Is Putin bluffing that military aid to Georgia is a declaration of war?

Question

Moscow has issued an extraordinary warning to the West that military assistance to Georgia for use against South Ossetia or Abkhazia would be viewed as a "declaration of war" by Russia.

The extreme rhetoric from the Kremlin's envoy to NATO came as President Dmitry Medvedev stressed he will make a military response to US missile defence installations in eastern Europe, sending new shudders across countries whose people were once blighted by the Iron Curtain.

And Moscow also emphasised it was closely monitoring what it claims is a build-up of NATO firepower in the Black Sea.

Answer 1

Another good reason to vote McCain.I do not want to think about what would happen if Russia declared war on us with Obama as president,we would be speaking russian.

Answer 2

Sounds like chest-thumping to me, but it is not to be taken lightly.

Answer 3

I just read:

“Russia's Black Sea Fleet is capable of destroying NATO's naval strike group currently deployed in the sea within 20 minutes”

“Russia's General Staff said on Tuesday there were 10 NATO ships in the Black Sea - three U.S. warships, the Polish frigate General Pulaski, the German frigate FGS Lubeck, and the Spanish guided missile frigate Admiral Juan de Borbon, as well as four Turkish vessels. Eight more warships are expected to join the group.”

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080829/116377...

No wonder US and UK are suppressing the news not reporting further on Georgia conflict. What do you think ?

Answer 4

Russia better be careful . . . they might get what they want . . .  

Answer 5

Russia would be stupid to initiate a war against the US and NATO. The Russians need to understand they aren't that superpower they once were in the middle 20th century.  

Answer 6

Putin has dragged Russia kicking and screaming(well, not that much, since you get killed if you object) back into the Iron Curtain era.  For several years now he has been engaging in cyberwar against the Baltic States.  It was Russia's interference in South Ossetia that caused the Georgians to react by invading.  Now, they are trying to accuse us of being behind it instead.  He has gone back to the paranoid attitude that we are trying to get him(or Russia, depending on your viewpoint).  So a missile base in Poland is not defensive, it's there to attack him.  And recognizing Bosnia was just another attempt to interfere with their influence in Eastern Europe.  Recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazian was his t*t-for-tat for that.  What we have here is approximately the same as what we have in the Middle East - a country which is rich enough because of oil to splurge on attacking any sources of freedom in the world.  No, he's not bluffing.  He will do anything he can to get back the countries he lost when the Soviet Union broke down.

Answer 7

It is an appropriate, realpolitik response to GWB's assinine foreign policy over the last eight years that has the entire world on alert and paranoid that the Village Idiot in the White House has no grasp of basic notions of action-reaction, cause-effect.

When you build a pattern over the course of two terms as President of resorting to military force rather than diplomacy, you are likely to encourage people to arm themselves and target you and your allies.