Rus-georgia

Sad news out of Russia--tbe murder of human rights journalist Anna Politkovskaya. She was set to release a damning report of the Russian puppet PM of Chechnya. Initial signs point to a targeted Russian hit job.

In a week seeing escalations between Georgia and its former master.

Russia wants in on controlling natural gas/oil around Caspian. The Baltics--minus Belarus--went Western almost the minute the wall fell. Ukraine managed to by some time against Russia by re-integrating the pro-Russian Yanukovich into the leadership of the Orange Revolution Yukashenko.

Georgia gets no help from the West but is in a similar spot. Perhaps its best hope is pulling the same move as their Ukranian brothers: here. The key passage:

In that [Ukraine] crisis, Russia tried to cut-off supplies of natural gas to the Ukraine while at the same time pumping natural gas through pipelines that ran through the country. Of course, the Ukrainians naturally siphoned off the gas they needed from Russia's european customers. These customers quickly forced Russia to resolve the crisis.

Elements in Checyhna fit back and get the cold brutal hand of Moscow thrown on them. What this reporter was detailing.

But Russia has won back control in the Central Asian republics--minus Turkmenistan which the US supports a total authoritarian nightmare of a dictator for a military base. And tough talk from politicans about boycotting Russian G8 participation is just talk.

Georgia is going to have to handle this one alone it seems to me.