Does Russia Suffer from Culture Cringe?

[Blues Fairy]

I am not one for conspiracy theories as I am a follower of Occam's razor. Invariably, the simplest solution is the best, until proven otherwise.

Excellent approach!    Then you agree that Russia invaded Georgia because Georgian troops started killing peacekeepers, and for no other reason?   

[possum]

The simplest explanation here would be that Russia provoked Saakashvili to attack South Ossetia or Abkhazia so the Kremlin could have an excuse to give independence to the two breakaway republics as payback for Kosovo.. This whole little operation was about getting back at NATO.. make no mistake about it, folks..

[Misha]

Radio Free Europe has an interesting article whereby an eyewitness relates her observation that Russian journalists flocked to the region even before Georgia launched their initial attack:

"Speaking to RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service, Tsarnayev, a resident of the Chechen capital, Grozny, said the Moscow-based reporters had been sent from various Russian media outlets days earlier, and were preparing to cover something big.

"At the hotel we discovered that there were already 48 Russian journalists there. Together with us, there were 50 people," Tsarnayev said. "I was the only one representing a foreign news agency. The rest were from Russian media and they arrived three days before we did, as if they knew that something was going to happen. Earlier at the border crossing, we met one man who was taking his wife and children from Tskhinvali."

Late that night, armed conflict broke out between Russia and Georgia."

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Russia_Georgian_Scripted_Affair/1193319.html.

Here, the simplest explanation was that Russia knew there would be a war in Georgia before Georgia.

[OlgaH]

As it said in the article Tsarnayev's account could not be independently confirmed. 

Georgia was planning to attack South Ossetia and Russia was planning to repel Georgian aggression 

[OlgaH]

During 3 days of war two Russian journalists were killed and three were wounded.

[OlgaH]

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