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Russian Attack Melds Old School With New

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The New York Times

Published: August 17, 2008

WASHINGTON - Russia's victorious military blitz into the former Soviet republic of Georgia brought something old and something new - but none of it was impromptu, despite appearances that a long-frozen conflict had suddenly turned hot.

The Russian military borrowed a page from classic Soviet-era doctrine: Moscow's commanders sent an absolutely overwhelming force into Georgia.

At the same time, the Russian military picked up what is new from the latest in military thinking, including U.S. military writings about the art of war, replete with the hard-learned lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan.

So along with the old-school onslaught of infantry, armor and artillery, Russia mounted joint air and naval operations, appeared to launch simultaneous cyberattacks on Georgian government Web sites, and had its best English speakers at the ready to make Moscow's case in television appearances.

If the rapidly unfolding events caught much of the world off guard, that level of coordination of the old and the new did not look accidental to military professionals.

"They seem to have harnessed all their instruments of national power - military, diplomatic, information - in a very disciplined way," said one Pentagon official. "It appears this was well thought out and planned in advance, and suggests a level of coordination in the Russian government between the military and the other civilian agencies and departments that we are striving for today."

In fact, Pentagon and military officials say Russia held a major ground exercise in July just north of Georgia's border that played out a chain of events like the one carried out over recent days.

Even as the Russian military succeeded at its most obvious objectives - taking control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, humiliating the Georgian government, and crippling the republic's army and police units - serious shortcomings on the Russian side were revealed during the brief fighting, Pentagon and military officials said.

To the surprise of U.S. military officers, an impaired Georgian air-defense system was able to down at least six Russian jets.

Still, the Russian military was able to coordinate infantry advances with movement of airborne troops simultaneously with the deployment of armor and artillery. To be sure, they only had to travel short distances, but Russia was able to inject 9,000 to 10,000 troops, 150 tanks and 700 other armored vehicles onto Georgian territory in the first weekend of fighting, officials said.

IN GEORGIA

•Russia's president, Dmitri Medvedev, on Saturday signed a revised framework for a deal to halt the fighting in neighboring Georgia, but the Kremlin indicated that despite the accord's approval, it would not immediately pull its troops from the country.

•President Bush explicitly warned Russia that it should not try to seize control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two Russian-backed breakaway provinces at the heart of the military dispute.

•Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to travel to Brussels this week to meet with European and NATO allies. Georgia and the Ukraine were not granted membership to NATO in April, but that is due to be reassessed in December.

•Russian troops and their armed allies forced Georgian men to clean the streets of South Ossetia's bombed-out capital Saturday.

•Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Russian-backed separatists from the province of Abkhazia had taken over 13 villages in Georgia and a power plant.

A wire report

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