And here’s an interesting take on Russian strategy from a new guy (to me, anyway), L. Douglas Garrett:
http://competinghypotheses.blogspot....-4th-2008.html
Quote:
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One of the greatest tricks of “playing the system” in the post-1948 world is an improvement on the time-honored practice of creating a plurality of one ethnic group in a territory where few if any of that group existed over a longer period of history. With sufficient migration over time of a group that also does not integrate into the culture of the extant society in a territory, with demographic advantages such as a higher birth-rate than the locals in many cases, and with the cover of some larger event like warfare denuding the land of a portion of the local population, it is far too easy for the “new” group to claim that they are *now* the legitimate populace of the territory. One needs look no further than Kosovo to have seen such a thing in action.
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First one to tie that to open borders gets a…well, never mind, I just did it.
SOUTH OSSETIA TIMELINE
1991-92 S Ossetia fights war to break away from newly independent Georgia; Russia enforces truce
2004 Mikhail Saakashvili elected Georgian president, promising to recover lost territories
2006 S Ossetians vote for independence in unofficial referendum
April 2008 Russia steps up ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia
July 2008 Russia admits flying jets over S Ossetia; Russia and Georgia accuse each other of military build-up
7 August 2008 After escalating Georgian-Ossetian clashes, sides agree to ceasefire; however Georgia launches a surprise attack
8 August 2008 Russia sends in columns of armour and troops and fighting erupts with Georgian forces in and around Tskhinvali
9 August 2008 Russian jets bomb central Georgian town of Gori, Russia says its troops have "liberated" Tskhinvali
