Dayjob, 13:42 (lf)
Filed under world politics, as this has nothing to do with Orthodoxy as both countries are orthodox and both patriarchs have strongly spoken out against the war (skirmish?) in Georgia.
How anyone could not know that this would happen is beyond me - even Pat Buchanan has written eloquently on the subject.
In recognizing the two territories as independent, Russia was making good on warnings it issued after Western countries recognized the independence of Kosovo, where NATO helped an ethnic Albanian population wrest independence from Serbia. { Including bombings during Easter which many religious figures, including evangelicals, asked the US and NATO to stop during holy week at the very least - these actions are in comparison to the following statement from the same commander-in-chief in charge of the Serbian campaign (Clinton) : “For us to initiate military action during Ramadan would be profoundly offensive to the Muslim world and therefore would damage our relations with Arab countries and the progress we have made in the Middle East. That is something we wanted very much to avoid.” as a reason to quickly attack targets during Desert Fox in order to not “offend” Muslims by blowing them up during a holy period. — blog editor}
Russia has few allies closer than Serbia, and the 78-day American-led bombing campaign in 1999 added to a building sense of Russian humiliation.
As president, Vladimir V. Putin — now the Russian prime minister — tried for years to prevent Kosovo from declaring its independence from Serbia. When the Kosovars went ahead, with strong American and European support, last February, Russia seemed ready to respond in kind.
Mr. Medvedev referred to Kosovo during his statement, saying Russia had previously “displayed calm and patience” in its dealings with Georgia.
“We repeatedly called for returning to the negotiating table and did not deviate from this position of ours even after the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo’s independence,” he said. “However, our persistent proposals to the Georgian side to conclude agreements with Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the non-use of force remained unanswered. Regrettably, they were ignored also by NATO and even at the United Nations.”
Speaking during a trip to the Middle East, Ms. Rice said the move “puts Russia in opposition to the Security Council resolution to which it is a party,” referring to United Nations agreements on Georgia’s territory.
That’s from an article at the New York Times.