Russia warns of ‘horrible conflict' if Georgia joins NATO

Yeah we saw how big those balls were in Helsinki.

Like the Ukraine, the Russians occupy a large part of Georgia from their last conflict. They would have taken all of Georgia but the U.S. under Bush II intervened directly by flying Georgian combat troops back from Afghanistan and Iraq on USAF transports during the Invasion as well as sending a naval ship to offshore............which gave the Russians pause and they stopped pushing into Georgian territory once U.S. Troops involved in the airlift appeared in country. Instead they redirected towards the Northern province and took it instead of the whole country and stated that was really their goal all along. The Russians still occupy the Northern Georgian provinces and claim they are successionist like Ukraine........when in fact prior to the war they were autonomous regions, content with living with Georgian rule. Another version of the story is Georgia attacked these automous regions in an attempt to annex them which drew in Russia to the confllict. The truth is somewhere in between, the Georgian military moved in response to repeated Russian instigated events. So who knows who started what.

Thanks, didn't know any of this. Sounds pretty typical for Russia though.

The fact that Russia won't allow Georgia or Ukraine to become part of the US. Sure a portion of the population can be considered Russian but since Georgia is now an independent nation, the majority of it's populace should be treated as Georgians, not Russian. Russia used the same line of reason to annex Crimea; Crimea is full of Russians not Ukrainians that needed protection was Putin's argument.

Seems to be their motis oprende.