When Russia's powerful Black Sea Fleet sailed towards the Georgian coast on August 10, the tiny Georgian navy rushed to meet them. The battle was
fierce, but the outcome essentially was pre-determined. A handful of short-range small patrol boats stood no chance against the Russian fleet. Despite
reportedly scoring one missile hit on the cruiser Moskva, the Georgians were overwhelmed, and the patrol boat Georgiy Toreli was sunk by an SS-N-9
missile.
Look the Video:
blog.wired.com...
Again the question remains, who shot who at first? - Georgians shot Russians.
Its unbeleveable how they ever think they had any chance?
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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.
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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.
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The Georgian military must have thought it was invincible thanks to all the U.S. training they received.
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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]
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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?
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