(Left: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev)

So it seems that the French have brokered a deal between the two countries. For a while there it was looking like it might fall flat on it’s face; Medvedev claimed he would only sign once Saakashvili had. Russian troops are remaining in S.Ossetia for the time being.

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• Russia could strike Poland over U.S. shield (Reuters). See yesterday’s post for more on the missile-hosting agreement Poland signed up to on Thursday.

From what I gather, Col-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn (who is Russian deputy-chief general of staff), gave an interview in which he stated that under current Russian military doctrine, an attack on Poland would be possible. This doctrine was re-worked in 2000, apparently to allow for a broader spectrum in which nuclear attacks would be acceptable. I will allow Nogovitsyn to further clarify the rationale:

“The USA is engaged in an anti-missile defense for its own government, and not for Poland. And Poland, in deploying (elements of the system) opens itself to a military strike. That is 100 percent[...] It is written clearly: We will use it in instances against governments that have nuclear weapons; against allies of countries with nuclear weapons, if they somehow enable them.”

Sounds a whole lot familiar to me. The US, and even our own country have used this rhetoric again and again – you just need to switch some of the words out for ‘those who harbour terrorists’ / ‘those who hinder freedom’ / ‘those who hate our great country and our allies’.  But of course, when the shoe is on the other foot, Russians are “evil [...] 21st century barbarians.” (Saakashvili)

George Soros, for the uninitiated, is a Hungarian-American financial speculator worth approximately $9 billion. Why is he the topic of this post? Well, he’s been pouring his personal wealth (over $6 billion of it so far) into his ‘Open Society Institute‘ and its various branches.

As a result, he’s been subject to some pretty significant allegations about his role in international politics. In short, he’s supposed to have orchestrated the Rose Revolution in Georgia that took Mikhail Saakashvili to power. And he’s supposedly ‘the financial and political godfather’ of Barack Obama. (click read more…)

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“Before I say anything else, I just want to say that I was running from Georgian troops bombing our city. Not Russian troops. I want to say thank you to the Russian troops that were helping us out.” – Amanda Kokoeva

Just stumbled across this gem from Fox News, broadcast yesterday. It’s reminiscent of so many other occasions on which Fox has deliberately cut footage to guests in order to prevent alternate discourses from receiving airtime.

A girl who happened to be visiting relatives in S.Ossetia at the time violence broke out along with her aunt, whose house was burnt down as a result of the fighting, talk openly on Fox News about placing the blame at the feet of the Georgian government.

Incidentally, if you would like to learn more about how Fox manipulates its’ audience please watch the excellent documentary, Outfoxed (available online at that link) and visit Brave New Films or subscribe to their YouTube channel.

Source: BBC

“US defence chief Robert Gates has said he sees no prospect of using US military force in Georgia, following its week-long conflict with Russia.

But he warned that US-Russia relations could be adversely affected for years as a result of Moscow’s actions.

His words came as Russia’s foreign minister said Georgia would not regain control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia at the heart of the row.

Meanwhile, Russia has begun handing back the town of Gori to the Georgians.

However, a Russian general in the area said Moscow’s troops would remain nearby for several days to remove weaponry and help restore law and order in Gori, which lies some 15km (10 miles) from South Ossetia.”

The story has also just been picked up here, from which I quote:

“He sees no need to invoke American military force in the war between Russia and Georgia and that U.S.-Russian relations could suffer for years if Moscow doesn’t retreat. The White House said it was ignoring Russian “bluster” about Georgia never regaining disputed border regions.”

Myself, I find it difficult to envisage a more strained relationship between the two. Russian oil production and the rising economy vs. the struggling US economy and peak oil theory has most likely played a big part in fostering what residual hostility was already there. Oh, and the Nationalism. Assuming the references to ‘a new cold war’ that have been rampant in the news over the past 24 hours are just hyperbole (let’s hope).

I do wonder where it’s going to go from here.

Via Reuters:

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington had to choose between partnership with Moscow and the Georgian leadership which he described as a “virtual project”.“We understand that this current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States, but one day the United States will have to choose between defending its prestige over a virtual project or real partnership which requires joint action,” Lavrov told reporters.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday demanded Russia resolve a crisis with Georgia and said he would dispatch U.S. military aircraft with humanitarian supplies.

Lavrov, speaking to reporters at a state residence outside Moscow, hit back, saying Moscow had warned Washington about the dangers of backing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“Bush’s speech said nothing of how Georgia was armed all these years, including by the United States,” Lavrov said.

“We have more than once warned our partners that this is a dangerous game. It (the Bush speech) said nothing about what had happened on Aug 8, when Western leaders maintained silence when Tskhinvali became a target of massive bombing,” Lavrov said.”

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In every single sodding sentence uttered by American officials, Saakashvili is referred to as the ‘democratically-elected president of a sovereign nation’.

We certainly seem to have a very short memory. In 2003, the US funded ‘Revolution of Roses’ brought Saakashvili to power via a thoroughly un-democratic coup.

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Over the past few days, the news media has been full of quotes such as these:

‘The US stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia and insists the territorial sovereignty of Georgia be respected’ – George Bush

The obvious implication is that South Ossetia is a part of Georgia, and the situation is framed as a simple invasion of a smaller country (Georgia) by a much larger one (Russia). And this neatly ties in with Bush’s decision to send ‘humanitarian aid’, (in the form of military forces), to heroically support the little guy. (Never mind the 1000 American troops in Georgia recently for training, or the American funding and equipping of the Georgian military since 2002).

But, as Russian deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov said on BBC’s hardtalk:

“We recognise the sovereignty and independence of Georgia … But territorial integrity, it’s just another matter. South Ossetia and Abkhazia never were part of Georgia as an independent country”.

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Source: Georgiandaily.com

Details can be found here of a joint military training programme known as ‘Immediate Response 2008′, which took place at the Vaziani military base in Georgia only a couple of weeks ago. It involved 1000 US soldiers.

There’s been little to no mention of this in the mainstream coverage of the recent conflict. Searches for Immediate Response 2008 on the BBC website come up blank, as too on ITN news, Sky etc. Most news organisations don’t even seem to return any hits for the Vaziani base. (Though there is this Guardian article from 2002, which refers to US plans to set up a ‘terrorism school’ [sic] at the base. I can only assume they meant ‘anti-terrorism school’, though maybe it was a Freudian slip).

So was there a media blackout? Well, on the morning of July 15, the day the initiative began, Reuters covered it, even being so explicit as to use the term ‘wargames’.

U.S. troops start training exercise in Georgia (Reuters, July 15 2008)

The Associated Press carried it too, on the same day. Maybe we’re a bit strange here at One More Promethean, but we just thought that information might be relevant to understanding current affairs. We could be wrong.

I really am having a hard time finding any mentions of this minor detail in any of the recent news coverage (I’m mainly going on the BBC website here,  but it seems the same goes for ITV, Sky and the rest). The Georgian military bases are just called ‘Georgian military bases’, and the Georgian army is apparently just the ‘Georgian army’. And who’d believe that Georgia would dare attack Russia?

Maybe Joe Public already knows all about the Krtsanisi US military base right next to Tbilisi, but you’d think it’d be worth a quick mention anyway. Y’know, just as a refresher course in any of the Georgian geopolitics we might have missed in school.

Still, at least there’s not a conspiracy to delete the BBC News archives:-

US role in Georgia alarms Russia – BBC  (Feb 2002)

US army trainers land in Georgia – BBC (May 2002)

US army steps up Georgian training – BBC (Sept 2002)

US military will stay in Georgia - BBC (Jan 2004)

See? It even forms an understandable narrative and everything. Shocking.

But that’s not relevant to coverage of a Russia/Georgia conflict, is it? What is worth referring to are such delicious George Bush quotes as…

“Russia’s government must respect Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”. (source: BBC)

We’ll just ignore the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, then. Oh, and how’s this for hypocrisy…

“[Russia] threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century”. (source: Guardian)

I guess this hinges on your particular definition of ‘democratic’, but I don’t think the Bush administration is an authority on the matter. In any case, President Chavez and President Ahmadinejad might take issue with Bush’s position.

I’ll not pretend to know anything much about this situation – I don’t. The point is, however, that the mainstream news is not really helping to alleviate my ignorance.