Russia: Bloggers Discuss the Market Bombing in North Ossetia

Global Voices Online
Saturday, September 11, 2010

A suicide car bombing outside a market in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, killed at least 18 people and wounded over 100 on Sept. 9. The attack is not the first one to occur at this location (62 people were killed there in 1999, 12 in 2008); it also came just days after the sixth anniversary of the 2004 school siege tragedy in Beslan, a town 15 km north of Vladikavkaz.

North Ossetian bloggers' initial reactions to Thursday's market blast reflected their exasperation with the ongoing violence in the region.

LJ user liza-valieva, a Vladikavkaz-based journalist, wrote (RUS):

An explosion at the central market, again. Half an hour ago. Could be heard even here.

There are the dead and the wounded.

Will it ever end?

Below is one exchange from the comments section:

maxialla:

I've never been a supporter of this point of view - "[the best way out is to move elsewhere]" - but right now it [appears rational] :( [...]

liza_valieva:

It is always possible to move, but people I care about will still stay behind, and no matter where I am, I'll worry about them just as much.

Moscow-based LJ user glazastikk wrote (RUS):

[...] My sister said that papa was fine, and then I got through to him myself, asked him to leave the market, because I was afraid there'd be a second explosion. [...]

And then I was scared for all those who have failed to get through to their folks on the phone. And I keep thinking of it ever since [...].

[...]

I'm sick of being scared and worried. And I don't see a way out. [...]

LJ user manavar, a Vladikavkaz-based medical student, was at the local hospital at the time of the blast. He wrote (RUS):

[...] Ambulances, [public mini-buses], regular cars were rushing in. We unloaded a woman whose arm had been blown off. Then there was another one, missing an eye. Seventeen people were brought in. Two corpses. One person, already dead, was lying on the floor of a yellow mini-bus. A man. One woman died at the ER. Most people had shrapnel cuts. [...]

As always, there was not enough medications. [...] For the first hour and a half, there was chaos at [the hospital], strangers were walking around. Things got better only when the police had cordoned off the hospital.

People were saying that at the school near the site of the bombing all the windows had been blown out and the children had been cut with shrapnel.

[Damn!] When will it all end!

In another post, LJ user manavar wrote (RUS) about his mother's experience that day:

[...] Mama was at the market at that time, she was walking around the aisles inside and was just planning to go to a store [...]. She stayed on [inside] for a second longer to look at the vegetables. The blast was so powerful that her ears got plugged. [...] Mama managed to squeeze herself into some niche and thus avoided the stampede. People ran, fell down, got up, ran again. Hundreds of people running from the area where black smoke was rising; only a few running towards that area. Some in order to help, others because they'd left their dear ones there. Only when the crowd receded, mama was able to get out of the niche and also went towards the exit.

Her hands are still shaking. And I can still see that woman with one eye missing. She is somebody's mother, too.

LJ user manavar's first post was featured (RUS) in the Radio Echo of Moscow's blog section. He admitted that such publicity upset him, but his post also sparked a discussion that highlighted a rather common perception of Russia's North Caucasus as a mismanaged "someplace else":

osokin:

You constantly have terrorist attacks over there! So why was there "not enough medications" then? Who is responsible for the supplies?

crafty:

I am a Muscovite. And it's OVER HERE in Russia that there are terrorist attacks and it's OVER HERE that there is chaos with medications. The fish rots from the head. Just imagine that the blast took place at a market in your neighborhood - there wouldn't even be enough [blood] plasma at the local hospital, let alone everything else.

LJ user gagloyev, a Moscow-based Ossetian blogger, detected a similar note of detachment in PM Vladimir Putin's statement on the Vladikavkaz market attack:

"They have all they need OVER THERE..."?
These are the words of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin from his dialog with Russia's deputy minister of health care and social development Belov during today's [government] meeting (broadcast on all TV channels today).

A question: Mr. Putin doesn't consider North Ossetia part of the Russian Federation anymore?!

And this person wants to be the national leader?! [...]

Vladikavkaz-based LJ user alan_tskhurbaev wrote this, among other things, in a comment to LJ user gagloyev's post:

[...] All in all, why pick on their words when there are so many of their actions that we can be critical of [...].

LJ user firmozadasso commented (RUS) on the government's promise to pay 1 million rubles ($32,388) to the victims' families:

[...] Anyone needs a million in exchange for a family member's life?

One Radio Echo of Moscow commenter pointed out another financial aspect in the relations between North Caucasus and the rest of the Russian Federation, voicing his displeasure with the arrangement:

evgeniy_pak:

Does Russia need Caucasus at all?

Federal budget spending on the North Caucasus federal district - [annual] funding allotted per resident:

Kabardino-Balkariya - 12,000 rubles [$388]
Karachaevo-Cherkesiya - 13,000 rubles [$421]
Dagestan - 14,000 rubles [$453]
Ingushetia - 27,000 rubles [$874]
North Ossetia-Alania - 12,000 rubles [$388]
Stavropol region - 6,000 rubles [$194]
Chechnya - 48,000 rubles [$1,554]

Average spending on residents elsewhere in Russia - 6,000 rubles [$194]

There are good people living over there (and the majority doesn't even suspect how profitable this business - the Federation - is), but isn't it time to [stop it]? Is there no other way to spend billions?

LJ user chuchundrrra, in a comment to LJ user dondzendervish's post (RUS) on the alleged involvement of fighters from the neighboring Ingushetia in Thursday's bombing, explained the connection between federal budget spendings, corruption and terrorism:

After each terrorist attack, the money starts flowing - flowing where? To ensure security. Have you noticed strengthened security? I haven't. So where does the money go? Into somebody's pockets. And what has to be done to make sure that the money in the pocket is in good supply? Right, more money should be given for a new terrorist attack. [...]

The volatile Ossetian-Ingush relationship has been another recurring theme following the market blast. LJ user dondzendervish wrote this in the post linked to above:

Terrorists do have an ethnicity. They do have last names. A Volga [car] with the Ingush license plate. With the driver named Archiev, registered with Dobriev. Many people say that terrorists do not have an ethnicity, but why are they all from Ingushetia?!

It's time to set up a minefield, a tall electrified fence and watchtowers with machine gunners all along the perimeter [of the border] with Ingushetia. [...]

LJ user magas-dedyakov wrote (RUS):

[...] Close the border [with Ingushetia]. Completely. For five years, to begin with. Legalize border guarding by volunteers and [the Cossacks]. Allot salaries [to them].

Madina Sageeva wrote this (RUS) on the North Ossetian blogging portal region15.ru:

I know what has to be done to stop terror attacks in North Ossetia. Guests from Ingushetia have to be banned from entering the republic.

[...]

And if our neighbors start singing about their right to move freely around their beloved motherland - Russia - we can reply to them that the Ossetians have a right, too - the right to life.

[...]

[...] I'm not accusing all the Ingush people of [being involved in terrorism]. But, alas, the police officers at the checkpoint through which hundreds of Ingush are pushing their way into Vladikavkaz every day, cannot tell the terrorists just by looking at them. [...]

It would be good if the Ingush president came forward with such an initiative. [...]

LJ user kaloy (Kaloy Akhilgov, press secretary of Ingushetia's president Yunus-Bek Yevkurov) was planning to visit his grandfather's grave in the Ingush village of Dzheyrakh on the day of the bombing (which was also the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Fitr) - and the best way to get there was by driving through Vladikavkaz. He wrote (RUS):

[...] The Ingush people are used by now that terrorist attacks in Vladikavkaz tend to turn into ordeals for them. Because any emergencies caused by explosions in Ossetia are tied to the Ingush, unfortunately. Perhaps, this happens subconsciously.

In any case, we decided not to drive through [Vladikavkaz]. Not because I'm afraid of the Ossetian cops [...]. But because I understand that one should not annoy the cops and the locals by having them see [Ingush license plates] [...].

We encounter [such violence] in our republic every day as well, and we understand perfectly well the pointlessness of [spilling innocent blood]. [...]

LJ user agunya - a Beslan survivor Agunda Vataeva, whose story was translated on GV on Sept. 4 - wrote (RUS):

A horrible provocation.

[...] I'm sick of seeing how we are being killed. I'm sick of being scared. I'm tired of calling all the relatives [...] with [a well-rehearsed speech]: "Are you ok? Is everything fine at home? No one is hurt?" No place to escape from this. Nowhere in the country.

[...]

I don't want to live in this country, in such a world. I hate the Ingush idiots who cheer other people's grief and are ready to dance on the bones and blood of the Ossetians [...]

[...]

My grandmother is Muslim, and I never say that all terrorists are Muslim, or that terror has an ethnicity. Terror has specific faces. And other people have to preserve human qualities, even if their enemies are being killed; they shouldn't cheer the deaths of innocent people. [...]

LJ user liza-valieva wrote this (RUS) in a follow-up post:

Because of the terrorist attack, all day today we've been getting calls, text messages and letters from friends in Moscow, Rostov, France, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Georgia and other places.

Friends, thank you for being there! Thank you for caring.

The things I've read today on the internet... Forums where Ingush were cheering the deaths of Ossetians [...], and Georgians were gloating along the lines "here you go, the Great Russia!", blogs where Russians were writing something like "Caucasus isn't Russia. The main thing is that this doesn't happen in the 'real' Russia, and who cares what's happening OVER THERE" [...].

After all this, it's hard not to get disappointed in people. That's why thanks again to those who care. It can happen to any of us. No one is safe.

South Ossetia: Tskhinvali Photos and Reports

Global Voices Online
Friday, August 22, 2008

See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.

On Aug. 21, Columbia Journalism Review published Julia Ioffe's overview of several Russian journalists' blogging from the war in South Ossetia. Featured in her piece are reports by LJ user krig42 (Komsomolskaya Pravda reporter Dmitry Steshin) and LJ user ep-news (Evgeny Poddubny, correspondent for TV Center); also mentioned are LJ user m-romanoff (Mikhail Romanov, who, together with Ilya Barabanov - LJ user barabanch - contributed a story from Tskhinvali (RUS) to The New Times weekly) and Moskovsky Komsomolets correspondent Irina Kuksenkova.

Below are a few more blog posts from Russian and North Ossetian journalists, with photos and accounts of what they've seen in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali over the past week.

LJ user voinodel (Vadim Rechkalov, war correspondent for Moskovsky Komsomolets) posted seven photos of Tskhinvali, taken from different perspectives, and wrote this (RUS):

Meet Vitalik. He is my good friend who has come to defend South Ossetia right from [Khankala, a Russian military base near Grozny]. Vitalik and I will now take you on a little guided tour around the ruined Tskhinval.

[photos of Vitalik]

You can photograph Tskhinval like this:

[a close-up photo of two blown-up tanks next to a residential building]

Or like this:

[photo of the same two tanks from a different angle]

But if you photograph it like this?

[four panoramic shots of Tskhinvali taken from a hill overlooking the city]

There are four pages of comments to Rechkalov's post. At one point, the journalist found it necessary to explain the point he was trying to make (RUS) when he posted the photos:

This post has only one message, totally intentional and clearly defined. In case someone has forgotten the information of the first two days. When Tskhinval was called the second [Stalingrad] and it was said that the city no longer exists. And all that.

[...]

I've a feeling that some [of the commenters who care so much about the Motherland] would be happy to see nothing but foundations [of the buildings] in these shots. What's wrong with you, guys? Are you crazy? Have you yourselves ever lived on [nothing but] a foundation? And have you washed yourself from a cup, along with your whole family? If 2,000 dead bodies haven't been confirmed, but, say, only 300 have - don't you like that? You need 2,000? Or, even better, 10,000? So that you could [strike] at Georgians in full force? But is that you who's gonna fight with them? Soldier Bogdanov will [...]. And you'll go on [posting comments], unaware that among those who defended Tskhinval were Georgians, too, and they were good fighters, and people respect them. Because one's ethnicity has nothing to do with it.

There's one message in this post - Tskhinval isn't Stalingrad. And you shouldn't use such words as Stalingrad in vain. [...]

LJ user pro100_petrov posted eight photos from Tskhinvali and wrote (RUS):

[...] In a nutshell: yes, the phrase "has been erased from the face of the earth" is an exaggeration when applied to this city. There are buildings that haven't been damaged too much. Now that they've replaced the windows in them, they look the way they did before the war.

[photo]

But in general the city looks like this:

[three photos, the last one is of a Tskhinvali school]

[photo of Hotel Alan: "Journalists were hiding in the basement here. [...] Damage is significant."]

[photo of a ruined house: "And this, they say, is the result of [Grad multiple-launch rocket system]. Hey, military folks! Is this really Grad?"]

[photo of a tank: "A blown-up Georgian tank. Lots of stuff like this all over the city. Next to the tank, there's a dead Georgian lying in the bushes. Many of them there, too. [...]"]

[photo of people on and around a tank: "Ossetian irregulars. Having their pictures taken with non-working mobile phones next to blown-up tanks."]

LJ user alan_tskhurbaev (North Ossetian journalist Alan Tskhurbaev) had this conversation (RUS) about the level of destruction in Tskhinvali with LJ user pro100-petrov in the comment section to one of his posts:

pro100_petrov:

[...] High-rises in the southern part [of the city] have indeed been damaged severely. But I wouldn't say that only half of the buildings are uninhabitable. I think it's 70-80 percent. Depends on what you consider inhabitable. If a missile makes a hole in the building's wall, but the basement and one room are intact - is this called inhabitable or not?

alan_tskhurbaev:

Yes, this isn't an easy question. Let's say there is a large nine-story building, with a huge hole under the roof, made by a missile. People live in this building, many of them. Should this building be considered destroyed or uninhabitable - or not? Especially when it's likely that the hole has been there since 1991.

But the main thing is that to me Tskhinval looked like a living city, not deserted and not destroyed, as it had been described in the media.

LJ user slonopatam posted a picture of two elderly women posing next to a blown-up tank in downtown Tskhinvali. LJ user butttto commented:

Life goes on... The old people know this better than the young ones...

LJ user liza-valieva (North Ossetian journalist Liza Valieva) posted three photos and wrote this (RUS) about the cleanup efforts in Tskhinvali:

[photo]

One of the first pictures taken in Tskhinval. Georgian prisoners, along with Tskhinvali residents, are cleaning up the city.

As one of the officials of South Ossetia's ministry of internal affairs told me, Georgian prisoners were allowed to wash themselves, were fed and then taken to clean Tskhinval and the surrounding areas. "Let them clean up the mess created by their fellow countrymen," he said.

I think it's a wise decision.

[photo]

I entered one of the first stores that re-opened in Tskhinval, where there was nothing but colored balloons, ketchup and mayo. The vendors were having a lively discussion about something. One of them said this to me in dismay:

[photo]

- Have you seen the Georgian prisoners who are cleaning up out there? If any of my relatives were killed, I'd go and kill one of them.

- They deserve pity, too, - I said, and immediately regretted having said it. I imagined the fury that would befall me. But, to my surprise, it did not happen, she agreed with me right away.

- Yes, I understand, they deserve pity, too.

Georgia: Russian Troops in Georgian Villages?

Global Voices Online
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Whereas things seem to be quiet in Tbilisi for now, North Ossetian blogger Alan Tskhurbaev - LJ user alan_tskhurbaev wrote this on Aug. 11 about the alleged advances of the Russian and South Ossetian troops in Georgia:

Talked with Tskhinval. According to [the person I talked with], Russian and South Ossetian troops have taken a Georgian village of Ergneti. They've also mopped up Avnevi. Then they'll move on to Nikozi, Tkiavi, and all the way to Gori. The Chechen battalion "East" is taking an active part.

And a quote from [the person I talked with]:

"Now the whole world is yelling that the bombing of Georgia is terrible, but isn't it as terrible to bomb Tskhinval?! Nothing will happen if Tbilisi beau monde wets their asses in the basements."

Georgia, Russia: More Reports On the Conflict From Russophone Bloggers

Global Voices Online
Sunday, August 10, 2008

See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.

Blogging from Poti, a Georgian port city whose "oil terminal, port facilities and a nearby railroad junction" were attacked by Russian fighter jets shortly after midnight Saturday, 27-year-old LJ user pepsikolka, an ethnic Russian citizen of Georgia, posted these hurried reports (RUS) on Aug. 8 and 9:

Aug. 8, 2008 - 1:23 PM

My colleagues have been drafted, some of them early in the morning, I'm shocked, can't understand what's going on and where to look for the truth - Georgian channels say one thing, Russian say something else, what's going to happen???

***

Aug. 9, 2008 - 12:50 AM:

The port has been bombed, we're sitting in the street, scared, they say some people have been wounded. Pray for us.

[...]

alchutoff:

[...] That's ours [Russians] who are bombing you, right?

pepsikolka:

Oh God. I don't know, but that's what they are saying.

***

Aug. 9, 2008 - 1:07 AM:

They are done bombing the port, we're out in the street, God save us.

***

Aug. 9, 2008 - 11:48 AM:

It was quiet during the night, but no one went to bed. There's no TV, we're reading the news from our phones. Scary. My friend, a colleague, has been wounded, and there are the dead ones, seven people from the port, they say, and there are also the dead among those mobilized after the bombing. I've no reason to lie, and those commenters who have doubts just don't know anything about me, I am Russian myself, and that's why I'm writing about facts here, so that you knew, we are alive, but scared. I want peace and this is all.

***

Aug. 9, 2008 - 2:20 PM:

[...] The city is nearly empty, I've stayed, [because] I've got my pets, and mama doesn't want to go anywhere. We are home. There's not a single drop of gasoline in the city. Panic. Ships are honking often. [...]

[...]

antifalsehood:

[...] You were the ones who got yourselves involved in the slaughter, you trust your [Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili] and his circle, and here's what you get. Of course, I don't believe that everyone is as much of a bastard as your [Saakashvili] is, but you'll sure answer for the thousands of dead Ossetians. Watch your asses since you've got no souls anymore.

night_the_only:

Do you understand what you are saying and to whom?

pepsikolka:

I didn't want to get into it, as I feel I'll get a full load for it, but still, I'll say it - why do you assume that we support Saakashvili and do not condemn what's been done in Tskhinvali? Here're the people sitting here, some of them support [Saakashvili], others don't, but the bomb sees no difference between those who supported him and those who didn't.

(A more detailed post by LJ user pepsikolka, written on Aug. 10, will be translated later tonight.)

Oleg Panfilov - LJ user oleg_panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations - happened to be spending his vacation in Georgia. He posted this comment (RUS) about air strikes on the Georgian town of Gori, carried out by the Russian forces on Saturday morning:

A few hours after I had passed Gori, the "peacekeepers' fighter jets" hit the town. One plane was downed - one pilot died, the other was arrested and is being interrogated.

It's hard to understand what they are trying to achieve by hitting [outside of] South Ossetia, but it looks like Russia is becoming more and more like the Soviet Union...

If someone in the Kremlin hopes that this will split Georgia and the Georgian society, they are deeply mistaken - all the opposition leaders announced their support for [Mikheil Saakashvili]. Even [Irakli Okruashvili], the [dismissed former] minister of defense, said he was ready to go to South Ossetia as an ordinary soldier.

[...]

There is no panic in Tbilisi, but many friends are calling me, incredulous - they [knew Russia was capable of a lot], but [to act like this]... [...]

A day earlier, on Aug. 8, LJ user tanelorn asked a question (RUS) about the situation in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, in the tbiliseli LJ community, set up for "all those who consider [Tbilisi their native city]:

Are things quiet in Tbilisi? How does it all reflect on the life in the city?

Here are some responses:

le_petit_tank:

It was quiet during the day, although, of course, people do worry. They are listening to all newscasts on all available channels - Russian and Georgian. And in between the news, we were watching the opening of the Olympics. They say they were catching people right in the street and sending them to draft centers. But I won't risk asserting that this is actually so...

satis_fiction:

My brother called me and said that they'd announced mobilization. He went to sign up, there were many like him there, who came by themselves.

[...]

vtar_vtar:

I don't think it has [affected life in the city] in any way. Of course, it was somewhat strange to see how in small open-air cafes they were playing news on TV instead of [pop music] videos. And, of course, those families that had their boys drafted are worried. Otherwise, nothing special.

28-year-old Tbilisi-based LJ user shupaka wrote (RUS) about an unpleasant sense of déjà vu, brought about by the announcement of mobilization of the troops in Georgia; the current situation has reminded her of the conflicts that Georgia had found itself in in the early 1990s:

...and one more observation, totally silly: the word "mobilization" inspires the same disgust in me as it did when I was a child. Doesn't matter if you're 13 or 28.

North Ossetia-based LJ user alan-tskhurbaev wrote (RUS) about a mobilization of a different kind, supposedly taking place in South Ossetia now:

[North Ossetian] volunteers in [South Ossetia].

There are many of them. And I have to admit that I was mistaken, thinking that in case of a war only a few would show up. A friend has just returned from the border [...], says many people are crowding there, arriving in their own cars. They are letting everyone in, at their own risk. At least one car goes through every few minutes, he says. He even said that some guys went there in their new BMW X5. Ossetians have not deserted each other. Turns out that in peaceful times we dislike each other, act arrogantly towards some, make fun of others. But as soon as a war begins (and Ossetians have probably lost count of all their wars by now) - we are together. [...]

Elsewhere in the Russophone blogosphere, there seems to be plenty of confusion about what's actually going on in South Ossetia and Georgia now. Take, for example, this post from last night (RUS) in the ru_politics LJ community, by LJ user er_v, and some of the comments it generated:

Can anyone tell me whether there are Russian troops in [Tskhinvali] or not?

***

mr_quietest:

Judging by everything, no.

[...]

beekjuffer:

Judging by what?

deneb_altay:

There are, don't worry.

nurmanov:

[Judging] by many things: the lack of pictures, the demands of the Russian journalists to allow them safe passage out of Tskhinval...

[...]

er_v:

No, but if we took Tskhinvali, they would definitely show it on the news. [...]

beekjuffer:

We already took it. Then Georgians took something, too. Then we were pushing them out. Judging by everything, it will continue like this for a long time.

[...]

elf_ociten:

And the Roksky Pass [on the Trans-Caucasus Highway] has been blown up, too :)

mr_quietest:

Not sure.

[...]

Regarding the alleged destruction of the Roksky Pass, LJ user som, a Russia-based Georgian, posted this item (RUS) last night:

URGENT

ON SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 9, GEORGIAN TROOPS BLEW UP ROKSKY PASS, THROUGH WHICH HUMAN PERSONNEL AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT WERE BEING SENT FROM RUSSIA TO THE FIGHTING ZONE IN TSKHINVALI REGION.

Some two hours and about 50 comments later, however, LJ user som admitted (RUS) that there had been no confirmation of this report and that this could be part of the "information war."

Georgia, Russia: Cyrillic Bloggers React to the Conflict in South Ossetia

Global Voices Online
Saturday, August 9, 2008

See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.)

In a brief report sent around noon on Aug. 8 from a hotel basement in Tskhinvali, the beleaguered capital of South Ossetia, Russian journalist Mikhail Romanov wrote this about the nature of the ongoing conflict between Georgia and Russia:

[...] The city is under heavy howitzer and mortar fire. An endless cannonade. I've seen many wounded people.

Peacekeepers are commenting succinctly: "This is war."

I was planning to leave tomorrow, a car was supposed to pick me up at 5 in the morning. Now it's not clear whether it'll pick me up. In general, nothing is clear.

Earlier that day, around 4 AM local time, LJ user alan_tskhurbaev, a blogger from Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania, had a phone conversation with a friend from Tskhinvali (RUS):

He is sitting in the basement, with a machine gun, and is so angry, he's almost crying. He says that machine guns are of no use to anyone here. Says that the city has been washed so forcefully with the [multiple rocket launcher system "Grad"] fire that the level of destruction is going to be very serious. He cannot talk about casualties yet, as there is even less information there than here. He says it has grown quieter now. He can't believe this is really happening. He's asking, Where is Russia?

U.S.-based LJ user saugin, who, in a comment to an earlier post by LJ user alan_tskhurbaev, mentioned (RUS) that his wife and younger son were also hiding in a basement in Tskhinvali, commented on Russia's involvement in the conflict and initiated the following discussion (RUS):

saugin:

On all forums I always used to say that Russia wasn't going to help us. Back home, they almost tore me into pieces for this. So where is this much-praised Russia now? I'd like to ask [Eduard Kokoity, president of South Ossetia] - where are your masters who you had trusted so much?

alan_tskhurbaev:

[We've been betrayed.]

vinous_granat [posted at 4:26 PM, after the Russian troops entered South Ossetia]:

Do you still think this way?

alan_tskhurbaev:

[They did desert us.] Russian tanks spent 15 hours riding through the tunnel. During this time, nothing was left of Tskhinvali.

LJ user m-yu-sokolov, a well-known Russian columnist,
reacted with joy and relief (RUS) on hearing of Russia's decision to deploy troops to South Ossetia. Based outside the volatile region, however, he seemed more concerned with his country's image rather than the human suffering and destruction caused by the fighting:

You've heard my prayers, God. Our tanks are moving towards Tskhinval. Russia has chosen against shameful dishonor.

Eduard Limonov, leader of the seemingly oppositional National Bolshevik Party, issued a rather un-oppositional statement, in which he called the Russian leadership to become even more involved in the conflict in South Ossetia - and in Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia. LJ user skovorodnikov reposted Limonov's statement in the namarsh_ru LJ community:

http://www.nazbol.ru/rubr2/2339.html

A new war has broken out in the Caucasus region. Last night, Georgian forces intruded on the territory of South Ossetia, which has been an independent state for 15 years already. Severe fighting is taking place there now.

The leadership of the Russian Federation has already made a tragic mistake. Russia should have peacefully deployed its troops to South Ossetia long before the battles allowed the Georgians in. Now there is only one obvious way for Russia to respond. Namely, as a preventive measure, Russian troops should immediately enter Abkhazia. Simultaneously, North Ossetian and Cossack volunteers should be allowed to form armed groups and fight against the Georgian troops in South Ossetia.

I insist on recommending the Russian leadership to follow my advice. This is the only way for Russia to save face and keep the status of a great country.

Below is a snippet of a subsequent discussion (RUS) of Limonov's stance, which took place between two bloggers, one of whom appears to be a supporter of the National Bolshevik Party:

fox_unexisted:

Well, pro-Kremlin [National Bolsheviks] - it's beyond me.

nb_kazan:

What is pro-Kremlin about it?

fox_unexisted:

A total agreement on this issue! While it's worth considering that a victorious war will only strengthen the current regime!

nb_kazan:

Damn it, and what if Putin suddenly gives us a real democracy and flourishing [...]? Are you going to be against it as well? In general, this TOTAL rejection of any of the regime's steps is driving me mad sometimes. The regime cannot ALWAYS be wrong. Sometimes they act correctly, but even in this case the regime has acted too slowly and clumsily. [...]

fox_unexisted:

The Russian people will get nothing out of it but the bodies of the Russian soldiers who died in a war for the Georgian territory. [...]

While the boundary separating the Russian opposition from their pro-Kremlin counterparts is somewhat blurry now, Russian hippie bloggers consider holding an anti-war demonstration. LJ user svetlyj_vrn wrote this (RUS) in the ru_hippy LJ community:

[...] We've found ourselves in a similar situation as our brethren had in America in the 60s. The governments of Georgia, Ossetia, Russia and America, with support from the UN, are pushing the world towards yet another war. The Vietnam War was stopped thanks to the efforts of the hippies. What about us? Are we going to stand on the sidelines? Maybe we should remind the world what a pacifists' demonstration is like? [...]

It remains to be seen, however, whether anything will come out of this initiative.

Since the escalation of the conflict in South Ossetia has coincided with the opening of the Olympics in China, a number of bloggers commented on that as well.

LJ user shavu posted this sarcastic item (RUS), referring to the recent Russian-Chinese agreement that ended a decades-long territorial dispute between the two states:

By the way, yes - everything had been planned in advance. They had even paid China with a little island for the inconvenience [to be] caused on the opening day of the Olympics.

LJ user scrolllock wrote (RUS):

Currently on TV: Georgian Olympic team is walking down the stadium in Beijing, the athletes are waving flags, forced smiles on their faces. What does it feel like, to be walking and smiling [...], while there's a war going on back home? [...]

LJ user vaxo, a Ukrainian-Georgian journalist Vakhtang Kipiani, compared the pre-war situation in South Ossetia to what's taking place in Crimea now and explained (RUS, UKR) why Ukrainian officials "should better be watching broadcasts from Tskhinvali rather than the opening of the Olympic Games":

"Leonid Grach, a Communist and people's deputy of Ukraine from Crimea, said that if Ukraine joined NATO, Crimea would secede from [Ukraine]. 'This is an alternative for the Crimean people, for which they are ready by now. Crimeans will never agree to live in a country that's been dragged into NATO,' said Grach."

If you take into account that our [government] doesn't know how many citizens of Ukraine who live in [Crimea] hold Russian passports + [the problem of 2017] ([Russian Black Sea Fleet] - "no one is leaving anywhere!") = today's events in Georgia shouldn't be treated as something that has nothing to do with [Ukraine]. [...]

Kipiani didn't specify which TV channels the Ukrainian authorities should be tuning in to for the news from South Ossetia, but, judging from another post of his (UKR), he did not mean Russia's state-owned Channel 1:

After reporting the deaths of 1,400 people ("citizens of Russia," so to say!) - they are airing laughter and jokes [by popular Russian entertainers].

[...] Either the loss of over a thousand people is a trifle for the Kremlin and [Channel 1 management], or they think everyone else around them are fools.

Southeast Europe, Russia: War, Peace, and Shared History

Global Voices Online
Sunday, April 6, 2008

In Vladikavkaz, the capital of Russia's North Ossetia, LJ user alan-tskhurbaev ran into a stencil graffiti, whose message (RUS) seemed somewhat unlikely for this North Caucasian region:

Kosovo is Serbia!

Referring to Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, whose leaders regard Kosovo independence as a precedent, Oleg Panfilov - LJ user oleg_panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations - posted this comment (RUS):

Wasn't there a second part - "South Ossetia is Georgia"?

LJ user alan_tskhurbaev replied (RUS):

Since the question is addressed to me and not to the author of the graffiti, I'll express my own opinion - South Ossetia is not Georgia even more than Kosovo is not Serbia. And here [in North Ossetia], you don't have to write it on the buildings - everyone knows it anyway.

***

Paris-based LJ user sebtinos stumbled upon a history textbook published by the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe (CDRSEE): "A textbook that teaches peace," he described it. Below are some of his thoughts (RUS) on the project:

[...] Sixteen historians from various corners of the Balkans have developed the region's joint history textbook.

The essence is simple. Albanian history textbooks teach that if all other peoples disappear from the earth, Albanian nation will continue to flourish. In Greece, high school students are being taught that "the fall of Constantinople" took place in 1453, while their Turkish counterparts learn about the "liberation of Istanbul." Students from Skopje, Belgrade and Sofia get to know the history of the "liberation from the Turkish yoke," while in Ankara they study the "dramatic and unfair war that put an end to the Great Ottoman Empire."

Indeed, there are as many versions of the Balkan history as there are nations living in this region. Each group is searching through history to find explanations of the present and arguments in favor of the national idea. Kosovo believes it has historical arguments to support its independence. Belgrade is convinced of the opposite. Today, every nation has its own view of the past and isn't really concerned with finding ways to co-exist in the present.

[...]

And it has occurred to me ... that, perhaps, the former Soviet republics should stop [...] re-writing history separately and finally publish something jointly.

In response to a reader, LJ user sebtinos added:

I had a chance to attend schools in four different countries: USSR, Russia, Ukraine and France. The views differ completely. It's not fair that the humankind has one universal history, but nations or individuals [do not share a common view on it.]

LJ user sebtinos also crossposted his history textbook entry to the ru_politics LJ community, and below are two reader responses (RUS):

kabashek:

Joint history is not good for the powerful elites [of each nation]. Makes it harder to manipulate [the population]. And the example you're citing is funded by the EU, not by Albania and Turkey.

***

stepanov_karel:

I, of course, haven't read this textbook, but I suspect that it's written [in an extremely appeasing manner]. That is, all controversial topics are simply ignored.

All controversial topics have to be thoroughly discussed, however.