The allegations in the picture
I do not want to go into what concerns the Soviet Union. Today's Russia is no more the Soviet Union than today's Federal Republic of Germany is not Nazi Germany. These were different systems and ideologies that cannot be equated with their successors today. In Russia – and Putin says this again and again – there is a consensus that the Soviet Union was a repressive state that also caused a lot of mischief due to its state ideology.
So let's take a look at the accusations made against today's Russia in the picture. This is about what concerns the "new Russia", as it is also called in Russia itself, i.e. the period since the end of the Soviet Union in December 1991.
1988-1994 Nagorno-Karabakh War
The conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region broke out in 1988 and was at times a hot war in the early 1990s before a ceasefire was negotiated in 1994 with the mediation of Russia. It is difficult to pinpoint a culprit, the conflict has its roots in the 19th century. The region, i.e. the Caucasus, is a patchwork quilt of countless smaller and larger ethnic groups and therefore a traditional powder keg.
In the mixed-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, conflicts erupted between Christian Armenians and Islamic Azerbaijanis from 1988. As a result, Armenia won the war at that time and the Azerbaijanis were expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh. After that there was no reconciliation.
This war is listed in the picture in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although Russia was not involved in the war at all.
1991-92 South Ossetia War
The war in question was also one of the civil wars that broke out in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Ossetians and Abkhazians were part of the Georgian republic in the Soviet Union, but they never wanted to be part of an independent Georgian state. The reason is that in the course of the civil war after the October Revolution there were also conflicts between Georgians on the one hand and the Ossetians and Abkhazians on the other hand, in which thousands of Ossetians and Abkhazians were killed. Ossetia speaks of a genocide by the Georgians. Georgians then moved into the subsequently depopulated places.
In the Soviet Union it didn't matter which Soviet republic a region belonged to, just as it doesn't matter whether a village in Germany belongs to Hesse or Lower Saxony. This only became important when Georgia became independent and the conflict broke out again.
This is how the war started in 1991, during which the Ossetians fought to avoid falling under Georgian control. The war then ended, with South East Asia and Abkhazia becoming de facto (but not internationally recognized) independent from Georgia. The line of contact has been secured by Russian peacekeeping forces since 1992.
This war is listed in the picture in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although Russia was not involved in the war at all.
1992 Transnistrian War
That too was a civil war in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The small former Soviet Republic of Moldova is now located between Ukraine and Romania and is a mixed multi-ethnic state. War broke out there in 1992 because the small region of Transnistria, which is home to a large number of Russians, did not want to join Moldova, where there were strong Romanian nationalist tendencies. By the way, volunteers from the Ukraine also came to help the Russians in Transnistria at that time, those were the times when the artificially created division between Ukrainians and Russians did not yet exist.
The war ended when the Soviet 14th Army stationed in Transnistria split the factions. Then there was a ceasefire and since then Moldovan, Transnistrian and Russian peacekeepers have been patrolling the line of contact together.
This war is pictured in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars" when Russia's sole role was to end the hostilities.
1992-93 First Abkhazian War
The same applies here as in the South Ossetia war. It was Georgia's conflict with the Ossetian and Abkhazian minorities.
This war is listed in the picture in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although Russia was not involved in the war at all.
1992 East-Progorodny conflict
This conflict also belongs to the conflicts over Ossetia and Abkhazia. After all, the Caucasus is a melting pot of cultures and, above all, of the (small) peoples who sometimes fought each other when the Soviet Union collapsed. North Ossetia and Ingushetia are both parts of Russia, so it was an intra-Russian ethnic conflict in which Russian units intervened to stop the incursions of Islamist Ingush militants on Ossetians.
This conflict is listed in the picture in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although it was an ethnic conflict between two peoples that Russian units ended.
1992-97 Tajik Civil War
Tajikistan was a Soviet republic that became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the civil war that followed, various currents (from former communists to pro-Western forces and Islamists) fought against each other. In 1994 there was a ceasefire that was supposed to be secured by Russian peacekeeping forces, but it didn't last. Peace was negotiated in Moscow in 1997.
This war is listed in the picture in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although Russia was not involved in the war at all, but only an intermediary between the warring parties.
1993 Georgian Civil War
As seen in the conflicts over Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia was a Soviet republic that became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the course of the conflicts there were coups in Georgia and a civil war by various forces that wanted to take power in the young state.
This Georgian civil war is listed in the picture in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although Russia was not involved in the war at all.
1994-96 First Chechen War
There are two perspectives on the Chechen war. The Western perspective speaks of the Chechen people's struggle for independence, the Russian perspective is different: it was by no means the Chechens who were fighting for their independence, but infiltrated Arab Salafists who, to quote the rebels at the time, wanted "an Islamic state, a caliphate “ wanted to build. These terms, which only became known in the West in 2012, when Arab Wahhabi Islamists established their regime of terror in Iraq and Syria, had been an issue in Russia since 1994.
The aim of the Islamists was to gain control of the entire Caucasus, i.e. the Russian but Islamic region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
The war ended in 1996 with de facto autonomy for Chechnya, because the Russian army in Russia, which was chronically bankrupt under Yeltsin, was unable to assert itself against the Islamists who had immigrated.
This war is pictured in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars" even though it was a conflict within the Russian state sparked by infiltrated foreign Islamists.
1998 Second Abkhazian War
It is not clear what the Second Abkhazian War is supposed to be. Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia in 1994 and confirmed this in a 1999 referendum. As with South Ossetia, there were always small skirmishes with Georgia, but I couldn't even find anything about a war that is said to have raged there in 1998 on Russian-language websites.
This is listed in the picture in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although nothing seems to have happened at all, at best someone calls a small skirmish a "war".
1999 Dagestan War and 1999-09 Second Chechen War
The events of 1999 are listed as two wars in the image in the Reitschuster article, which is simply not true. In fact, the Second Chechen War began with an attack on Dagestan by the Islamists, who had controlled Chechnya since 1996, because they wanted to expand their "caliphate". I reported on the 20th anniversary of the events, the article can be
found here.
Otherwise, the same applies to the Second Chechen War as to the First Chechen War, except that this time Russia won the war. It is interesting how this was possible, as it belies the Western legend that the Chechens fought for their independence from Russia.
Putin was persuaded by the "pro-Russian" Chechen leader Kadyrov (whose son is now President of Chechnya) to declare an amnesty. The Chechens, previously fearful of Russian prosecution for their involvement in the war, then switched sides. With the help of the local population, it was possible to expel the foreign Islamists who had infiltrated Chechnya.
2002-04 Pankisi Gorge Crisis
The Pankisi Valley is located in Georgia and is inhabited by Chechens, among others. The valley was a haven for gun and drug smuggling criminals in the early 2000s. Georgia has been pressured from abroad to take action. Incidentally, by no means only from Russia, but also from the USA, because Arabs from al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations were also hiding in the valley.
When these terrorists fought in Chechnya, the US supported them, but when they settled in Georgia, which the US wanted to establish as an outpost against Russia (which it later became), the US moved against them.
Incidentally, the Chechen who was shot in the so-called “Tiergarten murder” in Berlin also belonged to one of the Pankisi groups and he was also involved in Islamist terrorist attacks and organized crime. Russia has repeatedly requested his extradition from Germany, but this has always been rejected.
This "war" (which wasn't one) is pictured in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although Russia was no more involved in the story than, for example, the USA, and although it is - also from from a Western point of view - acted around an internationally demanded action by Georgia against al-Qaeda and organized crime.
2007 Ingushetia War
This war never happened either. Instead, it is again one of the problems of the Caucasus and the Chechen war. In the wake of the nearby war in Chechnya, Islamists had a strong following in the Russian republic of Ingushetia. Even Der Spiegel wrote about Ingushetia and the situation there in 2008 :
“After the war in neighboring Chechnya, it became a stronghold for armed Islamists. They shoot police officers and secret service agents almost every day, blow up their vehicles or fire grenades at government buildings. In the first half of 2008 alone, 70 police officers were killed in armed attacks in Ingushetia. (...) The Islamic militants are fighting for a "Caucasian Emirate" that is said to stretch from the Caspian to the Black Sea. The Islamists are also gaining ground in the neighboring republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and Dagestan. Also in Dagestan, with 2.6 million inhabitants the largest North Caucasus republic, assassinations are part of everyday life.
Here, too, there can be no question of a “Russian war”, rather it was about the fight against Islamist terror in a constituent republic of Russia. Nevertheless, this "war" in the picture is listed in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars".
2008 Caucasus War
We are now familiar with the problems between Ossetia and Abkhazia on the one hand, and Georgia on the other. After Georgian President Saakashvili, who came to power through the Rose Revolution organized by Soros, struck nationalist tones and wanted to bring the areas back under Georgian control, the USA gave Georgia hope for NATO membership and fired Saakashvili in his anti-Russian and nationalist rhetoric .
Saakashvili therefore believed that the US would come to the aid of Georgia in a war with Russia. That was a mistake.
When Georgian troops first attacked the Russian peacekeeping forces in early August 2008 and then bombed residential areas of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali for a whole night, Russian troops set off and when they were there a day later, the Georgian army didn't stand a chance . The war lasted only five days, and Russia even advanced into Georgian territory for a few days, destroying important military infrastructure there. Then the Russians withdrew.
This version is also confirmed by the EU investigation report from 2009. It describes Georgia's attack as contrary to international law, but the Russian action as appropriate - only the Russian occupation of some parts of Georgia, which lasted a few days, is described as excessive, but covered by international law.
This war is pictured in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars" even though Georgia started the war and even though the EU investigation concluded that Russia was only defending itself.
since 2009 guerrilla warfare in the North Caucasus
Here, too, it is not clear what exactly is meant by this. After the Chechen war was declared over in 2009, there is relative calm in the Caucasus. Due to the melting pot of peoples and religions, it will probably never be really quiet in the sense that we understand it in Central Europe, but there are no longer open combat operations there and there can be no question of a guerrilla war.
This article explains how fragmented the Caucasus is .
2010 riots in southern Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan is also a former Soviet republic that became independent after 1991. The country is unstable and in 2010 there was rioting and a coup. It's just not clear what Russia is supposed to have to do with it. There were domestic problems.
This "war" is listed in the picture in the Reitschuster article as an example of "Russian wars", although there was no war at all, but it was a coup that Russia had nothing to do with.
2010-2012 uprising in Tajikistan
This is another example of "wars" that never happened. It is not clear which "uprising the Tajikistan" is referred to, because the country was quite stable between 2010 and 2012. Anyone looking online for events from that time in Tajikistan will find reports about construction projects, an agreement with China in a border dispute and a few other events, but nothing about an uprising that, according to the picture Reitschuster linked, spanned the country for two years should have shaken for a long time.
Nonetheless, the image in the Reitschuster article lists it as an example of "Russian wars."
since 2011 Syria
This is also disinformation, because Russia is active in Syria, but only since 2015. In 2011 it was the USA that started the war in Syria. If this is new to you, you can
read about it here. The USA started the Syrian war with the CIA operation "Timber Sycamore", which the German media has not reported on to this day, although the documents in Washington were released years ago.
2014 Crimean Crisis
The last “Russian war” pictured in the Reitschuster article concerns the 2014 Crimean crisis, which resulted in Crimea reuniting with Russia. Since I have already written a great deal about this, I will skip it here and
refer to this article in which I have reproduced the events of spring 2014 in minute detail.
Conclusion
I really appreciate the work Boris Reitschuster is doing on the Covid-19 issue. He is definitely one of the best journalists in Germany on this subject. However, I totally disagree with him about Russia, and this image of “Russian wars” shown by Reitschuster in his article is a striking example of why, as it suggests something (namely, Russia's alleged aggressiveness) that is not there. At least the examples given in the picture are all refutable and the picture is nothing more than opinion making based on untruths. And opinion-making is, by definition, not good journalism.
It is a pity that Reitschuster, who works so well with facts and, above all, sources in his reporting on Corona, takes a different approach when it comes to Russia and, for example, posts such pictures instead of bringing facts backed by sources]
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
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and you can't even figure out how, this is actually sad and depressing and i'm sorry but here you are
It says so much about how you truly feel inside, you could barely contain yourself lmao
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