Russia takes more Georgian territory just ahead of the Trump visit.

[Maxx]

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/12/before-trump-meeting-russia-quietly-gobbled-up-a-tiny-chunk-of-georgia/amp/

Russia extended the border of South Ossetia by several hundred meters.

[andrewfi]

I confess to being interested in this story. As described, it simply isn't congruent with either stated Russian policy or with their concrete actions on the ground.

My strong intuition is that the real story is something else and we are seeing a heavily spun version.

[Markje]

I confess to being interested in this story. As described, it simply isn't congruent with either stated Russian policy or with their concrete actions on the ground.

My strong intuition is that the real story is something else and we are seeing a heavily spun version.

Using the google, I found this "fact" as early as march 2017.... so thats waaay earlier than the Putin/Trump meeting, or even the G20.

[andrewfi]

OK, so that tells us something!

Now we know that the story was a politically planted one designed to upset Trumps foreign policy activities, specifically in respect of Russia and that the goal is to force him to take certain types of action.

This is kompromat. Given the political intent of the story and its publication we can start to understand that the facts will have been manipulated to provide the required narrative.

[Maxx]

I checked agenda.ge

http://agenda.ge/news/82452/eng

There is no news about an expansion of territory by Russia. But there is news about the border recently getting barbed wire that is not allowing the locals, farmers and such, to travel freely back and forth over that border. 

[andrewfi]

So, Maxx, now we seem to be getting to the bottom of matters.

Not expansion, not invasion, just marking the borders and THAT certainly fits with Russian policy and other actions on the ground.

Interesting.