· August, 2008

Stories about Russia from August, 2008

Georgia: Unfrozen Conflicts

  31 August 2008

Marilisa Lorusso's Blog comments on the conflict between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia and says that the military solution has brought the world closer to a new Cold War. However, the blog notes, while the Georgian president continues to survive defeat on the battlefield, a political solution would have...

Georgia: Security in the Caucasus

  31 August 2008

Security in the Caucasus, a new blog established by a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics currently undertaking field work in the region, says that the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia was largely the result of a major miscalculation by Tbilisi. The blog also says that the...

Russia, Georgia, U.S.: Michael Lee White's Passport

  31 August 2008

LJ user olegpanfilov2 links (RUS) to a newspaper story (ENG) on Michael Lee White, a China-based U.S. citizen whose passport was allegedly stolen “during a flight from Moscow to New York” in Dec. 2005. Last week, “a Russian general […] displayed a blown-up photo” of the passport and claimed that...

Russia: New LJ Ads

  31 August 2008

LJ user tema is one of the many Cyrillic bloggers who are unhappy with how the new LJ ads interrupt the flow of their posts; he shares a screenshot (RUS) of his blog to illustrate his point. Others are sharing a way to get rid of LJ ads in their...

Georgia: Behind The Poti Lines

  31 August 2008

Behind the Poti Lines, a blog by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, reports on the recent visit by the Georgian president to the Russian-occupied port. The blog also notes that Russian soldiers are keeping interaction with residents to a minumum and no longer buying bread and vodka from local...

Russia: How to Spell ‘Blogger’ in Russian

  30 August 2008

There are two ways to spell the word ‘blogger’ in Russian – with two g's or with just one. The former seems to prevail among Russian bloggers, according to LJ user oleg_kozyrev (RUS), who has posted a screenshot of the Yandex Blogosphere Pulse search and also examined spelling preferences of...

Georgia: Photographs of Tskhinvali and Gori

  30 August 2008

Regional Reporters [RU] posts photographs from Tskhinvali, capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, and Gori, the strategic town until recently under Russian occupation, in the aftermath of the recent military conflict and war of words between Moscow and Tbilisi.

Georgia, Russia, Serbia: The Use (or Abuse) of Some Historical Facts?

  28 August 2008

Serbian bloggers follow closely the situation in the Caucasus region. Many of them compared and analyzed the Kosovo issue and the newest opportunities in South Ossetia. Some of them were careful to express their own thoughts and mainly cited thoughts of politicians. Here is a post by a Serbian blogger who quoted in his blog some pieces of the last statements by Russia's government officials, who linked military operations in Georgia to certain historical events.

Georgia: Blogging the War

  28 August 2008

The conflict between Georgia and Russia over the breakway territory of South Ossetia was accompanied by cyber-attacks on several Georgian government and independent media sites. But rather than prevent journalists from utilizing the Internet to report on the war, it achieved the opposite. Many Georgians — media professionals and citizen journalists alike — set up blogs to report or comment on the conflict. Global Voices Online speaks to Giga Paitchadze, a veteran local blogger.

Russia: Anti-War Music

  28 August 2008

LJ user marchenk posts a collection of links (RUS) to videos of various anti-war songs in Russian, French, English, Italian, German, Hebrew, Serbian, Spanish, Polish, Arabic and other languages.

Georgia: Recklessness & Recognition

  28 August 2008

Although noting that Russia oversteppend the mark by invading Georgia, Registan says that Moscow's gambit in the South Caucasus paid off. However, the blog notes, it required a temperamental, reckless and impulsive leader such as the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, in order to succeed.

Georgia: Pulitzer Crisis Analysis

  27 August 2008

Untold Stories, Dispatches from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, quotes from a speech made by its Executive Director blaming all sides for the crisis in Georgia. In a second post, the blog examines the issue of Abkhazia's independence.

Georgia: Russian-Georgian News Item Translations

  27 August 2008

Exercises in Translation has started translating news items in Russian and Georgian on the conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi over Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In the two most recent posts, for example, the blog translates a news item on Russian president Dmitri Medvedev's interview to French TF-1 and a Georgian...

Georgia: The View from Tbilisi

  27 August 2008

Michael J. Totten's Middle East Journal is in Tbilisi and reports from the Georgian capital on a recent press conference given by the government's media advisor. The blog also recounts a conversation on the conflict with Russia between Totten and veteran Caucasus journalist and author, Thomas Goltz.

Poland: Reactions to the Russian-Georgian Conflict

  27 August 2008

The beatroot writes that “Poland – in the shape of its government and particularly its president, Lech Kaczynski – has been using the conflict between Moscow and Tbilisi to nail their colours to the mast of “protecting freedom and democracy” of the brave young George against the might of an...