Welcome to Call to Decision
Subject: Itemized NATO Military Aid to Georgia-Putin blasts West, -US
mercenaries
By the way, very little reported about the PKK or the Kurdish State Dept
listed terrorist group that set fire to the "1m- barrels-a-day
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline commissioned in 2006.
The problem is on the Turkish side of the 1,100 mile pipeline.
According to news reports, it was out of operation before the
Georgia/Russia war begun. Note just how greatly oil prices are
manipulated. This sabotage should have shot the price per barrel
up at least by some 30-40 dollars, instead, the price goes down about 30
some odd dollars. In the meantime, one of the U.S.'s main
sweet crude export markets, Nigeria, is in serious trouble with their
pipeline right now. Oil from there has been cut by some
40,000 barrels a day. We bet that a deal with the oil
speculators was cut prior to those two oil stoppage incidences, for the
prices would ordinarily be sky high. But got to keep some
front prior to U.S. elections. ac
...."there are roughly 1,000 military instructors of the United
States in Georgia...... "Thousands of mercenaries are
fighting for Georgia in this burning conflict with South Ossetia. They
are commanded by the U.S. military instructors, RIA Novosti
reported...."
He [Putin] said he was astonished by the double standards and cynicism
of U.S. foreign policy and accused U.S. diplomats of retaining a
Cold-War mentality, labeling the aggressor the victim while the real
victim ends up being blamed as the aggressor.
"Of course, it was right that Saddam Hussein was hanged for
butchering several Shia villages, while the current Georgian rulers, who
wiped out ten Ossetian villages in no time and burnt people alive in
their homes, must be protected," Putin said sarcastically.
A top Russian diplomat accused foreign media on Sunday of showing
pro-Georgian bias in their coverage of the ongoing conflict.
Russian Paper Itemizes NATO Military Aid to Georgia
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Partial archive for Johnson's Russia List:
http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson
Izvestia
August 8, 2008
Report by Dmitriy Litovkin: "How Georgia Prepared for War, and Who
Helped It"
After last night's latest shelling of Tskhinvali by the Georgian
military the NATO leadership has called on Georgia and South Ossetia not
to resort to violence and to show restraint. But Tbilisi has already
moved around 20 truckloads of troops, three infantry fighting vehicles,
three volley-fire missile systems, and several artillery pieces into the
area of confrontation. The Georgian army is one of the best-trained in
the post-Soviet area. Mainly at Western friends' expense.
Most Georgian officers and ordinary service people have undergone
training in the United States or Turkey or have been taught by
instructors from those countries. More than 8,000 Georgian service
people have studied on American personnel training programs. In the past
four years the country's military expenditure has increased more than 30
times over, reaching 9-10% of GDP (Russia's is 2.9%), and the total
military budget for 2008 is almost $1 billion. That is quite a lot for a
state that gets a significant portion of its military-technical aid from
abroad. Free of charge, what is more. Countries providing such aid to
Tbilisi include the United States, Turkey, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Ukraine.
The United States has granted Georgia nonreturnable loans totaling $40.6
million under the "Military Aid To Foreign States for Military
Needs" program.
Turkey has given Georgia's enforcement departments (Defense Ministry and
border protection department) financial aid totaling around $45 million.
There are plans for Ankara to supply: up to 100 fighting vehicles; up to
50 Pakistani-built Anza-2 portable anti-aircraft missile systems;
Kilic-2 type patrol boats; Dogan-type missile boats; two minesweepers
and two landing craft; a Skywatcher air-attack early warning and air
defense missile guidance system; 80 MP5 MTS A6 automatic weapons; 1,800
M-72 hand grenades; 2,000 rifle-mounted grenade launchers; 10 million
5.45-caliber rounds; 160 MP5A3 machine pistols; and 25,000 ammunition
clips.
Bulgaria intends supplying 250 missiles for the Faktoriya antitank
missile system, 50,000 rounds for D-30-type 122-mm howitzers, and other
products of a military nature.
The Czech Republic may supply: 10 L-159 Alca planes; and 620 tonnes of
ammunition (up to 500,000 7.62-mm shells for the SVDM sniper rifle; up
to 350,000 12.7-mm rounds for DShK machine guns; up to 60,000 12.7-mm
rounds for Mi-24 helicopter-mounted machine guns; up to 50,000 30-mm
shells for the AGS-17/30 (?howitzer); up to 60,000 shells for the BMP-2
(infantry fighting vehicle) mounted gun; up to 50 Sturm 9m114 antitank
guided missiles for Mi-24/35 helicopters; and up to 1,000 NUR S-8KOM
rockets for 20 V8V20A firing systems).
Altogether NATO countries have supplied 175 battle tanks, 126 armored
vehicles, 67 artillery pieces, four warplanes, 12 helicopters, and eight
warships or patrol boats. They are preparing to hand over another 100
armored vehicles, 14 aircraft (including four Mirage-2000 fighters), 15
Black Hawk helicopters, and 10 ships of various classes.
********
#23
U.S. military aircraft bring 800 Georgian troops home from Iraq
MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. military aircraft have flown 800
Georgian troops and a number of armored vehicles back home from Iraq
amid an armed conflict in breakaway South Ossetia, a senior Russian
military official said on Monday.
NBC reported on Monday that U.S. military transport planes had started
to bring all the Georgian troops deployed in Iraq back home.
"U.S. aircraft have made eight flights to bring Georgian troops
home from Iraq," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said.
Nogovitsyn pledged to take adequate measures. "We are ready to
increase our forces in view of the relocation of Georgian troops."
He said following Russia's deployment of 58th Army units to supplement
its peacekeepers in South Ossetia, Georgian and Russian troop numbers in
the conflict zone were around the same.
Georgian troops launched a major ground and air offensive on South
Ossetia on Friday, which according to Russia left around 2,000 civilians
dead. The attacks prompted Russia to send in tanks and hundreds of
troops. The capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, has been virtually
destroyed in the violence.
Until Georgia made the decision to pull out its troops from Iraq, the
country had 2,000 service personnel deployed in the Middle East region,
the third largest contingent after the U.S. and Britain.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the U.S., which has backed
Georgia's NATO membership aspirations, is hampering the peacekeeping
operation in South Ossetia by flying the Georgian troops from Iraq to
Georgia.
"It's a pity that some of our partners instead of helping are
trying to get in the way, I mean the United States using its military
transport aircraft to relocate Georgia's military contingent from Iraq
virtually into the conflict zone, among other things," Putin said
during a government meeting.
Putin said pulling Georgian troops out of Iraq would not change the
situation, but called the move a "step back from a
settlement."
He said he was astonished by the double standards and cynicism of U.S.
foreign policy and accused U.S. diplomats of retaining a Cold-War
mentality, labeling the aggressor the victim while the real victim ends
up being blamed as the aggressor.
"Of course, it was right that Saddam Hussein was hanged for
butchering several Shia villages, while the current Georgian rulers, who
wiped out ten Ossetian villages in no time and burnt people alive in
their homes, must be protected," Putin said sarcastically.
A top Russian diplomat accused foreign media on Sunday of showing
pro-Georgian bias in their coverage of the ongoing conflict.
********
#24
Kommersant.com
August 11, 2008
U.S. Military Instructors Command Hirelings in Georgia
Thousands of mercenaries are fighting for Georgia in this burning
conflict with South Ossetia. They are commanded by the U.S. military
instructors, RIA Novosti reported with reference to a high-ranked
officer of Russia’s military intelligence.
“From 2,500 to 3,000 mercenaries fight against Russia’s peacekeepers
on behalf of Georgia,” the unnamed source said. Amid them are the
natives of Ukraine, some Baltic states and the Caucasus regions.
The U.S. military instructors directly command and coordinate actions of
mercenaries without being involved in actual fighting, the source
specified. According to intelligence data, there are roughly 1,000
military instructors of the United States in Georgia.
Task force of Russia has annihilated a few groups of mercenaries.
Some of mercenaries have been captured, and investigators are working
with them, the source said.
********
#25
BBC Monitoring
Senior Russian diplomat accuses West of 'double standards' over South
Ossetia
The events in Tskhinvali have the features of genocide against the
Ossetian people, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin has
said. He was speaking at a news conference on 10 August broadcast live
by state-owned Vesti TV.
"The credibility of the incumbent Georgian authorities has been
totally undermined. They have shown a criminal lack of responsibility at
a critical moment for their country," Karasin said.
The tragedy in South Ossetia gave a new spotlight to the role of the
world community and showed the danger of the double-standards approach
that is practised by certain states, Karasin said. He was referring to
the statement by the three Baltic states and Poland related to the
events in South Ossetia and accusing Russia of an imperial and
revisionist policy. "I want to say that they have found the most
cynical and ill-timed forms for expressing this incomprehensible and
illogical position," Karasin said. "The people who are taking
criminal and irresponsible decisions must always get a clear and
distinct rebuff from the world community," he added.
Asked about his opinion on the pro-Georgian position of Western
countries and the possibility of third countries intervening in the
conflict, Karasin said that the West missed another opportunity to prove
that double-standards stereotypes had been done away with. "The
West behaved in a strange manner in the first hours of the aggression
against South Ossetia, keeping inexplicable silence and then, as if on
command, many countries, some of which I have mentioned, took a position
of criticism and are now in fact preventing the Russian Armed Forces
from an operation to enforce peace," he said.
Speaking about foreign media coverage of the conflict, Karasin said that
the Western media show only footage that proves their own theories and
hardly cover the Russian viewpoint. "Objectivity that was absent
from the Western media 20 and 30 years ago has not, unfortunately, made
its way (to the audience) and become a typical feature of many Western
TV companies, journalists. We may need to break this stereotype together
with them," Karasin said.
He voiced concern that Georgia had completely cut off access to the
Russian mass media and Internet on its territory. "After this they
declare that they are sharing democratic values. From my point of view,
it is sacrilegious to deny people access to objective information,"
Karasin said.
Speaking about ways to resolve the situation, Karasin said that they had
been defined by Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev and include
unconditional withdrawal of Georgian troops from South Ossetia, to the
line defined in the Dagomys agreement 1992 and a written obligation by
the Georgian side not to use force.
Asked about Russia's right to deliver air strikes on Georgian territory,
Karasin said: "Our peacekeepers are taking part in an operation to
enforce peace" and added that "these actions are quite
justified, they are logical and are used by peacekeepers and armies of
other countries".
Asked about the goals Russia is pursuing in this war and whether it will
recognize South Ossetia, Karasin said: "Russia is fighting for
people on the territory of South Ossetia and, by the way, on the
territory of Abkhazia to live in peace and quiet without fearing that a
sudden artillery or a missile attack will happen in the night, that
their houses, towns and villages will be destroyed. This is what Russia
is fighting for".
"South Ossetia and Georgia are on the southern border of the
Russian Federation. We are interested in that all our neighbours live in
stability and that our borders exist in a quiet, predictable and
friendly mode," he added.
"We are not against Georgia, we are against the militaristic
aggressive course of the incumbent Georgian authorities that has been
clearly shown in the events we have been witnessing for four days
now," he said.
As for further developments, we should go step by step, Karasin said:
"If Georgia immediately withdraws its units from South Ossetia and
takes an obligation to sign a document renouncing the use of force, I
believe that having checked this, we can sit down to talks and discuss
further developments."
Asked about the role of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the conflict,
Karasin said that the Black Sea Fleet had always been and remains a
factor of stability and security in the Black Sea region. The appearance
of our ships by Abkhazian shores is a natural action and the talks on
the presence of the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine are continuing, Karasin
said.
********
#26
Financial Times
August 11, 2008
Blow dealt to prospect of oil pipeline security
By Isabel Gorst in Moscow
The force of Russia's attack against Georgia this weekend sends a strong
signal that Moscow is determined not to relinquish control over the
oil-rich Caspian region.
Georgia has scant energy resources of its own but hosts pipelines built
by international oil majors to carry Caspian oil and gas to western
markets. Its railways also transport substantial volumes of oil from the
region to Black Sea ports.
The so-called east-west energy corridor across Azerbaijan and Georgia to
Turkey, established with strong political backing from the US, has
eroded Russia's stranglehold over energy exports from one of the world's
few remaining untapped oil provinces.
Dubbed the "pipeline for peace" by its western promoters in
the 1990s, the 1m- barrels-a-day Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil
pipeline commissioned in 2006 has brought a new source of
high-quality oil into the Mediterranean to compete with Russian
supplies.
The parallel South Caucasus gas pipeline to Turkey has freed Azerbaijan
and Georgia of dependence on Russian gas and opened the possibility of a
new source of supply route to European markets.
However, the conflict in Georgia will rock confidence in the security of
the pipelines, already dented last week when Kurdish separatists claimed
responsibility for an explosion on the Turkish section of the BTC
pipeline that halted deliveries, depriving world oil markets of about 1
per cent of supplies.
Kaan Nazli, the director of emerging markets at Medley Global Advisors,
said the prolongation of military hostilities would "deal a
devastating blow to prospects of maintaining a safe nonRussian route
[across the Caucasus] for Caspian and central Asian oil and gas".
In particular, the conflict could be a setback for Euro-pean
Union-backed plans to build the Nabucco pipeline across the Caucasus to
bring Caspian and central Asian gas into Europe to ease dep-en-dence on
Russian supplies.
Nabucco's backers have so far failed to secure enough Caspian gas to
fill the pipeline, amid strong competition from Gazprom for supplies
from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. But the Nabucco plan has spurred
Russian efforts to build an additional gas pipeline into southern Europe
across the Black Sea and to lock in additional supplies from
Turkmenistan.
Analysts said Russia would hesitate to risk upsetting relations with its
oil-rich Caspian neighbours by attacking Georgian energy export
facilities.
Kazakhstan, the Caspian country with the biggest oil reserves, already
controls Batumi oil port on the Black Sea and is seeking to invest in
Georgian railways serving the terminal.
Azerbaijan has built an oil terminal at Kulevi farther north on the
Georgian coast and is financing the construction of a railway from
Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, to Kars on the Turkish border to provide
a new export route for Caspian oil.
Russian military aircraft bombed Poti, a container port on the Black Sea
on Saturday, but avoided striking coastal oil terminals.
A claim by Ekaterina Sharashidze, the Georgian economic development
minister, that Russian jets had targeted the BTC pipeline on Saturday
was not independently verified.
A Russian foreign ministry official denied reports that Russia was
preparing to blockade Georgian ports but admitted that military checks
on shipping could delay tanker loadings in the Black Sea.
Analysts said the conflict could deter Caspian oil and gas producers
from committing oil and gas exports to routes across Georgia.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, the president of Turkmenistan, offered on
Friday to increase the volume of gas it had contracted to supply China
through a new pipeline east out of central Asia.
Azerbaijan is considering an offer from Gazprom to import gas from its
Caspian fields, a move that could sink the Nabucco pipeline's prospects
altogether.
Sochi Olympics plans face trouble
Russia's preparations to host the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi are
likely to face difficulties because of its support for separatist
movements in the breakaway regions of Georgia, writes Roger Blitz in
Beijing .
There have been two unexplained explosions, killing four people, in
Sochi the Black Sea resort, in the past six weeks. It is suspected that
the blasts might have been caused by disaffected elements from nearby
Abkhazia.
Much of the construction work for the games is to be carried out by
companies from countries such as the UK and the US, both of which
yesterday expressed alarm about Russia's actions.
Russia has a lot at stake. As with China's Beijing Games, Russia
believes that the Olympic brand gives it a stamp of international
approval and respectability.
*******
#27
Armed conflict sharply raises risks for oil and gas transit through
Georgia - Troika Dialog analysts
MOSCOW. August 11. (Interfax)
- Analysts from Troika Dialog investment company have
produced an analytical note titled "Georgia: How Much Oil
is at Stake?" on the situation
facing energy transits
throughout the Transcaucasian region.
The analysts believe that the
current conflict over South Ossetia will raise the risks
for transporting oil and gas through Georgian
territory.
"The situation in
Georgia highlights the greatly increased risks related to
energy transits through this Transcaucasian state. In the
last five to 10 years, Georgia has become an important
transit country for crude and oil products
heading mainly for Europe. The country is also considered a
possible transit route for a number of international projects to
bring Central Asian oil and gas to international markets,
including countries in the
Black Sea region. The following infrastructure
would be at stake should hostilities intensify," the note said.
"The 1,767 km
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is the main
international oil route traversing 267 km of
Georgian territory. Its capacity, currently at 1.0 mln bpd, is slated to
increase to 1.2 mln bpd
next year to accommodate additional crude
produced at Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and gas condensate
from the Shah-Deniz field in Azerbaijan," the note said
"Caspian oil, mainly from Azerbaijan's
Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, is also piped through the 145,000 bpd, 530
km Baku-Supsa oil pipeline on Georgia's Black Sea
coast, which was recently re-launched following repair and
upgrade work," the note said
"Georgia accommodates several
oil ports, which mainly serve to evacuate Caspian oil.
The largest oil port as yet is Batumi, with throughput
capacity of up to 300,000 bpd of crude and distillates. In
2007, the port transshipped 190,000 bpd of oil and products,
including 132,000 bpd of crude. This was down 18.7% y-o-y because
of the start up of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Oil and distillates
are transported by rail to Batumi, mainly from
Azerbaijan, although some comes from Kazakhstan," the note said.
"In 2007, Azeri state oil company
SOCAR commissioned Kulevi, a new 200,000 bpd oil and product terminal,
at a cost of $300 mln. The port is also located on Georgia's
Black Sea coast and is able to accommodate supertankers of
up to 150,000 DWT. The port's current capacity is some 200,000 bpd, but
is it slated to increase to 400,000-700,000 bpd. Kulevi handles
crude, diesel and fuel oil shipped by rail from
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan," the note said.
"Georgia is also a
transit country for the South Caucasian Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas
pipeline that links Azerbaijan to Turkey, from where Caspian gas
may tap South European markets. So far, the South Caspian pipeline
can ship around 6.6 bln m3 of Azeri gas annually, with slated
expansion to roughly 16 bln m3 a year after
commissioning the second stage at Shah-Deniz," the note said.
"This leads to three clear
implications. First, the ongoing armed conflict greatly
increases the risks for oil and gas transits through Georgia.
The volume of potential supply disruptions can be estimated at
roughly 1.6 mln boe per day. It is
evident that the obsolete Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline (around
100,000 bpd) will not be able to fill the gap. Therefore, a
prolonged conflict could potentially
impact
significant oil flows," the note said.
"Second, the conflict may cause
second thoughts about the transit-related risks associated with Georgia
for some international oil and gas projects intended to
bypass Russia, such as Odesa-Brody. Kazakhstan should also
be concerned about the reliability of
exporting its petroleum through Azerbaijan and
Georgia, especially in light of the recent explosion staged
by Kurdish rebels that temporarily brought out of order the
Turkish section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which builds up
apprehensions regarding the security of oil and gas
export pipelines crossing Transcaucasia. Georgia's
Economics Minister was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that
Russian bombs missed the BTC pipeline by some 5 m," the note said.
"Finally, and perhaps more
importantly, any potential involvement of Ukraine (via the
Black Sea) in the conflict - even a symbolic one - could further
strain the uneasy energy relationship between Russia and
its neighbor. Needless to say, Ukraine is
a key transit country to Europe of both oil and gas from Russia. At this
point, however, we would not view a disruption of
Russian energy flows via Ukraine as at all
likely," the note said.
*******