Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

Propaganda on western TV? how does that differ from the propaganda on Russian TV biased towards the opposite view? i was in Germany, Russia, England and the US during this time and noticed the western world seemed to focus a lot on the genocidal aspect of things and the killing of Albanians and running them off... and Russia focused exclusively on KLA being terrorists. In Russia, there was only one side of the story being shown...ever. From start to finish.

Was the "western media" making up all the towns being burned and their inhabitants being forced to leave with boys/men being separated and shot?

how far did that "media conspiracy" go? why was all of western Europe and the US showing the same thing with Russia not showing it at all? must have been a huge conspiracy! one big enough to get the UN involved and NATO countries to agree to stop it.

At the end of the day, you are just as biased as those you claim are biased. Thats what makes you look so ignorant. You can only address serious, valid points with more questions because you know the answers or know you can't answer.

Russia is Russia.

Russians razed Grozny to the ground in the first war. Hundreds of millions of dollars was set aside to rebuild... with a few 10's of millions actually making it without being stolen.

I know many many Russians who fought in Chechnya on contracts... all with the same stories of sweeping apartment buildings by going door to door and throwing grenades through the door... waiting for them to go off and then if they see a body inside, they put an AK-47 next to it and shot it on video. I could go on and on forever about the horrible shit Russia has done (just as the US or any other country does in war).

BTW... how did that second Chechnyan war start? Were you in Russia? I was.

How did Putin get elected after Yeltsin resigned? He had only been Prime Minister for like 6 months and Russians for the most part, had no idea who he was.

What event catapulted him to being elected President of Russia???

Were you watching Russian news everyday during this time? I was. Were you watching all the obviously faked propaganda of Chechen rebels attacking Russian border posts, raids into Dagestan and elsewhere? I was.

Were you watching apartment buildings in Moscow full of innocent, sleeping people being blown up, to be immediately blamed on Chechen terrorists who NEVER claimed responsibility for it? I did.

Do you know anyone involved directly in the prosecution of the apartment bombings cases? I do.

We you watching the Russian government scare the shit out of people nationwide with "Operation Whirlwind" right after? I was.

Do you know people who went to Chechnya to fight for 500.00-600.00-700.00 a month? I know many. Do you remember the stories about Grozny and elsewhere in the first war where the Chechens had schoolgirls trained as snipers? Ever sit around a camp fire doing shots of vodka and watch someone break down and cry as they talk about kidnapping, raping and killing more girls than they could count, just because they might be snipers? I have.

I could go on for ages about shit you seem to know nothing about.

Russia's hands are no more clean than anyone else's. Russia's media is more biased by far than ANY western media.

At the end of the day, a world power and a thorn in their side squared off... georgia miscalculated and lost. Russia has been waiting for this for a long time and if you are so dumb you think this wasn't planned months in advance and with the full knowledge of the US and other western governments, you are naive beyond help.

Trying to characterize this situation as Russia being the innocent party just trying to do good and help is absurd and retarded. They want to protect pipelines... they want to flex a little muscle to the world in a way that won't backfire, they want to show some determination and resolve in protecting its own interests.. they want to build public support for the government.

It's no coincidence that a Russian general is on the news today warning Poland that they risk attack if they allow NATO to put a missile defense system on their soil.

Russia has been in a weak position for a decade and a 1/2 with nothing but poorly trained military and garbage equipment and no money to fix anything. A few years of astronomical oil prices and they are in a position to make up for lost time and reestablish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the world and they are doing it. Period. End of story. it's no more complicated than that. Thinking they give a fuck about how many peace keepers are/were at risk is incredibly naive.