Case closed on this piece of jewshit prop!
"Georgia's Russians express shame; Many angered by Moscow actions" by Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post | August 27, 2008
TBILISI, Georgia - Growing up in this capital, Svetlana Tikhonova remembers how proud her father, Petr, was of his medals. A Soviet Red Army pilot during World War II, he used to show them off to visitors, and on the annual holiday commemorating the end of the war, he would march down the street with all 30 of them affixed to his chest.
But since the Russian conflict with Georgia, his home for more than half his life, the 86-year-old ethnic Russian won't leave his room. "He says it is a shame for him to look into people's eyes," Tikhonova said. "He is ashamed that his army has turned into this group of bandits."
When the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, millions of ethnic Russians were left in the newly independent states. Many have felt a stronger allegiance to Moscow than to the country where they wound up. The Kremlin has pushed this to its advantage in some cases. Russia has supported separatist movements and even issued Russian passports to residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two breakaway regions that have sought independence from Georgia.
And what did the other article in the paper say today?
"Russian recognition of the breakaway provinces represents a sharp departure from traditional Kremlin policy opposing separatist movements"
Oh, I am sick of the LYING!!!!!!!!!!!!
But in the rest of Georgia, and especially in Tbilisi, where residents are proud of the city's multiethnic composition, playing the nationalist card hasn't worked. Russians here feel a mix of emotions these days, but the most salient ones seem to be shame before their Georgian neighbors and anger that the latest conflict among politicians could threaten their harmonious relations.
"We all love Georgia and we all feel nervous about this situation," said Mikhael Kazakov, 68, an ethnic Russian. "In this mutual fighting and these mutual victims, we feel like we are losing something, and of course we feel sad about that. In Tbilisi, we were always saying, 'I have no nationality - I feel I am a resident of Tbilisi.' "
Russia has long been an integral part of Georgian life. For more than a century, Georgia was part of the czarist empire; after a brief fling with independence from 1918 to 1921, it was swallowed by the Soviet Union.
Georgia was a source of wine, fresh fruit, art films, and mountain and beach vacations for the czarist and Soviet elites. Some Russians chose to move here, charmed by the sunny climate, and many married Georgians.
Wars and the rise of a nationalistic leader at the time of the Soviet collapse sent many Russians back to Russia. Some also returned to Russia to work as the economy improved. Their presence here shrank from 6.3 percent in 1989 to 1.5 percent in 2002; today an estimated 65,000 Russians live here, said the Georgia ombudsman office.
The ombudsman's office has hosted meetings for ethnic Russians who have come up with a petition declaring their allegiance to Georgia and condemning the Russian occupation.
Lali Moroshkina, a journalist who arranged the meetings, said she is worried that Russians living here may be used as pawns.
You mean, like in this piece of shit propaganda piece by the AmeriKan jewsmedia?
She said some ethnic Russians have been quiet since the war began, perhaps because they are afraid they won't get Russian visas. About 1 million Georgians live and work in Russia, sending money back to family here. This has become harder since Russia cracked down on trade two years ago, banning Georgian wine and mineral water, restricting travel and deporting some Georgians back to their homeland.
But the 60 or so people who attended one of the meetings were not shy about making their feelings known. "It's doubly painful for me . . . because my roots, my compatriots, are doing this," said Lyudmila Atamanova, 53, whose father, a Russian military officer, moved to Georgia 50 years ago. She was signing the petition, she said, because "in the future we will be asked where we stood during this war. We are citizens of Georgia, and I think the majority of us think this way."
