(Republic of) Georgia in complete blackout | BBC

[Ediacara]

Last Updated: Monday, 18 August, 2003, 15:54 GMT 16:54 UK

Georgia in complete blackout

The entire former Soviet republic of Georgia is without electricity following an emergency shutdown of the power supply.

Georgia's 4.5 million people were plunged into chaos at 0600 local time (0200 GMT) on Monday but officials said they hoped full supply would be resumed by the evening.

The Russian news agency Interfax quoted Deputy Fuel and Energy Minister Merab Kvekveskiri as saying that the outage may have been caused by sabotage.

Unidentified individuals opened fire on porcelain insulators causing the Imereti high-voltage transmission line in western Georgia to fail, he said.

More at the BBC

This sounds quite a bit worse than the (very bad) Northeastern blackout...

[hatrack]

1. Is Spencer Abraham visiting Tblisi today?

Just curious . . .

[Thor_MN]

18. is he human?? or just an animatronic caricature??

I don't mean to be petty, but he is an odd looking dude...

[aquart]

2. Oh boy. Did we give them the idea?

Is there any nation that isn't vulnerable to this?

[demnan]

3. Sort of gives credibility to the Al Queda claim

that they sabotaged us!

[nostamj]

4. "quite a bit worse" huh???

4.5 million v. 50 million people affected?

over $500 million lost revenues (in NYC alone)

one transmission line v. dozens of power plants?

power back within the day v. much more extended blackout periods

I think we had it just a bit worse....

[Ediacara]

5. it will last longer than a day

(no matter what they say)

terrorists sabotaging a nation's power supply is quite a bit worse than a day without electricity.

[FlashHarry]

6. Er, guys, does Georgia have nukes?

I thought is was one of the former Soviet states that did. If so, I wonder how this affects its ability to protect them.

[Ediacara]

7. I had thought

that all of the USSR's nukes went to Russia, after the breakup, but anyone with concrete data please chime in!

[htuttle]

8. I think you're right

Here's a page from FAS about it (from '96):
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/crs/91-144.htm

Locations of Soviet Nuclear Weapons

All Soviet nuclear weapons are currently deployed or stored in Russia. When the Soviet Union collapsed, most of the Soviet tactical nuclear weapons (those with ranges below 360 miles) were in Russia. During the Cold War, many tactical nuclear weapons had been stationed in republics that were closer to prospective theaters of operation. The Soviet leadership had moved nuclear weapons from Eastern Europe, the former Baltic republics, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to Russia prior to the end of 1991. Of those tactical nuclear weapons that remained outside Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed, the majority reportedly were in Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, with perhaps less than 5% in Georgia and the Central Asian states (Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.) All of these were moved to storage areas in Russia by early May 1992.

In 1991, more than 80% of Soviet strategic nuclear weapons, including all ballistic missile submarines, were deployed at bases in Russia. The remaining strategic nuclear weapons were deployed in Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Each of these states has agreed to return all nuclear warheads on its territory to Russia (this process is underway) and eliminate delivery vehicles for these weapons. Table 1 depicts the number of nuclear weapons deployed in these states in late 1991 and the number remaining today.

[Aidoneus]

9. no

but they have had a recent power (the electricity sort, not politics) shakeup recently. Formerly a US company that ran most(/all?) of Georgia's power sold their shares to a Russian company, perhaps this may have something to do with that?
see this article for more on what I refer to with the energy shakeup.

[shirlden]

12. Thanks for the link

Very interesting situation. I think we may just be having the beginning of many "blackouts". Is it time to make a new tinfoil hat?

[knowledgeispower]

13. Interesting

This is a pretty strange coincidence, that the power was sold to a Russian firm just two weeks before a blackout.

Another interesting coincidence, as I point out in another post on this thread, is that Georgia openly supports--and even provides troops for--the U.S. occupation of Iraq (among other U.S. foreign policy moves). The U.S. was just hit by a blackout, and now Georgia. Possibly a plot of revenge?

To tie the two together (which is not to say that they should be), I would just point out that Russia openly opposed the U.S. war in Iraq and was indeed accused by the U.S. of aiding Iraq during the war. Could they be involved in a plot to weaken the U.S. and its allies?

[Sufi Marmot]

15. No, but there's ample radioactive material sitting around...

Three Georgian hunters died of radiation poisioning after coming into contact with abandoned radioactive cansiters left over from a Soviet project to make generators for remote areas.

Link #1

Link #2

Link #3 - browser search for "Georgia"


-SM

[PATRICK]

10. darnn robgeorgia file

accidentally e-mailed to the wrong state?

[knowledgeispower]

11. Does Georgia support U.S. policy? Answer: YES!

As you coincidence theorists love to point out, this could just be...coincidence. But Al-Qaeda is claiming credit on U.S. blackout, and it is quite suspicious that now a country that supported the war against Iraq has undergone massive blackouts as well. Here is an excerpt from a New York Times story (Aug. 14):

The Pentagon said today that besides the United States and Britain, the other countries that have already sent troops to Iraq are Albania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine. The troops in Iraq serve under American and British command, and so would the troops of any other countries that took part.

In addition, another dozen countries have been asked to help with forces to protect and carry out relief. They include Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador (news - web sites), Honduras, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Portugal and Thailand.

Here is the story: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=68&ncid=68&e=20&u=/nyt/20030814/ts_nyt/usabandonsideaofbiggerunroleiniraqoccupation

So what do other DUers think? Is this merely a coincidence, or the result of a planned retaliation against U.S. interference in the Middle East?

[ewagner]

14. Not enough

evidence yet for either side of the issue

Will keep an open mind.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

16. What Happened???

Has Ken Boy Lay got his hands on Georgia now or something????


(satire: NOT REALLY)

[Capt_Nemo]

17. Hmmm, very intersting...

I have always viewed as a possible response by Russia to the
US oil grab in Irak, the takeover of the Abkhazia separatist region
and the rest of Georgia's coastal regions. The Abkhazis would
welcome them and Dick Cheney would be fuming...

On edit: what has this to do with the blackout?
Who knows?...

[dArKeR]

19. Imereti is a region. First I thought it was a type of equipment.

Lucky it's summer. Terrorists could really do some damage if they do this during the winter.

[Zo Zig]

20. Question?

What do James A Baker, Georgia, voter fraud, and energy have in common?

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav081303.shtml

<smip>
The parliamentary decision, along with recent government moves that enabled Russian companies to obtain a controlling interest in Georgia’s energy sector, have prompted opposition leaders to suggest that Shevardnadze intends to adjust the country’s geopolitical orientation to a course more to Moscow’s liking. Shevardnadze, speaking during his weekly radio interview August 11, rejected the notion that he was abandoning pro-Western policies


*Note to self, buy more tinfoil.

[NYC]

21. That's an awfully big blackout.

Makes one wonder.

By the way, they told us we would have electricity back in 4 hours. It took 22 1/2 hours in my area.