Explosion in S. Ossetia kills 7 Russian Soldiers.

7 Russian peacekeepers in the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia were killed by a car bomb attack yesterday. The S. Ossetia President Eduard Kokoity quickly accused Georgia for this attack. According to the Russian Defense Ministry stopped two cars carrying weapons in an ethnic Georgian town. The people did not carry and documents and were taken into custody and brought to their headquarters and that was when the car bomb went off. This event occurs less than a week before Russia plans to withdrawl all of its remaining troops from Georgia, to be replaced by European Union peacekeepers. NYT

Due to the hostility between Georgia and Russia, it would not be too suprising for ethnic Georgians to be involved in the killing of Russian soldiers, but the timing is odd. The killing plays into Russia's hands and gives them an excuse for them to hold on to their positions within the Georgian border. It may not be the first time that elements of Russia's security apparatus killed Russians to reach strategic ends. In September of 1999 there were a string of apartment bombings in Moscow and in the Caucuses killing over a hundreds of people. The bombings re-ignited the Chechen War under Prime Minister Vladmir Putin's guidance. In one apartment bombing attempt in the city of Ryazan two members of Russia's domestic security service FSB, were caught attempting to blow the building up. Needless to say charges were dropped and the incident was more or less quieted. The FSB investigation concluded that Islamic radicals in Chechnya were behind the blast.- Wiki What gives credence to this theory is that many people who accused the FSB of involvement have been killed, including the famous poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London.

This posting marks my 100th posting!