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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia | |
| Abkhaz fear Georgia planning to retake region by force | |
| 2005-12-10 | |
| Sukhumi believes a renewal of Georgian-Abkhaz fighting is a possibility and is sure that Tbilisi is preparing for it. "The Georgian authorities lack time. They failed to settle the conflict politically, because we defined our course long ago, and that is independence and Abkhazia can accept neither extended autonomy nor special status. Tbilisi has begun a buildup," Abkhaz Defense Minister, Lt. Gen. Sultan Sosnaliyev said in an interview published by in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper on Friday. The Georgian army has qualitatively changed recently, he said. "The Georgian military budget is the largest in the Transcaucasus. It has reached the level of $300 million and is equal to the entire annual Georgian budget in the times of Eduard Shevardnadze. U.S. experts train Georgian soldiers and officers study abroad. Modern arms and equipment are delivered to the country. Military training is carried out constantly. They are creating this army for a reason," Sosnaliyev said. In his opinion, Georgian-Abkhaz war will break out when the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline begins full operation.
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| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #10 If it's OK for Georgia to break away from Russia, then its OK for Abhazia to break away from Georgia. Anyways, Georgians are letting Chechens use their territory for refuge/staging raids on Russians ---thereby forfeiting any claims to my sympathy. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-12-10 23:00 |
| #9 Yes, at least that's what I remember him saying a while back. It does rather fit, no? |
| Posted by: anon 2005-12-10 21:22 |
| #8 Ah. I didn't realize he is writing from Belgium. I lived near Brussels for a year when the trailing daughters were young -- a great deal now becomes clear. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-12-10 21:16 |
| #7 Plus he's enormously ignorant about the US political system, but as I said, he's posting from Belgium and such ignorance is, alas, pretty common in those parts. |
| Posted by: anon 2005-12-10 21:12 |
| #6 Hey, cut lyot a break. It's late at night over there in Belgium and he's having a wet dream, that's all. |
| Posted by: anon 2005-12-10 21:11 |
| #5 How could the presidency [sic] be struggling for survival? Bush won definitively (twice!) and cannot run again, thus his political survival is guaranteed until his successor is sworn in to office in January, 2009; the Democratic party does not appear to have any viable candidates for the position, nor a party platform more meaningful than, "You Republicans are all meanies, and we disagree with everything you've done ... even if we did vote for it at the time"; and a majority of the U.S. population is getting a perspective on the situation -- from relatives, friends and community members actually involved in the fighting over there -- that is radically different from that put out by the the traditional news media and the professional pundits, who like to think they guide the peeepuls' thinking. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-12-10 21:02 |
| #4 Since the US Presidency is struggling for it's own survival What the hell have you been drinking? In no way is the American Presidency "struggling for it's own survival". What you may not understand is that this country's people are much more unified than much of our own rhetoric (and that of the foreign and our own media) would have you believe. Yeah, we have our internal disagreements from time to time - but make NO mistake - judging that to be a weakness of the President - or more importantly the People of this country - would be a HUGE, MONUMENTOUS, PRODIGIOUSLY COSTLY, and possibly FATAL mistake by any party or entity who would assume that simply because we have some internal disagreements we are, or have become, weak and ineffectual. |
| Posted by: Mussolini 2005-12-10 20:55 |
| #3 lyot, In no sense is the US Presidency struggling for its own survival. The propaganda over there is getting to you. |
| Posted by: Grereth Flaiger9079 2005-12-10 17:27 |
| #2 Since the US Presidency is struggling for it's own survival, it's gonna be interesting to see how Russia will react. There's not much leeway for Georgia to act against Abkhazia these days, and it could easily backlash. |
| Posted by: lyot 2005-12-10 16:59 |
| #1 Abchasia is a part of Georgia whose separatistic trends are flamed up by Russia. Russian government cannot forgive collapse of USSR and independence of Baltic states, Georgia, Ukraine etc. |
| Posted by: Nesvarbukas 2005-12-10 15:12 |
