Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

BLUEJACKET said:

The Russians resent all Caucasians peoples

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Err, excuse me, but that's your opinion (and maybe that of the Russians themselves) only. That doesn't justify the Russian prescence there. How would they like it if someone invaded Chechnya and kept the Russians out by stationing an armed force there?

I think we're heading into dangerous political territories.. :nono:

Lets bring the topic back to more relevant issues.

Eg Does anybody know how many russian troops are stationed in Georgia ?

Does Russia have plans to increase it's presence ?

BLUEJACKET said:

The Russians resent all Caucasians peoples, Christian & Muslim alike, not just Georgians- Azerbaidzanis, Chechens, Dagestanis, Circassians, etc.- they were living better even in the Soviet times, many by selling flowers in the dead of winter in Moscow & other cities. Now there are many organized crime groups all across Russia contolling a lot of businesses.

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The reason all this going on is geopolitical: there is a lot of oil & pipelines in the area, plus the region is between the Black & Caspian Seas - the only 2 warm seas that are close to the European Russia. Should this area be lost, Russia itself may disintegrate sooner along regional/ethnic/religious lines.

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So true! Russian President V. Putin has ordered a crackdown on illeagal immigrants targeting Georgians.



Russia Starts Deporting Illegal Immigrants From Georgia
Created: 06.10.2006 14:48 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:48 MSK, 4 hours 38 minutes ago

MosNews

Russia deported on Friday a planeload of Georgians accused of illegal immigration in its latest blow against its southern neighbor, the Reuters news agency reports.

“I can confirm that the plane with Georgians deported from Moscow will arrive in Tbilisi at 1600 local time (1200 GMT),” Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nino Kajaia said.

The Georgians were rounded up in police raids over the past few days as part of a wider Russian campaign of sanctions against Tbilisi. Moscow acted after Georgia briefly arrested four Russian officers on spying charges.

The Georgian deportees were taken to a military airport outside Moscow and put on a plane bound for Tbilisi.

Officials would not say how many Georgians were on board.

Interfax news agency at first said 130 Georgians would be deported on the flight and later quoted an unnamed official as saying 143 were on the plane.

Russia has so far cut transport links with Georgia, stopped issuing visas to Georgians and raided Georgian businesses in Moscow but Friday’s deportations were the first mass removal of Georgians from Russia since the current crisis broke.

Georgia orders Russia to stop military excersise near it's border



Georgia Urges Russia to Stop Military Excercises at Its Border
Created: 04.10.2006 09:22 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:27 MSK

MosNews

Georgia on Tuesday urged Russia to stop naval exercises near the countries’ sea border, calling them a threat to regional peace and a violation of the United Nations charter, Reuters reports.

Georgia’s UN envoy Irakli Alasania made the comments amid a spying row that has chilled relations between the ex-Soviet neighbors to the worst level in a decade.

“Georgia calls upon the Russian side to immediately cease these trainings that are directed against the national interests of Georgia and threatens peace and security in the entire region,” Alasania told a news conference.

Russia, which has been irked by Georgia’s pursuit of NATO and EU membership, has cut rail, air and postal links with Georgia and recalled its ambassador over the arrest of four Russian soldiers on spying charges. Georgia released the four on Monday in what it termed a goodwill gesture.

Alasania said the peace process between Georgia and its breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia needed to be overhauled. Despite their rocky ties, he said Georgia still wanted Moscow to be part of the solution.

Abkhazia won effective independence from Georgia in a 1992-1993 war, and Moscow props up the province by paying pensions, issuing Russian passports and allowing cross-border traffic as well as stationing peacekeepers there.

Georgia accuses Russia of backing Abkhaz separatists, which Moscow denies. The United Nations has monitors stationed in Abkhazia.

Russia’s UN Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said on Tuesday he had withdrawn a draft UN Security Council statement that would have rebuked Georgia for its actions against the Russian soldiers and in Abkhazia. Instead, he said he was introducing a resolution extending the UN observer force and warning Georgia to refrain from further “provocative actions.”

Alasania said Georgia remained committed to a peaceful solution in the region but Russia had “not yet made the strategic decision to be part of the solution rather than be part of the problem.”

“It is crystal clear that the Russian peacekeeping force is not an impartial, nor international contingency,” Alasania told a news conference. “It became the force that works to artificially alienate the sides from one another.”

“If the Russian government wishes to get back lost credibility as a facilitator in a conflict settlement, then it must act like one and behave responsibly,” he said.

With the USA preoccupied in Iraq Russia tries to assert itself in it's former sphere of influence.

In 1773 Herekle began efforts to gain Russian protection from the Turks, who were threatening to retake his kingdom. In this period, Russian troops intermittently occupied parts of Georgia, making the country a pawn in the explosive Russian-Turkish rivalry of the last three decades of the eighteenth century. After the Persians sacked Tbilisi in 1795, Herekle again sought the protection of Orthodox Russia.

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In 1801 Tsar Alexander I summarily abolished the kingdom of Kartli-Kakhetia, and the heir to the Bagratid throne was forced to abdicate. In the next decade, the Russian Empire gradually annexed Georgia's entire territory.

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Stalin, being Georgian himself, drew all borders in the 1920s just like the British and other European colonizers had done in Asia, Africa & ME. Now Putin is trying to salvage what's left of the Soviet Empire. I think his course will lead to more strife and eventual desintegration.
God forbid a new Russian civil war with tactical nukes!

FreeAsia2000 is correct. Let's limit our political discussion. But the subject is free flowing.

Eg Does anybody know how many russian troops are stationed in Georgia ?

Does Russia have plans to increase it's presence ?

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I don't. But it looks like those troops there will be widthdrawn soon.



Russia May Speed Up Military Bases Withdrawal From Georgia
Created: 06.10.2006 14:05 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:05 MSK

The two Russian military bases currently in Georgia — the 62nd Base in Akhalkalaki and the 12th in Batumi — do not contribute effectively to Russia’s security and their withdrawal ahead of schedule is justified, chairman of the Federation Council’s Committee on Defense and Security Viktor Ozerov said.

“In fact, our bases in Georgia are guaranteeing the security of the headquarters of the Russian group of forces in Tbilisi, as well as other facilities used in the military zone. In that context, I think that we should not wait until late 2008, and we should withdraw our units from Georgia’s territory ahead of schedule,” he told Interfax news agency on Friday.

“The faster Russian units are withdrawn, the fewer grounds for provocation Georgia will have,” he said.

“As far as the desire of Tbilisi to join NATO as soon as possible is concerned, despite all the statements of those opposed to such a development, Georgia is a sovereign state and only its people can decide on the military bloc to join,” Ozerov said

This could either mean that Russia wants to difuse the situation and is showing that it is mature and backing down a bit (I doubt that Russia will simply give in to Georgia though.) or it could mean that Russia has some sort of alterior motive, like wanting to remove its "peacekeeping" troops so Georgia can "liberate" the seperatist enclaves then get bogged down in a guerilla war in which the South Ossestians and Abkhazians are using Russian made weapons.

Russia & NATO Hold Joint Anti-Missile Exercises in Moscow
Created: 16.10.2006 17:17 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:17 MSK



MosNews

Russia and NATO began a theatre anti-missile defence staff exercise in Moscow on Monday, the ITAR-TASS news agency reports.

“The regular stage of the joint staff non-strategic theatre anti-missile defence exercise is being conducted by means of computer modelling methods,” officials of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Russian Defence Ministry told the agency.

They said the exercise, which is being held in the Russian capital at the Fourth Scientific Research Institute of the Russian Defence Ministry, would last until October 26. “Its main purpose is to practice and improve the joint procedures of planning and coordinating the actions of the commanding structures of the anti-aircraft and anti-missile defence units of Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance,” the officials noted.

President Vladimir Putin had stated in October 2003 that Russia was prepared to cooperate “with all the countries of the world and with our partners, including on the rather sensitive matter, such, for instance, as the establishment of anti-missile defence systems”.

Commenting on the idea of joint theatre anti-missile exercises later in October, George Robertson, who was NATO Secretary-General at that time, stated that Russia and the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance were working on the “operative compatibility” of the theatre anti-missile defence systems to protect troops in the course of joint operations.

The current exercise, an official of the Russian Defence Ministry said that the drill “is being held in an enlarged format with the participation of representatives from seventeen countries-members of the NATO bloc”.

The Moscow theatre anti-missile exercise is the third one in the series of such joint undertakings, held by the Russia-NATO Council. The first staff exercise was held in two stages: in December 2003 on the basis of the NATO Consultations, Command and Control Agency in the Netherlands (The Hague), and in March 2004 —- on the U.S. “Schriever” air force base (Colorado Springs) at the Pentagon Joint National Integration Centre. The second staff exercise was held in March 2005 at the De Peel Royal Air Force Base of the Netherlands, the officials recalled.

Ukraine illegally sells 40 tanks to Georgia

This will keep the relations friendly! Now way..more fuel for the fire.



Ukraine Illegally Sells 40 Tanks to Georgia — Report
Created: 18.10.2006 12:17 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:28 MSK, 8 hours 4 minutes ago

Ukraine has been illegally selling arms to Georgia amid escalating tensions between the South Caucasus republic and Russia, Ukraine’s Communist party leader quoted by RIA Novosti said Tuesday.

“Ukraine has already delivered 40 tanks to Georgia,” Petro Symonenko said.

Symonenko said Kiev is facing the risk of having sanctions imposed on it by the international community for illegally supplying arms to warring sides.

However Ukraine’s Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko asked Symonenko to fulfil his deputy’s duties instead of “going into hysterics”.

“Ukraine, in particular [state arms trader] Ukrspetseksport, indeed sold 16 tanks to Georgia last year. This is open information. It is clear to everyone. The UN has never questioned Ukraine about this. By doing so, we have fulfilled our duties and breached not a single law. The Communists should calm down. They should better take care of passing the state budget for 2007 rather than making noise in the media,” he told Ukrainian Inter TV channel.

Georgian President Saakashvili has pledged to restore Tbilisi’s control over the self-proclaimed republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. His defense minister has also said Georgian troops will celebrate New Year’s day in the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali.

On October 13, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a Russian-sponsored draft resolution on Georgia urging the ex-Soviet country to refrain from provocative actions in Abkhazia, and calling for an extension of the Russian peacekeeping mission in the region until April 15, 2007.

Russia retains a peacekeeping presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which gained de facto independence following bloody conflicts after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia’s leadership, which is currently embroiled in a spying row with Russia, accuses the Kremlin of supporting the breakaway regions’ drive for full independence.

Georgia’s relations with Russia went sour after President Mikheil Saakashvili came to power on the back of the “Rose Revolution” in 2003. Both the government and parliament have sought to remove Russian peacekeepers from conflict zones with two self-proclaimed republics, and to force the withdrawal of Russian troops from two Soviet-era bases that are due to close in 2008.

Relations were further strained in September of this year after NATO ministers, meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, endorsed the so-called Intensified
Dialogue with Georgia. Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced the decision, saying closer ties between the alliance and the ex-Soviet nation could “seriously affect the political, military and economic interests of Russia and undermine the fragile status quo in the Caucasus.”

The arrest in Georgia of four Russian army officers on espionage charges a week later sent relations to a new low, prompting Moscow to suspend transportation and postal links with its Caucasus neighbor and to expel hundreds of Georgian migrants, regardless of Georgia releasing the officers, RIA Novosti adds.

What type of tank, T-72? It might be APCs or IFVs, the media tends to call anything with a gun on it a tank.

Finn McCool said:

What type of tank, T-72? It might be APCs or IFVs, the media tends to call anything with a gun on it a tank.

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I really do not know. What ever it is you can be sure the Russians are not happy about the deal.

ff And I agree with you about the media. For instance when the news here in the US calls a USN rescue swimmer a Frogman or a USN or USMC helo a "chopper"(Army has Choppers the USN/USMC have helo's!!!) or misidentify militray hardware.. ..I think wadda a bunch of dummies...ff