I'm from Ukraine and more so from
ex-USSR. I've been learning history including modern for all my life
(I'm 33) from inside the USSR and outside of it (Canadian
University)...
We have both American and Russian
television at our home and have had luxury of being able to observe
both sides of the story, not just American propaganda of it. Besides
that, my friend and I just returned from our trip to Ukraine, where
we also saw the difference between Ukrainian anti-Russian
propaganda and actual opinions of the civil population that stopped
trusting Ukrainian government for numerous obvious reasons.
First of all, Putin is NOT "the
marauding predator", he is a dream leader for all the post-soviet
countries, should they be as lucky as Russia has been. In fact,
after whole bunch of stupid rulers of both Russian and Soviet eras
Putin is the one who might as well be "crowned" by title "The Great"
since he's been commonly considered the best for his country by
Russian people and political experts since Catherine The Great
(1761-1791). Needless to say that is the reason big enough
already for Americans to try every possibility to diminish him in
the eyes of the world.
Secondly, "marvelous" Georgian society
happened to choose, let's say, not so marvelous president who
attacked (!!!) the civil territory of Southern Osetia, not the
Russian army, and now complains that Russia stopped him from
bringing down the democratic attempt of Osetians to strive for
their independence.
After collapse of USSR a lot of Soviet
territories that previously for centuries were parts of Russia were
taken by newly made states according to previous administrative
divisions made by Soviet government mostly for economic purposes.
Good hot example of it is Crimea, the territory brought to Russia in
result of Russian-Turkish War (1783-1789) (or close to this time
frame, I write by memory), - historical event not even
closely answering the question why Ukraine now have any legitimate
rights to claim that territory to be theirs. Even the ethnic group
of people that historically lives there (Crimean tatars) have
nothing in common with Ukrainians, not even religion (they are
muslims), not to mention that economic development of the region
after majority of muslims migrated from there to Turkey in 18th
century prince Potyomkin (Catherine's governor of the land) was
giving to Russian former serfs as a deal "freedom from serfdom +
land as a gift in exchange for being administratively tight to the
region" because the land was so poor there nobody wanted to deal
with it. And now when the province turned to be a pearl of Black Sea
coast by Russians Ukraine claims it to be theirs, even against the
will of Crimean population itself. How come Putin didn't attempt to
take it by force if he is such a predator?
As for Georgia, take a glimpse in a
history as well to see that it was Georgian princes more than 400
years ago who begged Russia for protection against Muslim invasions
that regularly devastated the land on a basis of common religion (Byzantian
Christianity). Of course, when Communism struck Russia Georgian
devoted Christians suffered from it just as much as Russians did.
But it was the ideological movement not the nationalistic one, and
the slum buildings where Georgians live today were commonly built
there starting from Stalin's era who was Georgian!
Now it is important to remember that in
the center of this conflict is Osetia, the land historically
belonging to a large Caucasian ethnic group that is not Georgian. In
the end of USSR it also was administratively divided between Georgia
and Russia. As one would expect, one part of it sooner or later
started to live way more prosperous life than the other one, so the
other one started to revolt in order to join the more prosperous
one. That's how Southern Osetia in Georgia for quite a while now
caused trouble to Georgian government seeking independence and
reunion with it's better living Russian part in Northern Osetia. Saakashvili gave up the diplomacy and attempted to calm it down by
force just like his predecessor Gamsahurdia who started the civil
war with Abkhazia in 1990s on the similar political ground. If
Russia didn't defend Osetia it would fall as a victim of stronger
force just like Abkhazia did to Georgia in 1990s, but Putin proved
to this idiot Saakashvili that American interest in the
country isn't everything and for every force there is always a
bigger force can be found. So great for him!!!
How many Osetians' interviews from the
place of conflict have you seen or heard? I believe none. Because
even on American television recent talk-show the Osetian family
told that they were running from Georgians (not Russians) trying to
reach the Russian camps that offered the defense for Osetians.
Condoleesa Rice's attempt to compare
Russian actions to previous Soviet attack on Czechoslovakia in
spring 1968 was publicly turned down by Czech president himself when
he said: " I find this comparison extremely inadequate,
because Czechs didn't start to bomb Russian Carpaty in 1968 to
receive Russian bombing reply as Georgia received after its
aggression in Osettia."
Dmitry TO HEAR A PERSONAL ACCOUNT FROM A YOUNG GIRL WHO WAS IN SOUTH OSETIA WHEN GEORGIAN TROOPS ATTACKED, CLICK THIS LINK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fittrMv28WA |