Every time Georgia comes up
I'm amazed how many of the Reg readers just blithely believe the spin that US/UK have put on this incident.
Georgia and Russia have been 'peace keeping' in South Ossetia for a while, during which the Ossetians had a nice little unoffical poll and decided that they didnt want to be part of a Georgia. Georgia didn't like this, and decided to retake South Ossetia by force. The Ossetians turned to the peacekeepers they had left and asked for help. Russia then let the bear off the leash and gave Georgia a bit of a beating and, as seems to be the vogue for disputed regions these days, recognised their claim to independence. Nothing NATO hasn't done recently..
When this first happened, new reports were impartial, information was sketchy but accurate: Georgia attacked S. Ossetia, Russia retaliated. Fast forward one day, the spin machines are in motion, and suddenly it is Russian territorial agression.. Milliband is the worst, most of the stuff he comes up with is straight out of Yes Minister.
I'm sure the Russians will use it like that (Georgia: big hint, you aren't getting either back now), but FFS, who decided shelling Russian citizens in a region adjacent to Russia filled with Russian troops would be a good idea? They must have top politicians in Georgia to come up with plans like that.
@RW - I reckon for a good while Russia will be happy with 'autonomous regions'. You see how close the BTC pipeline runs to South Ossetia? Thats shelling range, that is.
I bet Azerbaijan wished that it had made up with Armenia (hah! fat chance) rather than running it through Georgia.