni is quite sexy. She's French.
Quote: chipolata @ August 12 2008, 10:56 AM BSTCarla Bruni is quite sexy. She's French.
Italian. (Does that make it better?)
Quote: chipolata @ August 12 2008, 10:56 AM BSTCarla Bruni is quite sexy. She's French.
Actually, she's Italian.
I suppose you could go into fine details about how Ossetia fell apart, but the answers really quite crude.
The USSR went almost overnight from one of 2 superpowers, to the CIS a broken impoverished state. Crime, corruption and 2 hopeless presidents made this far worse.
A side effect was they left pipelines, military equipment, and millions pf citizens in what were now foreign countries.
The fact that these citizens were often second class citizens, the weapons sold, and the pipelines etc used to earn much money were all marks of humiliation.
The decision of many of these countries to join NATO, was a mark of further humiliation to Russia. Russia was to become a small irrelevant power, surrounded by enemies on all sides.
As such Putin was voted in on very much the basis of rolling this back. He reantionalised almost all the energy companies and has used them to influence the rest of Europe, and punish central Europe.
Georgia is the first military example of this resurgence, except for Chechnya (which was an actual Russian republic).
n.b. South Ossetia was promised independence in the Ribbentropp pact of 1933, it also tried to join the USSR when in 1991 the USSR was breaking up, around the same time Georgia banned regional parties and made Georgian the national language. There was even a short war.
In keeping control of Ossetia Georgia has been distinctly undemocratic. The 2008 occupation was an illegal use of military force. But they've been figthing an insurrection there similar to the IRA, PLO, with Russia offering lots of covert military support to destabilise the region.
Thinking about it, it's very similar to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.