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First Look scrum over Ukraine

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Last Friday, news site PandoDaily alleged a conflict of interest at First Look Media, the general-interest news site bankrolled by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and starring Glenn Greenwald. Donations by the Omidyar Network to pro-democracy groups also supported by the United States government, argued the piece, added up to a “journalistic conflict-of-interest of the worst kind: Omidyar working hand-in-glove with US foreign policy agencies to interfere in foreign governments, co-financing regime change with well-known arms of the American empire…”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/03/04/pierre-omidyar-joins-pandodaily-first-look-scrum-over-ukraine/
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
The protests in Ukraine organized by USAID, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Freedom House, George Soros’ Open Society Institute and a host of public-private NGOs have turned violent.
Read more at http://conservativeread.com/soros-supported-protests-turn-violent-in-ukraine/#bAWrzXm8MwOvCkIV.99
 

Steve

Well-known member
Obama spent a ton of our money to fund the uprising in Egypt as well..

no one is arguing or insinuating Obama has any foreign policy abilities..

Obama can't see the big picture..

but that still doesn't give Russia the right to invade.. and try to steal part of the Ukraine, like he did in Georgia.
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Hopefully obama has learned that there are dire consequences to some of his actions,

other countries are not going to stand around and be bullied by Barry.

And I have no doubt that obama has caused the deaths of more people in Ukraine in the past couple of months than the Russian troops will.
 

Steve

Well-known member
Russia Is Still Building a 'Rural Berlin Wall' Through Georgia

"Three days ago, they moved the fence 30 yards closer to my home," says Georgian farmer Georgi Chatlitschvi. "The Russian border guards told me my orchards were no longer mine—they were part of South Ossetia, not Georgia. Those apples were my livelihood. Now they sit behind the fence, on land they tell me is part of a different country."

In the near distance, the green, motion-sensitive fence erected by the Russians runs the entire length of the horizon. Behind it, on the South Ossetian side, sits the towering hulk of a Russian military base. Farther on, the Caucasus Mountains run northward, all the way into Russia.

Since Russia began building the fence in 2011—establishing a de facto border between Georgia and South Ossetia—injustices like the one Georgi describes have been a daily occurrence.

Dubbed a "rural Berlin wall" for all the villages it's split in two, the fence is advancing farther and farther into Georgian land, dividing families, destroying livelihoods, and casting a worrying sense of uncertainty over the entire region.

"I am a cattle herder—I don't know [about] these politics," says 54-year-old Elguja, as he stands among his cows. "Our village relies on these animals for income. If they wander across the border while grazing, I cannot get them back. I will be arrested for trespassing, and they will be gone forever."

In 2008, South Ossetia was the focus of a brief but brutal war between Russia and Georgia. When the Georgian government refused to accept South Ossetia’s independence, they tried to recapture it, invoking a massive Russian air and ground assault that lasted only five days but claimed more than 400 casualties, with 133,000 civilians displaced.

Since then, Russia has maintained a vast military presence in the region and continued to back South Ossetia and the neighboring breakaway state of Abkhazia, both economically and militarily.

Russia claims that this border is based on a Soviet administrative map of the territory from 1984, when Georgia was still under Soviet occupation. In reality, the '84 map, the current administrative borderline, and the fence’s actual route bear little resemblance.

Now, after Russian forces began dismantling them, the de facto border only has two checkpoints, effectively sealing South Ossetia from entry. Many villagers who've found themselves fenced in on the South Ossetian side are forced to cross "illegally" to access schools, jobs, health care, and relatives in Georgia.

Both NATO and the US State Department issued a call for Russia to dismantle the fence, but Putin's forces have continued building at will.

On the last section of the patrol, we come to the Georgian military stronghold overlooking the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. The whole city resembles some deserted, post-apocalyptic movie set. The buildings are skeletal, pockmarked with shells, or completely torn in half. There’s no movement, and the green fence and surveillance cameras along its southern edge seem an odd show of technology for such a desolate place. Looking at Tskhinvali, the idea of it as the seat of autonomous regional power in South Ossetia seams completely unfathomable.

"It’s not really about South Ossetia," says Irakli Porchkhidze, vice president of the Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies and deputy minister for re-integration. "Russia’s not interested in having them or Abkhazia becoming independent states. If that happens, Russia’s out of ammo when it comes to leverage on Georgia. By funding South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia is able to maintain a substantial military presence there. It’s a projection of power.

"It creates the perception that Moscow is omnipotent and can always influence the situation on the ground. By building the fence, they are testing not just their opponent’s reaction but the international community’s too. Russia is a vast country, and by doing this to Georgia it is saying, 'You are weak, you are vulnerable; I can destabilize you any time I choose.'"
http://www.vice.com/read/russia-are-building-a-rural-berlin-wall-through-georgia

no movement.. desolate.. abandoned.. Putin said they wanted independence.. yet most went back over the border illegally to freedom..
leaving their former capital abandoned..

in 2008 it had a population of 30,000 as of 2012 it had dropped to below 15,000

so I guess half didn't want "russian" independence.. and had to leave their homes..
 
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