Sunday, August 17, 2008

How a flat tyre took the Caucasus to war

"A flat tyre on a Russian diplomatic car triggered the slide to war in Georgia after it forced the cancellation of key peace talks the day before fighting erupted, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Trouble had been brewing in the disputed South Ossetian region for weeks as Moscow-backed militias skirmished with Georgian troops, yet Russian-brokered negotiations between the Georgian government and the separatists had continued.

But the first substantial face-to-face talks on August 7 fell through after a farcical chain of events in which the top Russian diplomat claimed he was unable to attend the meeting in South Ossetia because his car tyre had run flat.. "

Read on here

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As the heightened tension begins to subside more articles in the media begin to appear that show a more balanced perspective to the events that lead to the confrontation that was provoked by Georgia's President Misha Saakashvili. One such article worth reading is The Daily Globe