Monthly Archives: August 2008

If Putin was an American politician, what would he be?  He is conservative, deeply religious, a patriot, and strong partisan for Russian traditions.

Given this, I doubt we would have seen Putin strutting about on the DNC’s American Idol-esque stage, swearing his undying, almost cultic allegiance to Barak Obama.  It’s more likely we would find him preparing to jet to St. Paul to rouse the base in support of McCain.  For some, Putin’s Republican affinities are all too clear: Putin is a closet neocon and the his real intent of his interview with CNN was to cast a veiled vote for John McCain.

It is this last point that I find interesting.  Mostly because the big question has been what Putin was thinking when he asserted that the US might be behind the Georgian War.  Bad information?  Kooky conspiracy thinking.  An age old Russian paranoia?  Or was he somehow trapped in the ..read more

How many Ossetians died as the result of Georgia’s attack?  The numbers have been a constant point of speculation over the last two weeks.  In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Russia claimed 1,600-2,000 deaths.  By 21 August the Financial Times was reporting that the Russians could only confirm 133 civilian deaths, though Boris Salmakov of the Russian prosecutor’s office warned that the number could climb. Human Rights Watch claimed that only 44 deaths based on an interview with a doctor from the main hospital in Tskhinvali. Nevertheless, the 133 remained the accepted number in the Western press.

Now that accepted number should be revised.  According to Teimuraz Khugaev, head prosecutor for the South Ossetian government, the number now stands at 1,692 dead and about 1,500 wounded.  However, he added that “Information about new burials come to us every day.  It’s difficult for us to confirm all these figures.”

Time will tell ..read more

Here is how the Fox News interview with that American-Ossetian girl and her aunt is being reported in the Russian news.  I think even non-Russian speakers will get a sense of the hatchet job done on this just from the translator’s tone and coughing.  If Vesti really wants to get schooled in propaganda production, they might pay closer attention to Fox.  They’re masters at it.  From this grade school project, Vesti is hardly an apprentice.

Today, Human Rights Watch released more evidence of what it calls “the widespread torching of ethnic Georgian villages inside South Ossetia.”  According to satellite images provided by UNOSAT, the torching of five Georgian villages, Tamarasheni, Kekhvi, Kvemo Achabeti (Nizhnie Achaveti in Russian), Zemo Achabeti (Verkhnie Achaveti in Russian), and Kurta, occurred on August 10, 12, 13, 17, 19 and 22.

For some of the visual evidence collected by HRW, see its photo essay “Burning and Looting of Ethnic Georgian Villages in South Ossetia”

UNOSAT satellite photos are:

Fires by date (high resolution, 3.3MB; low resolution, 1.6MB) Destroyed ethnic Georgian villages (high resolution, 26.7MB; low resolution, 8.5MB) Detailed satellite images of destroyed ethnic Georgian villages (10.2MB)

These acts of vengeance and ethnic cleansing were corroborated by Human Rights Watch researchers, Georgian refugees, and Ossetian militiamen “who openly admitted that the houses were being burned by their associates, explaining that the objective was to ensure that ethnic Georgians ..read more

A colleague sent me this cartoon from the 1 September issue of the New Yorker.  It’s quite an appropriate addendum to “Loving Cold War II.”

So far it’s just a short clip .  Hopefully, CNN will make the whole interview available.  But this clip contains what everyone is talking about.  Namely, Putin’s suggestion that the Bush Administration provoked this war to help John McCain.  I think Putin made a big PR blunder.  His words will be sent through the American spin cycle so fast that I’m sure by tomorrow pundits will be calling for blood.