The New Kremlinologists
Michael C. Moynihan | August 14, 2008, 4:42pm
Take a look around the blogosphere and it seems that, overnight, everyone's a Kremlinoligist, everyone's an expert on the Caucasus (I have followed the region closely for years—especially the post-Communist Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—but must concede that I too am just an interested observer, and am in no way an expert; just relaying interesting stuff from the wire services). And the responses to the invasion of Georgia, it seems to me, are merely Rorschach tests for certain bloggers and pundits' own politics: If you're on he left, you're broadly sympathetic to Moscow; on the right, Georgia. So while the blogosphere is abuzz with those "debunking" the notion that Georgia is the aggrieved party,
challenging the sinister "MSM's" take on the conflict, the Russian military continues to move—today into the country's second largest city Kutaisi and the port
city of Poti—despite a ceasefire. At this point, I'll leave the prognostications and insights into regional power politics to the experts. But another, rather alarming story from
the AP:
Russia's foreign minister declared Thursday that the world "can forget about" Georgia's territorial integrity, and American and Georgian officials said Russia appeared to be targeting military infrastructure - including radars and patrol boats at a Black Sea naval base and oil hub.
An AP Television News crew in the oil port city of Poti saw one destroyed Georgian military boat, and two Russian armored vehicles and two Russian transport trucks. Soldiers who identified themselves as Russian peacekeepers blocked the crew from going further.
Russia's president met in the Kremlin with the leaders of Georgia's two separatist provinces - a clear sign that Moscow could absorb the regions. The comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to come as a challenge to the United States, where President Bush has called for Russia to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.
From Fox News,
a report of "humiliated" Georgian "irregulars" firing at civilians, including Fox's Steve Harrigan. And
a video of a Georgian reporter shot by a Russian sniper during a live broadcast.
bigbigslacker | August 14, 2008, 6:17pm | #
This is funny - I've been reading the youtube comments at the Putin link I posted at 5:50 under the name Leftist.
sophigeo posts:
"Mr. Putin and Bush are having conversation and suddenly Putin offers competition: "who will go through the pit full of shit without getting drown in it"?
here come Mr Bush with the car that is latest inovation of Am. scientist goes through the pit and gets drowned..
here comes Mr putin with old Russian CAr"MOskvichka" and goes through the pit. Amamzed George: "tell me how could you do that"putin:"do you know old saying that shit never gets drown in shit""dermo v derme ne tonet":))lol "
OK, it not really funny, but sometimes these things get lost in the translation. You should here some of the jokes my "Laotion" (they don't call themselves that, they are "Lao") wife friend tells. At the end, you can't tell if she is finished or even if it was really a joke, except that she busts out laughing. This isn't one, but they go along these lines: "there was a woman and she couldn't finish cooking her meal because her cooking pot was on the top shelf of her cupboard" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!
Anyway, this exchange at the Putin youtube link cracked me up:
zangeroo (4 months ago) Show Hide -4 Marked as spam Reply | Spam I love Putin! He is so cool! He is like, well, if you can imagine taking a piece of shit, and smearing it out over a piece of glass, and freezing it! Whoa! In a freezer! Whoa! Like it's transparent, and it's shit, and it's really cool. Like, how fucking dumb do Russians have to be to think that's really cool! Whoa! Oh, wait, their Russians!
Ant the reply:
cali101101 (3 months ago) Show Hide +4 Marked as spam Reply | Spam your cool like piece of shit i leave in my toilet and then smear it all over your faggity face and then freeze it and smash with a hammer and than it brakes into million little pieces...not that be cool! Bitch!
I'm easily amused sometimes. Make that often.