"Is it? Then why do the people that live there think they are Russian citizens?"

In your case I will call it ignorance. In there case I will call it stupidity. The Russians do not even declare this area Russian territory. The simply said many in the area have Russian passports. Even if all of them were Russian citizens the land belongs to Georgia not Russia.

You must be a popular Democrat in your area. You should run for office since you can speak the things you say with a straight face, much like BO does.

Do some reading Frank, the people in South Ossetia have wanted to break away from Georgia for a while now. I say let them secede and be done with the bickering.

I apologize then. Seeing as you did not quote somebody, and your post was right after mine, I was lead to believe you were putting words in my mouth.

Except that California isn't wanting to break away from the US and join Russia but being forced to stay, is not full of Russian citizens, and is not being slaughtered for no reason, then yes. Not exactly the best analogy now that you think about it, huh?

Firstly, where do you get those numbers? There was no more than 50000-70000 people* there, the two major ethnic groups were Ossetian and Georgian, with a handful of Russians.

Are you also taking into account that the so-called South-Ossetian government appears to consist of ex-KGB/FSB agents, with the chief income from weapons and drugs smuggling - under the protection of Russian "peace-keepers", in return creating disturbances and continuing to destabilize the region.

It is hard to say anything about this particular assault (well it may have been a bit too heavy-handed) but you seem to be ignoring that the South-Ossetian "peace-keeping" units who had been firing at Georgian villages for some time operated under the protection of the Russian army.

I wonder how many believe that there were 1500-2000 (civilian?) casulties in Tshvinvali. It appears that the numbers might be closer to 20-60. Taking also into account that there were lots of armed people, it gets harder and harder to call it going after the civilian population.

Well they did. They also don't show signs of pulling out, despite peace being signed, and they also seem to be unable/unwilling to control the territories they "liberated" (news of looting, attacks on journalists).

Soviet citizens???

---------------------

• Apparently South-Ossetian leader might have been inflating the number of Russian citizen. As the territory was financed by Moscow (pensions etc), it may have been in his interest to report more people, to steal the excess money.

Another thing is that Russian passport holders are required to have an official place of living. As it appears that Russia can't register people to live in foreign countries, most of these people are "officially" living in North-Ossetia and other parts of Russia. Which does sort of raise the question, WTF was this mass of people doing in a place where they weren't supposed to be in the first place?

Frank is right.

1) who drew the map and established the territorial boundaries of Georgia?
2) when the soviet union dissolved who maintained those boundaries?
3) who agreed in treaty and deed that the former soviet republics are soveriegn nations?
4) what actions precipitated this event?
5) who by inaction allowed this to occur?

Since you people refuse to educate your selves and prefer ignorance and whatever mass media feeds your lazy minds I will tell you:

1) Joseph Stalin (who was from Gori) established the current territorial boundaries of present day Georgia in the 1930's. South Ossetia has been in Georgia since.

2) Boris Yeltsin allowed the former republics to retain their geographic boundaries when the USSR dissolved.

3) Russia allowed this and has recognized the soveriegnity of the various former soviet states in numerous treaties and UN resolutions.

4) NATO gave Kosovo independance over STRONG Russian protests. The Russians were pissed. NATO refused to allow Georgia and Ukraine to begin the process of joining NATO for fear it would anger the Russians.

5) The EU and NATO

The former soviet republics are scared as hell. Poland, how are you feeling right now? Would you like to see Russia expand into Belarus and Ukrain again?

EU how are you feeling? All your imported energy comes from Russia, the only part that doesn't come thru Russia is the oil and gas that comes thru Georgia.

So you see it's not a US vs Russia problem. All you EU cowards are going to appease yourselves into another continental war, and then it will be our problem.

Thanks in advance.

"Do some reading Frank, the people in South Ossetia have wanted to break away from Georgia for a while now. I say let them secede and be done with the bickering."

That is a matter for Georgians to work out, not the USA or Russia. You are the one that needs to do some reading on how the concept of countries and boundaries work.

"I think my dad summarized it nicely."

It sounds like your dad really loves the NBC news channel. I have seen this crazy tilt in logic from the lefty sites. A little of most of what your dad said is true but it is mostly ignoring the other side of the story (the Georgian side).

"One of the teachers said it's questionable to travel to a country in war."

People still visit the USA and it is at war.

"Except that California isn't wanting to break away from the US and join Russia but being forced to stay, is not full of Russian citizens, and is not being slaughtered for no reason, then yes. Not exactly the best analogy now that you think about it, huh?"

You are missing out on the joke. I was making fun of you. I was not trying to make a good analogy. I was trying to use logic that was even more warped than yours. I admit it is a difficult job to do.

"You realize that Canada isn't in the EU right?"

Birds of a feather fly together. Basically Canadians like you are European co-dependants.

Wow frank, where do you get this stuff? You have to be joking. theres no way anyone could be serious about the stuff you say. Especially if you actually read what others have said to you.

I mean seriously, you haven't even managed to pick up the forum mockup, even when it was directly pointed out to you, so we KNOW you don't bother reading what people say. You have ALL the ear marks of a professional forum troll.

Please feel free to prove me wrong. but you'd actually have to start proving the wild and outlandish claims you make, and stop insulting people all the time

Few posts above I've written that imposed "good" is actually evil. Basically what you did in Iraq was bringing your type of democracy into a country with different cultural background and habits. By the way your "democracy" (I would say mediocracy) is nice example of paradox - theorethicaly it shouldn't work, but it works (I have this from a guy who study law).

Or maybe you don't know the world history.

Don't forget that large portion of your "nation" are former Europeans. Many of them low-classes, who wanted to start a new life. And your history began in 17th century.

Oh yes, if your person is anything to go by...

nonnus:
Basically Russia was solving old mistakes that predecessors of today's ruling oligarchy made in the past.

Double standards. It's ok for Kossovo to be independent, but it's not ok for Osettia to be independent.

I think Frank should be silenced until he figures out how to use BBCode. He's been a member for over 2 years, ffs.

Who the fuck is OICWRETARDO?

Oh, I see! Retardo! (?)