!=

NYT (Schwirtz+Chivers, “Russian Forces Detain Georgian Soldiers at Port” 19 Aug ’08):

Russian forces detained 21 Georgian soldiers in the Black Sea port of Poti on Tuesday. [...] The Georgian soldiers were taken by the Russians to a military base at Senaki, along with five armored American Humvees that were due to be shipped back to the United States. [The] Humvees were used in joint American–Georgian military exercises this summer and were in crates and inside shipping containers in preparation for them to be shipped back to the United States. Around 4 p.m., the American Humvees were moving on the road toward Abkhazia, the Russian-controlled enclave in western Georgia.

This is Putin and Co.’s way of humiliating Georgian nationalists and US militarists (e.g., the White House)—and of putting the US’s recent humanitarian aid in a very particular context. It may be opportunistic in terms of which situations are exploited and when, but it’s nevertheless a deliberate strategy. Last week FT reported (Clover+Olearchyk, “Russia Seeks to Split Georgia as Tension Mounts,” 15 Aug ’08):

The deputy chief of Russia’s armed forces, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said the US should disclose what was in the aid cargoes. “Let’s ask the American side so that you are convinced of whether the cargo is humanitarian or not ... Russia is very concerned about this,” he said.

We’re lucky they haven’t shot down any US cargo planes, but they may yet.