Yeah, the blogs are running wild right now. A good source of late breaking or more detailed info, if you can trust it (no difference there from the mainstream media, of course) and sort through all the personal bias and commentary. Sounds like the Internet, huh?

 

I believe we could call this "the first LiveJournal war".

Now MSNBC reporting that the strategically important city of Gori has fallen to the Russians.

From Aviation Week

 

Georgia Strikes Back With Air Defenses

Aug 11, 2008

By David A. Fulghum and Douglas Barrie

 

If the land war in Georgia so far seems to be going decidedly in favor of the Russian army and navy, the Georgians seem to be racking up a lopsided score with their air defenses.

 

Over the weekend, the Russians made a successful advance on land through South Ossetia to the outskirts of the Georgian east-west transportation hub of Gori. There also was a one-sided naval battle - that resulted in the sinking of a Georgian gunboat - in the Black Sea off the coast of the second breakaway enclave of Abkhazia.

 

However, Georgian air defenses appear to be taking a steady toll on Russian aircraft. Russia has admitted to losing a total of four aircraft (the Georgians claim 10) in the conflict. So far they've admitted to the destruction of three Su-25 Frogfoot strike aircraft and a Tu-22M3 Backfire bomber that was flying a reconnaissance mission.

 

Photos from the combat area show the wreck of the Tu-22 and a Frogfoot as well as a picture of the Backfire pilot in a Georgian hospital. The pilot was Col. Igor Zinov, a 50 year-old Tu-22M3 instructor pilot stationed at the Russian Flight Test Center at Akhtubinsk. (See Aviation Week's defense photo gallery for photos.)

 

"Ergo, the Russians are using their A-Team, as expected," a U.S. analyst says.

 

Other analysts say the Georgians are probably operating the SA-11 Buk-M1 (low-to-high altitude) and the (low-to-medium altitude) Tor-1M mobile air defense missile systems.

 

"The Russians have gone to great lengths to try and implicate the Ukraine in the Russian Air Force losses, even going as far as to suggest that an SA-5 sold to the Georgians by the Ukraine was responsible for the Backfire loss," a second U.S. analyst says. "That's clearly not the case, but shows the Russian attempt to bring the Ukraine into the periphery of this event by implication, and to attempt to explain how one of their premier long-range attack assets could have been shot down so easily.

 

"The Russian press has been making lots of noise about the BUK and TOR systems, and I would say that the BUK is the most likely culprit for all of these aircraft losses," the analyst says. "If so, it points out a major flaw in the Russian plan - not gaining [and] maintaining pure air superiority [and] dominance over the battlespace by taking out the Georgian air defenses and air defense network before they went into the conflict."

 

Russian-built and designed air defenses are apparently exploitable, as was shown in the Israeli Air Force's total shut down of Syrian air defenses prior to bombing a suspected nuclear site. But Russia apparently has yet to apply the digital keys to unlock the Georgians' network.

 

During the months before the conflict, the Russians claimed to have shot down several Hermes 450 UAVs (made by Israeli-based Elbit) with fighter aircraft stationed at least temporarily in South Ossetia.

 

The Russians say they shot down a Georgian Frogfoot outside the town of Eredvi in South Ossetia today. The Russians - in a stunning piece of irony - have twice bombed the Su-25 Frogfoot manufacturing plant on the outskirts of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

 

So if the Georgians over-estimated their ground forces, "it appears that the Russians underestimated the Georgian air defense abilities in this conflict, and have paid the price," the second U.S. analyst says.

 

Georgia's foreign minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, and deputy interior minister, Eka Zguladze, will be in Brussels tomorrow for emergency talks at NATO headquarters. The two officials will meet with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and address the North Atlantic Council.

Video of a BBC coming under attack from an Su-25 Frogfoot.

 

BBC

Video of a BBC coming under attack from an Su-25 Frogfoot.

BBC

 

Saw that. Nasty. Of course, lugging around a TV camera on your shoulder probably does look dangerously like a MANPADS to a Frogfoot pilot.

 

In any event, looks like Medvedev has taken Brains' advice and is stopping short of lining the Georgians up against the Turkish border.

 

All of this points to a Bear who is stirring in his den, perhaps?

A good analysis by Ralph Peters.

 

IT'S impossible to overstate the importance of what's un folding as we watch. Russia's invasion of Georgia - a calculated, unprovoked aggression - is a crisis that may have more important strategic implications than Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

 

We're seeing the emergence of a rogue military power with a nuclear arsenal.

 

The response of our own government has been pathetic - and our media's uncritical acceptance of Moscow's version of events is infuriating.

 

...

 

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08122008...032.htm?page=1

A good analysis by Ralph Peters.

 

IT'S impossible to overstate the importance of what's un folding as we watch. Russia's invasion of Georgia - a calculated, unprovoked aggression - is a crisis that may have more important strategic implications than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. We're seeing the emergence of a rogue military power with a nuclear arsenal. The response of our own government has been pathetic - and our media's uncritical acceptance of Moscow's version of events is infuriating.

...

 

Link didn't work for me. Try this one:

 

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08122008/posto...ogue_124032.htm

 

I'd agree that its an event of important strategic implications; that it was a calculated, planned event on the part of Russia; and that the Western response has been less than impressive (although I am unsure what they could have done in any event).

 

But "rogue military power with a nuclear arsenal" may be a bit of a stretch.

 

That said, are you a fan of Ralph Peters? If so, don't let your USAF friends know. The guy absolutely castigates the air force at every opportunity. (I have to admit, however, that his novel "Red Army" is one of my favorite paperbacks).

From BBC News

 

Russia to keep posts in Georgia

 

A senior Russian general says Moscow intends to maintain a military presence of more than 2,000 troops in Georgia.

 

Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn said Russian forces would be stationed around the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the focus of recent conflict.

 

BBC correspondents on the ground say they have seen what appears to be a significant troop movement from Georgian positions to South Ossetia.

 

Georgia has said it will not accept any "annexation" of its land by Russia.

 

Russia's land forces commander earlier said that all Russian combat troops would be moved back from Georgia proper to South Ossetia by the weekend and that most of the soldiers sent to the region as reinforcements would return to Russia within 10 days.

 

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse says he has witnessed hundreds of Russian armoured vehicles, including tanks and armoured personnel carriers, withdrawing from the town of Igoeti, about 35km (21 miles) from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

See a map of the region

 

Our correspondent says buses of Georgian police are arriving to take control after Russian troops removed their road block and pulled out.

 

There are also reports of a pull-back from the Georgian flashpoint town of Gori to South Ossetia.

 

'Snail's pace'

 

At a briefing in Moscow, the deputy chief of the Russian military general staff, Gen Nogovitsyn, said the withdrawal of all combat troops was going according to plan.

 

"The troop pull-back has been started at a rate to make sure that the Russian troops be within the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent by the end of 22 August," he said.

 

"We are not going to correct this plan or increase the speed of withdrawal."

 

Gen Nogovitsyn said Russian troops were setting up checkpoints on the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia with Georgia.

 

The so-called zone of responsibility also includes Georgia's main airbase at Senaki, and cuts across Georgia's main east-west highway, which stretches from Tbilisi to the Black Sea.

 

Russian officials say the zone was established in principle in an agreement between Russia and Georgia which pre-dates this month's conflict, but was never put into force.

 

Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili told Reuters that such a zone was "a violation of any agreement".

 

Russia's four-day war with Georgia began after Tbilisi tried to retake the Moscow-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia on 7 August, following days of clashes with separatists.

 

The fighting ended with an EU-brokered ceasefire deal, and a promise by Moscow to pull back its forces by 22 August.

 

But the commander of US forces in Europe, Gen John Craddock, said Russia was taking too long to pull back, saying "if they are moving, it is at a snail's pace".

 

The first of the Russian Black Sea Fleet warships, which have been deployed off the west coast of Georgia's province of Abkhazia, has returned to its base at Sevastopol in Ukraine.

 

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko criticised Russia's use of ships from the base leased to Moscow, saying there was a danger of his country being passively drawn into an international conflict against its will. Protesters reportedly greeted the ship's return on Friday.

 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has arrived in the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, to assess the humanitarian situation there.

 

Thousands of civilians are reported to be in urgent need of relief supplies.

 

The UN estimates that nearly 160,000 people have been displaced across the whole of Georgia since the conflict began.

 

The Georgian government is seeking $1-2bn (£0.5-1bn) in aid to repair and develop infrastructure following the conflict with Russia, the head of the US government aid agency, USAid, said. The World Bank has also announced that it is sending a team of experts to the country to assess its reconstruction needs.

 

'War with Nato'

 

Diplomatic efforts at the UN have reached deadlock over rival resolutions on the crisis from France and Russia.

 

A woman walks down a destroyed main street in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia

Thousands of civilians are reported to be in urgent need of relief supplies

Russia has reiterated its opposition to a rival French text, which reaffirms Georgia's territorial integrity.

 

Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC he would never accept what he called Russia's "annexation of its territory".

 

He warned that Russia's involvement in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia were intended to send a strong message to the West.

 

"If Nato fails now to come up with a united response, nobody's safe, even if they are in Nato already," he said.

 

"It's all about reconsidering the role of Nato, the role of international law and borders in this part of the world. This is no longer about Georgia anymore.

 

"Russia decided to win war with Nato without firing a single shot at it."

 

A Nato spokeswoman says Russia's defence ministry has decided to halt all military co-operation with the bloc to protest at what Moscow calls the alliance's biased, pro-Georgian view of the conflict.

 

The move by Moscow followed a Nato statement that there would be no "business as usual" with Moscow unless its troops pulled out of Georgia.

 

From RIA Novosti

 

Georgia set for military action - Russian General Staff

15:23 | 22/ 08/ 2008

 

MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia is preparing for military action in its breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a senior Russian military official warned Friday.

 

"We have registered an increase in [Georgia's] reconnaissance activities and preparations for armed actions in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's general staff, told a news conference.

 

Georgia has also embarked on a program to increase its weapons and military capability in the past few years, Nogovitsyn added.

 

According to information at his disposal, since 2005, Georgian tank numbers increased from 98 to 183, armored vehicles from 83 to 134, artillery weapons from 96 to 238 combat helicopters from three to nine and warplanes from seven to nine.

 

He said Russia reserved the right to build up its peacekeeping contingent in Georgia's conflict zone.

 

"The number of peacekeepers in Abkhazia will be 2,142 people, and the number of peacekeepers in South Ossetia will be fixed at a later date," Nogovitsyn said.

 

The Defense Ministry official also said Russia had set up 18 peacekeeping posts in South Ossetia and would build as many in Abkhazia "in order to avert looters and the transportation of arms and ammunition."

 

Meanwhile, Russia has been continuing the withdrawal of troops from Georgia.

 

Three Russian fighters and 25 strike aircraft involved in the recent military operation in Georgia have returned to their permanent bases, Nogovitsyn said.