donsutherland1

Looking back at earlier news accounts to gain additional background information into what transpired, those accounts reveal that Russia had specificially warned Georgia that any effort by Georgia to use military force to try to settle its disputes with Abkhazia or South Ossetia would be met by Russian military intervention. That Georgia had received a specific and blunt warning makes its miscalculation all the more remarkable.

Georgia could not have reasonably expected that the U.S. or Europe would respond militarily against Russia, a nuclear superpower. My guess is that Georgia's leadership simply dismissed the warning, thinking that Russia was bluffing. However, when one's nation is far weaker than the state issuing such warnings, one takes a serious risk in ignoring the more powerful state's warnings.

The following are excerpts from a report published by Russia's Interfax news agency on April 25, 2008:

If Georgia unleashes a military conflict in Abkhazia or South Ossetia, Russia will use force to defend its fellow countrymen living in these regions, Valeriy Kenyaykin, the Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoy for relations with the CIS countries, told a news conference at the RIA Novosti office today.

"We are doing everything to prevent a military conflict. But if it is unleashed, we will have to respond, including by military means," he said.

"No-one should have any illusions in this respect!" the diplomat stressed.

jfuh

Georgia is indeed the one that allowed this to happen. They gambled that
1) Russia was bluffing
2) Allied nations would intervene
3) Russia wouldn't do any such thing on the eve of the Olympics

They couldn't have been more wrong. Having been under Russian led Soviet rule you would expect that the Georgian's would've "known better".

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