On several blogs, the question arose why Russian troops could move so fast into South Ossetia. This could be interpreted as Russian troops waiting for Georgia to take the bait and move into South Ossetia. I tried to find a map of Russian military installations. All I found was the above one on here.
According to this website there's a troop level of 185'000 Air Force troops and 322'000 Ground troops, plus some more logistics and other the Black Sea fleet in the North Caucasus Military District. Most divisions have taken part in the Chechen wars.
Alone in Vladikavkaz just some 30miles across the border of South Ossetia has almost 7000 troops of which 223 are tank troops and more than 1000 troops in Artillery units.
The close proximity to South Ossetia and the huge amount of armoured troops could make a quick reaction and troop deployment within 12hrs to South Ossetia possible.
1 comment:
Anybody who wonders why the Russians had so many troops in the area need look only to the right of that map, which shows Chechnya. This has been a hot spot for Russia for many years, ever since the Chechnyans rebelled, and they'd be idiots if they did *not* have a lot of troops in the area.
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