Borat versus Irina

xenia and i were born in kazakhstan. borat CLAIMS he was, but he's lying., originalmente cargada por irina slutsky.

Today I wanted su give some moral support to Irina Slutsky. She posted on Flickr: "Xenia and I were born in kazakhstan. Borat CLAIMS he was, but he's lying".

Nobody cares.

But it is true!

Problems for the western media in South Ossetia

Only Russian journalists are allowed to move around freely in the are of conflict. Dmitry Steshin, a reporter for the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, drove down through the scorched villages on Saturday. He was not stopped at a single checkpoint. He was shocked at the level of destruction.

"They just don't want you to see that all the Georgian homes have been burned down," he said. "It's really as simple as that."

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia keeps track of the incidents www.georgiamfa.blogspot.com

Georgia discovers that Europe doesn`t consider it part of the continent

Tbilisi, was the once-volatile capital of a traditionally unstable Georgian nation. Since the 2003 nonviolent Rose Revolution, the country has seen how corruption was down and foreign investment was up. Rather than being a Russian satellite, Georgia chose to see itself as the easternmost outpost of the WestTo persons that went to live there remind us in Transitions Online all this changes. Andrew Bennett has been a political organizer for the Canadian government and the National Democratic Institute in Armenia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. He lives in Tbilisi. Leah Kohlenberg is a journalist and journalism trainer in Georgia and Armenia. She lives in Yerevan.

Of all the former Soviet republics to suffer during the aftermath of perestroika,
Georgia had probably fallen from the highest pedestal. It was once the playground of the former Soviet Union, with verdant landscapes, wineries and lush Black Sea coastal towns dotted with resorts and sanatoriums. But since independence in 1991, Georgia had been plagued for more than a decade with energy shortages, poor infrastructure, rampant corruption, and battles with Russia over two of the most beautiful, and agriculturally productive, parts of the country – Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In those wars in the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Georgian inhabitants were forced to flee from their homes under heavy fire.

Authors says Georgia has also taken a more serious approach to the challenge of democracy building than its former Soviet counterparts. In Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, flawed elections were followed by a trend of brutality, and the suspension of basic civil liberties. But in recent days, as the Western nations failed to take substantial action, either through military aid or sanctions, to help protect Georgia as the Russian military darted menacingly back and forth into Georgian territory, ordinary Georgians approached Western foreigners not in anger but in disbelief. How could anyone imagine that it was possible for Georgia to fight the West’s wars, participate in its institutions and adopt its laws and systems, only to be left defenseless at this critical moment?

Russia has claimed that Georgia committed genocide in Tskhinvali. The Georgians, for their part, have accused the Russians and Ossetians of a calculated campaign of cleansing. None of those claims can be independently checked, because the Russian government is not allowing foreign journalists into the areas, reports nyt

Photo of metro station Rustaveli taken by Paata Vardanashvili. See more at www.paata.ge

Gori in peace time

originalmente cargada por BarryGeo.

Foto taken in the republic of Georgia in town Gori (hometown of Joseph Stalin) Trolley is an electric bus powered by two overhead wires, from which it draws electricity using two trolley poles. This one is more than 50 Years old, according to BarryGeo. Please, visit his blog http://photobarry.blogspot.com. It's old photos are very interesting.

Free way to war

The overwhelming majority of Russians sympathizes with South Ossetia and approve of the Kremlin's policy on the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, a survey conducted by the Levada Center. In September 2004, 36 percent of respondents expressed sympathy for South Ossetia. That number grew to 71 percent by the end of last week.

Political scientists say that the rallying around the flag effect takes place whenever the state faces challenging situations. The effect is transitory, however, and does not stick to errors in judgment. The almost universal approval of the military actions in Chechnya in 1999 immediately after the terrorist bombings of residential buildings in Moscow was nearly completely reversed eventually. Similarly, the cancellation of gubernatorial elections announced immediately after the terrorist act at Beslan is now being reconsidered by the public, writes Kommersant.

In an interview on CNN, the Georgian president said the Russians "are closing on the capital, circling," with the intention of establishing their own government.He made repeated references not only to the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan in the 1970s, but also to the invasion Prague in 1968 and even repeated references to the German invasion of Poland before the start of World War II.

There they go again

Is the the worst clash between Russia and a foreign military since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Russia landed ground troops off of warships into the disputed territory of Abkhazia and broadened its bombing campaign to the Georgian capital’s airport. Georgian authorities said Sunday morning that they expect Russian attacks to come on three fronts — from Gali and Zugdidi, two spots on the Abkhazian border, and from Ossetia, according to Gigi Ugulada, the mayor of Tbilisi. They also expect more bombing on the Kodori Gorge, the only part of Abkhazia that remains under Georgian control.

Along the road, refugees carried their possessions in wheelbarrows and plastic bags toward the Georgian city of Gori, NYT reports.

The two sides may have different definitions of where the border with
Georgia lies. The official borders of the administrative region of
South Ossetia are larger than the area traditionally held by
pro-Russian separatists, so if Russia occupied the whole administrative
region it would be moving into areas normally held by Georgia.

And russian media are talking about The First Peace-Keeping War