Leigh in Azerbaijan

“You must draw a white-hot iron over this Georgian land!…You will have to break the wings of this Georgia! Let the blood of the petit bourgeois flow until they give up all their resistance! Impale them! Tear them apart!” – Vladimir Lenin

So commences an article from freelance journalist Michael J. Totten who is in Georgia reporting on the conflict.  This long article is worth reading.  It gives the sense of actually being there, of travelling to Tbilisi from Baku and then finding your way to Russian occupied Georgia and dealing with angry Soviet Russian troops.  He reports on stories of how Russian troops are lowly paid, how some are reported to be found begging on the streets, and of the soldier who lost parts of his body to gangrene after ritualized abuse by the comrades in his unit.

Empty highway on the road to Gori, Central Georgia (from the article).  Shortly after this photo it gets very scarey.

This is part travelogue, part war-diary, which I found engaging as it’s telling a story that I’m not reading anywhere else.  It’s the first time I’ve actually donated money to a freelance journalist.

And for your edification here is an analysis (a link in the comments after the above article) of the battle.  From the responses it’s not the definitive version of truth, but it’s written by someone with good knowledge.