In short, whats going on between Georgia and Russia?

Question

I am just curious mainly because my sister in law said that jehovah witnesses are being persecuted in georgia for practicing their religion, but that doesnt make any sense to me. I dont think thats why theyre fighting, so why?

Answer 1

The short answer is that several hundred thousand people in Georgia, the Ossetians and the Abkhazians, never wanted to leave Russia in the first place when Georgia voted to leave the Soviet Union in 1991. And they have been fighting for their independence since then. With both the USA and Russia meddling non-stop in the mix. I've blogged about this mess in this and subsequent posts:

http://unitedcats.wordpress.com/2008/08/...

Answer 2

The province of Ossetia is historically part of Georgia, but its populace includes many Russians. Although Georgia has been independent from the Soviet Union for nearly twenty years, Ossetia has never been fully under Georgia's control and instead has been relatively independent.

Recently, the Georgian government sought to quell unrest in Ossetia by military means, and Russia "defended" Ossetia. The defense included attacks beyond Ossetia, into non-Ossetian Georgia. Perhaps Russian hopes to annex Ossetia, or merely to keep Ossetia independent. Or perhaps Russia intends merely to demonstrate that it will forcefully protect its historic sphere of influence.

The country of Georgia has been shockingly intolerant of minority religions such as Jehovah's Witnesses. The official website of Jehovah's Witnesses' Office of Public Information has a good summary of their experiences there.. ..

http://www.jw-media.org/region/europe/ge...

http://www.jw-media.org/newsroom/index.h...

Answer 3

Georgia is a part of the former Soviet Union, and Russia, moving away from democracy, wants regions of Georgia that are more Russian than Georgian (and that have certain, shall we say, strategic value).

That said though, I wouldn't be surprised if that type of persecution was going on either, although it doesn't have anything directly to do with the conflict itself.

Answer 4

You know I actually wanted to know too. I was doing some research on the topic last night and a lot of people’s opinion was that Russia basically took over Georgia just to prove that they are a powerful and dominant country  but that to me doesn’t make any sense either. And then I hear a lot of people talking about this being a second cold war so go figure. In short, I also have absolutely no idea what the h**l is going on.

Answer 5

You are correct your sister in law is wrong......

South Ossetia has always been pro Russian . The people often have Russian passports and could be compared to those living in Northern Ireland. Georgia decided to attack South Ossetia to bring it into line & Russia was having none of it. Similarly if the Republic of Ireland decided to attack Northern Ireland what would we do? The right action would be to retaliate firmly to restore the status quo - that is what Russia has done

For our other friends Northern Ireland is part of the United kingdom - the Republic of Ireland is not

Answer 6

The real reason:  Putin who it is safe to say is now the dictator of Russia has decided to destroy the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan that carried oil from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey ports, bypassing Russia.  In addition the troops destroyed a major oil hub in Georgia and killed more than 1,500 Georgian people.   The oil moving via the pipeline was 850,000 per day, 1 percent of the world's daily production.  I think the presence of a religion in Georgia is a dubious reason.  Georgians were allowed more freedoms that most people under the control of the Soviet Union before 1991.   It is a first step to taking Georgia back into the Russian nation.   Putin is the sole hand behind this pointless act of violence.  

Answer 7

they are fighting because they both want control of two different areas which they both claim ownership of, they are south ossetia and abkhazia.  russia wants control because there are oil pipelines running through them and they want the profits that come along with that.

Answer 8

Well, there are two sides to this story with lots of exaggerations going on.

with lots of levels to it- -ethnic conflict, big power conflict, oil--all in a  strategic geographic location.  The two sides have been skirmishing for awhile with Russian peace keepers in So Ossetia and Abkazia which are two regions who want at the least regional autonomy from Georgia and at the most their independence or safely under the wing of Russia.  Many young men in these two areas serve in the Russian army and have dual citizenship.  So when the leader of Georgia decided to shell to rubble a so Ossetian town of 15,000 people called Tshkinvali, the Russians decided that this was the time to put their foot down about NATO sponsoring Georgia for membership, US putting Israeli drones over the territory, and the US supplying the Georgian military, a 3rd rate power ( nice country though) with no claim to fame except that it sits on the Black Sea a few hundred miles from the Russian Black Sea fleet at Sebastapol, and borders on Russia.  

As for persecution of jehovah's witnesses...sorry to hear that, I like to see them out along with the nice young Mormon men as replacements for the ubiquitous Fuller brushmen and encyclopedia salesmen of the 50's and 60's.