It has got to be done - Russia must counter-sue the Georgians. Now that Russia is a member of the Strasbourg and other courts, it had better get good lawyers. By "good" I mean "junk-yard dogs" kind of lawyers. Because you know, Saakashvili already has those lawyers and they are winning the propaganda war. This time, if Russia loses a propaganda war, they cannot just ignore it. It will be in court and there will be judgments to pay. It matters very little if Russia is right or not. This whole court thing reminds me of the Dickens story, "The Pickwick Papers". The hero of that story went to debtor's prison ultimately because he was a "gentleman" and wouldn't fight dirty in court.

About time. Mikheil Saakashvili should be sharing a cell in Siberian jail with Mikhail Khodorkovsky for the War Crimes and genocide he unleashed on the South Ossetia’s and Russian people.

It's a shame to see Russia falling to the same ground as the West by claiming 229 deaths as grounds for "genocide." I really expected better. Crimes against humanity and indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets and peacekeepers, yes but genocide no. I consider this to be damaging tactic, as it gives further precedent to turn genocide into a standard word that can be applied anywhere, and hardly worth it. Russia should call it what it is and press charges in international courts as such. This is ridiculous.

Nogrentian You have been watching too much Fox and CNN news.

Nogrentain, the term genocide is specific in that it means an attempt to wipe out an entire race of people. The geno comes from the word genome, which basically means one genetic group... like south ossetians. If there were any Aztecs left, even just 2 or three, then if you make it your policy to kill both or all three of them then you are guilty of attempted genocide. Just wanting to kill one because you don't like them, or just wanting to kill 1 billion Chinese (and not all of them) means it would not be genocide. It seems to me the indiscriminant Georgian fire on escaping South Ossetians and equally indiscriminate artillery barrage of their capital suggests the Georgians preferred the land without the people that were on it at the time. That seems to me to qualify as Genocide. Certainly it qualifies better than the case of Kosovo which the West brought. ME Janssen: It seems to me that Russia rarely does well in European court cases no matter what the circumstances. Personally I think Russia would be better off withdrawing from everything that ensnares them within its juristiction. From my experience few europeans consider Russia to be part of Europe anyway.

Nogrentain, I do not think there is a single court that rewards a failed crime. To start with,229 deaths is not a realistic figure for a city shelled with grad, and indiscriminate shelling and attacking apartment buildings.For sure the real figure will never be known,but everyone now knows that the Georgian army did attack a civilian city which was poorly defended as most ossetian militia were not there.they were protecting the tunnel to Russia.Attack on civilians in an attempt to destroy a population is genocide.It has no bearing on the number of people they actually managed to kill. Even one death during the process of eradication of a population from an area still amounts to genocide.

@GarryB, I fear you may be right about bias in European courts. However the government has decided that allowing the jurisdiction of the Strasbourg court over Russian courts is a good thing. We will see. There are so many ways to "game" that process, and so many people who would like to get some kind of revenge over Soviet era wrongs. Or perhaps the Strasbourg court will hear cases dating only since 1991? I'm not sure what the rules are with that court. I do recall the Yukos investors are now suing Russia because their "rights" had been violated, or something. There seem to be a lot of American investors among the plaintiffs - maybe they think they see a good money-making scheme? Sorry if I sound too cynical today. Must be something I ate.

MEJanssen, I would suspect such agreements were signed during the Yeltsen years and need to be looked at once again. As you suggest, much of it is token revenge and I would rather doubt the quality of the courts rulings. I think I read on this site that to join the OSCE Russia had to sign the papers to give Strasburg the jurisdiction. The performance of the OSCE in the South Ossetian conflict suggests to me that the Russians really should withdraw from that and from this european court in strasburg. Regarding the thing you ate... never be ashamed of being paranoid. Just because you are paranoid it doesn't mean the whole world isn't out to get you.