Why did the russians attack georgia??

Question

Why did the russians attack georgia??

Answer 1

The boundary between Russia and Georgia is not clear-cut.  The province of South Ossetia is considered Georgian by the Georgians, and there's some historical basis for this.  However, the populace there contains a large percentage of ethnic Russians, and the do not wish to be part of Georgia.  Given that it was all fairly recently part of the USSR, it's not hard to understand how that came about.  

Georgia has been increasingly aggressive about bringing South Ossetia under its control recently. Their activities haven't made headlines, but they have been going on for well over a month.  Georgia has tried to eliminate or at least reduce "Russian influence", which may or may not actually be "Russian", it may be the ethnic Russian populace of South Ossetia.  

The Russians claim that the invasion was to counter a Georgian uptick in violence, and there's some justification for this claim.  However, the blockading of the port to the west and attacks on the capital and the east-west gas pipeline seem to go much farther than necessary for that goal.  

In any event, it all comes down to who has the superior claim to South Ossetia.  If we go by historical boundaries, the Russians had no business interfering.  If we go by ethnicity of population, then Hitler was right to invade the Sudetenland, and Mexico has a valid claim to part of Southern California.

Answer 2

They didn't; it was the reverse. Russia acted in defense.

Answer 3

Because Georgia got Russians angry

Answer 4

Once upon a time thier was a rebel province in Georgia called S. Ossetia, with some Russian "peacekeepers" in. The Russians liked this situation - it gave them a good bargaining chip with Georgia; useful as Georgia was into all sorts of naughty things that Russia wasn't so keen on, NATO, troops in Iraq, energy independancy etc. Come the day Russia was looking forward to letting Georgia have S.Ossetia in return for towing the Kremlin's line; if Georgia didn't, Russia still had troops inside their borders to menace them with - which ensured they didn't do anything too bad.

Georgia, after a bit of a disasterous start to nationhood, got their act together and the government & army became reliable, popular & a great deal more capable. One day they thought it was a goodidea to bring all those areas within thier borders within the power of the government. The army did this quite well and dealt with the rebels fairly sharpish.

Russian saw this and thought, "we really like the status quo, have troops within Georgia's borders and generally interfering with our former satellites, so we'll be damned if Georgia's is going to nulify our excuse for being here." They hit upon a ripping (if rather predictable) wheeze to trot out a line about ethnic cleansing and used the army to maintain the much loved status-quo. This went really well; the Georgian army looked pretty hot against a handful of rebels, but when faced with the Russian army they bricked themselves and backed off.

The Russians saw how well they were doing and came to another top idea. Maybe if they used this as an excuse to really give Georgia a beating Georgia would a.) not try and remove their excuse to be in S. Ossetia again and b.) might be generally better behaved.

And so it almost certainly won't be.  

Answer 5

GEORGIA started it by marching into a disputed region at its borders which was full of Russian citizens and soldiers they call peace-keepers. The Russians were baiting them, but nobody forced them to take the bait. I think the Georgian president miscalculated when he thought the Europeans or the US would help him militarily.

The Russian gouvernment can kill 3 flies with one slap:

1.show their own, very jingoistic population at home how strong they are, and how prepared to shelter Russian citizens at all cost,

2. send a very clear signal to other former Soviet Republics like Ukraine what would happen if they get too uppity and keep trying to join NATO, and

3. show the Americans that they can't have it all their own way.

You have to take into account that Russia is now surrounded by former satellites who have joined NATO, like Poland and the Czech Republic, so a certain degree of paranoia is only natural.

In a way it is quite funny how the Russians use the same rhetoric as the Americans before and during the invasion of Iraq.

Answer 6

Georgia attacked a small, Russian backed group which were occupying their land. Russia retaliated because they back this group for a reason unknown to me.