Were there mercenary forces participating in the Ossetian/Georgian conflict?

Question

Reports are they were fighting for the Georgians

Answer 1

I assume those claims are Russian and considering the number of blatant lies coming from Russian media I wouldn't believe any of it.

For the record Russians don't claim "African" descent. When they say black they mean US servicemen. As far as I understand that mercenary c**p is meant mainly for Russian readers to convince them that west is trying to invade Russia eventually.

Last week I saw that and few other claims, however so far not a single photo or any other evidence was provided neither by Russians nor S.O. separatists.

So far what we have several disproved Russian claims:

2000 dead civilians on first day - False, HRW and several independent sources give the same number, 44 dead including military and civilian. Russia can't provide any evidence of thousands of dead they claim. Too difficult to take a photo?

Tskhinvali completely wiped out by Georgians - False, first HRW reported only central and southern parts were damaged, now Russians admit around 10% is was actually damaged.

Mercenaries - Same deal. How hard it is to take a photo of a black guy in Georgian uniform you arrested or killed a week ago?

Ukraine sold S-200 to Georgian and Georgians shoot down Russian supersonic bomber with it - False, tu-22 bomber was shoot down by shoulder fired anti aircraft missile because it was flying low, not expecting any serious anti aircraft fire from Georgians.

Russia claims - No Russian troops in Georgian town Gori - 3 days later they admit being there and promise they'll leave in 2 days. That was 3-4 days ago, obviously they're still in there looting and marauding.

Russia denies looting by Russian soldiers - Just check the youtube. Tons of videos documenting glorious Russian army "liberating" Georgian homes and military bases from clothing, shoes, tv/audio tech, silverware and so on.

Finally, the most important one, Russia offers to start removing its troops from Georgia, but so so far it never happened.

P.S. If HRW reported it that'd be a lot more credible. Do you have a link?

P.P.S. You're gonna live this Shaz. This is straight from Russia. How those "volunteers" i.e. cossaks were recruited to "help" Russian Citizens . It's in Russian, but translator works ok.

In short, recruits were offered ticket to the destination and food. No salary, just fight for the idea and all the loot they can grab is theirs.

I'm really curious to see US or any other mercenary, but for now youtube is full of videos showing looting of Georgian cities. Exactly as described in the story. Morons even took toilet seats...

Answer 2

What difference does it make?  Will it make the atrocities by the Russians seem any less offensive?