In the course of the last 24 hours RT’s website (www.russiatoday.com) has endured numerous DDoS attacks, which have made it unavailable for some time.
Channel’s security specialists say the initial attack was carried out from an IP-address registered in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. RT’s team apologizes for the inconvenience and gives a list of comprehensive external resources on the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict which can be used, should the attacks continue.“The most curious feature of the Georgian assault is that there appears to have been no attempt to secure the southern end of the Roki Tunnel, thereby severely impeding Russia's ability to bring forward heavy ground units. Indeed, the Georgians seem to have demonstrated very little strategic or operational finesse; a further indication their doctrine and military plans were inadequate”.The August 2008 South Ossetia Conflict: Revising the Status Quo, Royal United Services Institute“What remains is an absolute determination not to be defeated by Georgia and not to suffer the humiliation of having to abandon Russia’s South Ossetia client state, with everything that this would mean for Russian prestige in other areas. Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin made it clear again and again that if Georgia attacked South Ossetia, Russia would fight. Georgian advocates in the West claimed that Moscow was only bluffing. It wasn’t”.Analysis: roots of the conflict between Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia, The Times“Russia's attacks over the weekend leave the West looking for ways it can exert its power to deter any further aggression. The West is under no obligation to help Georgia, because it is not a member of NATO.Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy for the Center for European Reform in London, said it was unrealistic for Georgia to expect help. “It's a sign of Georgia's own sense of importance,” he said. “They were unrealistic to think the United States and Europe would come to their military aid”.South Ossetia: Bloody fight, broad impact, USA Today“As the world's diplomats hurried to contain the violence and prevent the conflict engulfing the wider Caucasus region, Russia made clear it no longer considered Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili a partner, prompting accusations from his main ally, the United States, that Moscow was resisting peace and wanted regime change”.Georgia bows to might of Russia, The Independent”There are three basic facts to keep in mind about the smokin’ little war in Ossetia:1. The Georgians started it.2. They lost.3. What a beautiful little war!“War Nerd: South Ossetia, The War of My Dreams, Exiled Online”There is some truth in this analysis – but only some. In the first place, Russia may have behaved with shocking brutality, but this was in response to Georgian troops going into South Ossetia.There was provocation. This tiny disputed parcel of land is admittedly legally part of Georgia, but it has been independent for 15 years, and its population of 70,000 includes Russian passport holders and many sympathetic to Russia".Shamed by the loss of empire, Russia is a wounded bear we provoke at our grave peril, Daily Mail“My own view is that the U.S. has displayed a reckless disregard for Russian interests for some time. I don't like Russia's swing to greater domestic authoritarianism and worry about its stiffened posture on a number of international fronts – but [President of the Nixon Center, Dimitri] Simes convinces me in his important Foreign Affairs essay, ”Losing Russia,“ that much of what we are seeing unfold between Russia and Georgia involves a high quotient of American culpability”.Georgia-Russia Clash: American Culpability and the Kosovo Connection, The Washington Note“First, diplomacy. President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia is a headstrong fellow. Reference has been made to his Harvard education as if that should ensure sound judgment. Alas, however, the President's tutor was not the greatest of Harvard diplomatists, Henry Kissinger – but Anthony Eden at Suez. Mr. Saakashvili has only one defence against the charge of criminal irresponsibility: a plea of insanity”.The West must share the blame for war in Georgia, The Independent“No doubt, Saakashvili's government has been rash by daring the Russians in their own backyard. Neither does Georgia have the wherewithal to take on vastly superior Russian forces, nor is the West likely to come to its aid”.Europe's New War, The Times of India