I’m getting in the neck from my russkaya zhena cos of this. You’d think ordinary punters were the cause of the ‘Eng. lang. mASS media biases’ In fairness, our own national station here, http://www.rte.ie ,doesnt seem to be heavily biased and is just reporting stuff it hears.

”Russia may have (expectedly) won the military campaign but it clearly lost on the the information front.”
I think a lot of that is down to the fact that Saakashvilli was at least to some extent supported or favoured by the US. The Russians dont help themselves though: Sergei Markov ranted and raved like a lunatic on the BBC the other day, it was actually embarrassing (with no help from the ‘biased’ BBC either) and Putin has a face on him like a slapped arse 24/7. They should let Lavrov (a genuinely cool customer) and the witty Sergei Ivanov do the talking. It shouldnt be forgotten that bombing villages is bad PR too and lets face it, levelling Grozny twice has hardly helped Russia’s cred either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vote_Saakashvili.JPG

But you love conspiracy theories!

Anyway, it is amusing that after 8 years of a \’sleeves rolled up\’ president, our media would still be under the impression that this is a signal of competence and action.

The cameraman who took the pictures in Tskinvali that CNN used as a background to a story about Gori,was interviewed and he said incidentally in the interview that he was the last one to see the Russian peace keepers in and that they were down to seven rounds a man and then they were overrun. My impression was that he was an honest Joe in shock from his experiences and pretty upset and not b/sing for propaganda. The main purpose of the interview was to express his outrage with CNN because he risked his life to take pictures in a real fight and they used them for a bogus one.

Incidentally I increasingly do not share the view that Saakashivili acted alone. My reading is that he was told by the elements in the US administration that he could have a go at a quick takeover but if he failed he was on his own. I think there was close, if not actual participation of US, Israeli and Ukrainian special forces. As Dick Marty who revealed the Extraordinary rendition business.,said “time will do its work the dynamics of truth will operate”. But do not expect to find out about it in the MSM too much. Yet again there has been a major drive to bury what happened particlualry at the start of this affair because it is too embarrassing for the NATO/US etc. The mad gambler Saakashvili line being spun is a convenient theory that suits everybody except Russia.

btw, lavrov is claiming that Georgian peacekeepers turned on the Russian peacekeepers with whom they were serving side by side. Does anyone know if there is any truth to that?

If in two months or a month (or maybe even less) Israel “suddenly” bombs the crap out of Iran then it means that our government (USA) made a deal with Russians. Basically, “we’ll give you Georgia and you’ll give us Iran” strategic deal.

If, on the other hand, no one attacks Iran by November/December then it means that Mr Saakashvili made the decision to attack South Ossetia on his own.

If that’s the case then unfortunately Mr Saakashvili is turned out to be an untrustworthy character with serious issues inside his head. Mikheil would be a complete waste of our taxpayers money and a serious risk to our reputation. In short: He would be a liability. We would need to kick his ass really hard so that no one else in Eastern Europe follows this maniac’s example. Countries like Moldova and Ukraine could be in danger if we won’t punish this guy.

It’s time to shake off cold war era prejudices and embrace Russia, which can (and should be) our ally and partner.