Where do they get the information that the Russian cruiser "Moskva" was hit? There wasn't any confirmation from the Russian military. The cruiser came back into port in Sevastopol shortly after the encounter, where there were many spectators - there was no evidence of any damage whatsoever.

To call it a battle is something of an exaggeration - it was a smackdown.

I am extremely skeptical of the claimed hit on the Moskva - it would be kind of hard to hide the damage.

I have to give credit to the Georgian sailors for their courage - although it could be argued that that sort of hubris is what led to Georgia's disastrous war in the first place.

The Georgian military must have thought it was invincible thanks to all the U.S. training they received.

I've scoured the net for info on the "battle". It would seem that only one Georgian vessel was sunk and the Moskva sustained "light damage by gunfire", not the reported missile hit which would be immediately noticeable, especially on this class of ship which has poor damage control facilities and, in the words of globalsecurity.org, is packed full of flammable materials.

According to Black Sea Fleet officials, elements of the Georgian Navy consisting of two missile boats and two auxillary craft breached the "security zone", as originally imposed by the Russian Navy. The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that, after two sorties by the Georgians against the Russian fleet, the Russian units retaliated with naval gunfire, sinking one of the attacking boats and forcing the remaining three Georgian warships to withdraw towards the port of Poti. Georgian sources remain silent about the engagement, but Abkhazian officials confirmed the action.[2][6] It transpired later[nb 1] that the Georgian warship was actually struck by a Malachite missile fired by the Nanuchka III corvette Mirazh, a second boat was damaged by gunfire, and that the cruiser Moskva sustained some damage. The latter claims have since been denied, with Russia reporting that the vessel sunk in action was the P-21 patrol boat Giorgi Toreli (which "disappeared from the surface" within minutes).[7]

[edit on 28/8/08 by stumason]

Makes one think what the hell were the Georgian patrol boats thinking spraying gunfire at a missile cruiser. Either the Georgians are completely suicidal, or they were trying to provoke Russian ships - and if so they achieved that objective. But why?