And the Kremlin confirms his decision

No link yet.

Finally I found a link in English:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gDNLW....

The Russians never had any notions of conquering all of Georgia. What use would holding all that land be? They have already quelled most of the rebels in their own country, why would they want to add more?

I think they were looking for something, and found it. Something big. Now that they forced most of the Georgian army into a defensive around Tbilisi, and destroyed their artillery and military airbases, they can go back home and leave a token strengthened "peacekeeping" force in South Ossetia.

I wonder what they found. Something that could implicate some foreign power in some kind of crime against humanity? Who Knows.

Well... WTF was this then? An extended weekend romp around the caucuses? The Russians are truly insane.

Well, there is always the distant possibility that the Russians were truly intervening solely to prevent the ethnic cleansing of South Ossetians. That's hard to believe though, since they probably could have done that with air strikes alone.

I'm going to keep the tinfoil factor low on this one but I'm deeply suspect that something behind the scenes stopped them cold. Hopefully what it actually was will present itself in the coming days.

and now Oil turns up...?

Well it is a Costanza Market...

Macneib
whats one of them?

No Macneib, it was called a peace keeping operation after Georgia aggression. You know, like the type of peace keeping operations the US does from time to time? Or are they insane too?

Peacekeeping? I'm still not sold on that.
Jubber: I suspect that the NATO meeting sched'd for today would've had something to do with it.

The following does strike me as peacekeeping, but the type of hardware that was entering the SO region suggests that there was something going on as well.

Quote:

Monday 11 August 2008

Russian Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said that Russia would abide by the terms of the peacekeeping agreement for South Ossetia worked out between Georgia and Russia in 1992. "We are not moving beyond the boundaries," Nogovitsyn said. "This is a matter of principle. The 1992 agreement, which was signed by the Georgian side too, clearly defines the boundaries of responsibility of the Russian contingent, and the peacekeepers do not have the task of invading Georgian territory."

Quote:

Monday 11 August 2008

Speaking to reporters in Tbilisi, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner spelled out the framework of a peace plan backed by the European Union. "Cease-fire, first. Access to the victims, second. Third, withdrawal of the troops, controlled withdrawal of the troops. Fourth, coming back to the table, negotiation, peace talks, political solution."

Zxczxc12345: the US usually doesn't roll nuclear capable ground units into their 'peacekeeping' operations.

Russians just wanted to bitchslap Georgia. They viewed S. Ossentia as their citizens. Georgia got uppity in Russia's eyes and decided to make a point, which they did.

I don't think they give 2 ****s about NATO. They know the Americans, French, Germans, etc, wouldn't have done dick in the name of "saving Georgia", imo.

what's up with BP shutting down the Georgia pipeline now as opposed to the past 4-5 days while fighting was raging

He means, "Vlad the Impaler told me to stop because we want to control the pipeline, not destroy it."

I believe BP execs are in hiding from Russia

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/bu....

Quote:

NK-BP boss Bob Dudley has gone into hiding this weekend as the battle between BP and its Russian partners threatens to turn into a diplomatic incident.

Dudley, who left Russia last week, has set up a secret European command centre from which he will attempt to keep control over TNK-BP, a lucrative joint-venture between BP and Russian investors.

Dudley has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal his whereabouts, including extensive security measures to ensure his phone calls and e-mails are untraceable. His location is known only to a handful of BP executives and he has been joined by a small, hand-picked support team.

Sounds like the partners won and are doing the bidding of Putin.

This story, coupled with rumours of tactical nukes in South Ossetia, do not compute. The Russians were days from victory. It was a cakewalk. They stopped as quickly as they started, but they had all the advantage. There was no reason to stop.

I worked for a person of some notoriety once who was trying to hide his location. He kept telling people he was in the Riviera. Someone emailed him with a link to an image embedded in the email. That link of course, pointed to some web server the sender controlled, where the sender could see the ip address that the request to view the image came from. When he read the email it "phoned home" and told the sender of the email the ip address, from which it is relatively easy to track down the general geographic location.

This is one reason you never want your email reader to automatically fetch links to things. It phones home to the sender that you are reading the email (spammers use this to verify your email address is good) and tells them, generally, where you are located.

"There was no reason to stop."

Bloomberg this morning was saying that by "stop" Russia means they will stop advancing. The implication is that ground they have already taken over in Gerogia will remain in their control. The timetable for leaving the territory they have already captured has not been discussed.

It is likely that at least some of the BTC pipeline is within the area already captured by Russia.

I strongly beleive Russia's primary objective in this war was to either destroy, or gain control, of this pipeline. By not retreating from the territory they have taken, they have gained control of the pipeline. Remember that they do not need to control the entire pipeline to shut it down. It only takes ONE break anywhere over the course of the pipeline to put the entire pipeline out of operation.

There was a reason to stop - they accomplished their primary objective.

"Russians just wanted to bitchslap Georgia. They viewed S. Ossentia as their citizens. Georgia got uppity in Russia's eyes and decided to make a point, which they did.

I don't think they give 2 ****s about NATO. They know the Americans, French, Germans, etc, wouldn't have done dick in the name of "saving Georgia", imo."

Well said.

Plus, I think they have undermined Sackashilliy politically.

Well, hopefully the land grab is over. Like Lilvern, I wonder how much of the BTC pipeline they now control.

I don't know if they now control the BTC or the Baku-Supsa Pipeline, which is near the points captured by Russia.

Quote:

The Russians never had any notions of conquering all of Georgia. What use would holding all that land be? They have already quelled most of the rebels in their own country, why would they want to add more?

Um, maybe to control all the oil transport from the Caspian basin, and hold Europe completely by the balls?

Great article, as usual, by Victor Davis Hanson: (warning: DO NOT CLICK on this link if you are allergic to National Review! ;)

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDc....

We talk endlessly about “soft” and “hard” power as if humanitarian jawboning, energized by economic incentives or sanctions, is the antithesis to mindless military power. In truth, there is soft power, hard power, and power-power — the latter being the enormous advantages held by energy rich, oil-exporting states. Take away oil and Saudi Arabia would be the world’s rogue state, with its medieval practice of gender apartheid. Take away oil and Ahmadinejad is analogous to a run-of-the-mill central African thug. Take away oil, and Chavez is one of Ronald Reagan’s proverbial tinhorn dictators.

Russia understands that Europe needs its natural gas, that the U.S. not only must be aware of its own oil dependency, but, more importantly, the ripples of its military on the fragility of world oil supplies, especially the effects upon China, Europe, India, and Japan. When one factors in Russian oil and gas reserves, a pipeline through Georgia, the oil dependency of potential critics of Putin, and the cash garnered by oil exports, then we understand once again that power-power is beginning to trump both its hard and soft alternatives.

Your point is well-taken Bearlysane, but Fransisco answers your question spot on.

The BTC is the ONLY oil pipeline from the Caspian Basin that does not (or perhaps "did not"?) pass through Russian or Russian-allied territory at some point.

I suspect Russia now controls at least soeem of the BTC in gerogia, or they would not have stopped their advance.

This is not a fact though, just my beleif. Soon enough some articles will appear investgating the ststua of the BTC inthe new Georgia. I'm very interested to see what those articles say.