Russian army in a news report said this is the first voluntary army unit for combat.Lalmohan wrote:from the pictures...
1. the regular russian troops are looking leaner and meaner than they used to, i guess the transformation is progressing well
2. a number of ERA equipped T90's appeared to have brewed up, we need to understand how
3. the irregulars look scary, russia needs to control these goons quickly before their atrocities overtake the georgian ones
4. in most cases, the georgians appear to be outgunned and had their musharraffs kicked big time
They are moving from conscripts to voluntary army
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... dersen.jpg
Russia shows who's the boss
Lynn Berry on why Moscow has sent its troops into Georgia
Russia has made clear it calls the shots in this part of the world, a message other former Soviet Bloc countries cannot ignore. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili has been a loyal US ally and has portrayed his nation as a beacon of democracy. But when he tried to stand up to his country's former masters in Moscow, he faced the full wrath of the Russian Army.
Washington could do little but spout angry words as Russian tanks rolled across Georgia's borders last week and its aircraft began dropping bombs on villages and towns. Russia was punishing Georgia for moving into the separatist region of South Ossetia to claim back territory that has been effectively under Russian control since 1992 - but also for turning its back on Moscow and throwing in with the West, seeking to join NATO and cozying up to Washington.
Russian leaders had seethed as Georgia brought in Americans to arm and train its troops. One of the first spots hit by Russian aircraft was a military base outside the capital where more than 1,000 US Marines and soldiers led exercises last month. In ordering a halt to military action on Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia had been punished enough. "The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. Its military has been disorganised," Mr Medvedev said.
The overwhelming use of force caused alarm in other eastern European countries that aspire to NATO membership, like Ukraine, or have recently joined the alliance. Russia has threatened to target ballistic missiles at them if they allow the US to base a missile defence system on their territory. After the attack on Georgia, the threat is likely to be taken more seriously.
The leaders of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia rushed to Mr Saakashvili's defence on Tuesday, travelling to Georgia and appearing together at a mass pep rally in the center of Tbilisi, the capital. "We came to fight since our old neighbour (Russia) thinks that it can fight us," Polish President Lech Kaczynski said. "This country thinks that old times will come back, but that time is over. Everyone knows that the next one could be Ukraine, then Poland."
But Georgia's experience shows the US can do little in Russia's neighbourhood when Russia feels its interests are threatened. A US State Department envoy who was in Tbilisi, has all but acknowledged as much.
Two ancient Georgian states were the Kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia. The latter, one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion early in the 4th century, subsequently provided a nucleus around which the unified Kingdom of Georgia was formed early in the 11th century. After a period of political, economic and cultural flourishing, this kingdom went into decline in the 13th century and eventually fragmented into several kingdoms and principalities in the 16th century. The three subsequent centuries of Ottoman and Persian hegemony were followed by a piecemeal absorption into the Russian Empire in the 19th century. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia had a brief period of independence as a Democratic Republic (1918-1921), which was terminated by the Red Army invasion of Georgia. Georgia became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 and regained its independence in 1991. Early post-Soviet years were marked by a civil unrest and economic crisis. Georgia began to gradually stabilize in 1995, and achieved more effective functioning of state institutions following a bloodless change of power in the so-called Rose Revolution of 2003.[4] However, Georgia continues to suffer from the unresolved secessionist conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Relations with Russia remain tense over these issues as well as Georgia’s aspiration of NATO membership.[5] In early August 2008, Georgia was engaged in armed conflict with separatists and the state of Russia.
