From time to time, we receive occasional contributions from the highly respected Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who heads up Russia’s Rule of Law Institute. Below is his take on the invasion of Georgia. Markelov’s article does not necessarily represent the opinion of Robert Amsterdam, this blog, or its editors. The immediate battle area By Stanislav Markelov Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. We can rejoice, we have carried out the desire of our powers in full and are getting used to the dispatches from the front like to competitions going on the news before the Olympic games. For now they still tug at the heartstrings, but a few years will go by and just like with the war in Chechnya, we will look with irritation at the latest propagandistic brew from the information chest with one thought: “When will this all finally end! Just leave us alone and let us watch as one bunch of athletes pumped up with doping raise the prestige of their state, outplaying the same kind of steers pumped up with pharmacology from other countries”. The war in the Caucasus has begun to resemble a political Olympiad. Everybody wants it to go on and on, and only the exhaustiveness of the resources of war does not allow it to be conducted forever. The rulers leave only glowing coals from the peaceful life, forcing the people to dance on them, and to count the mountains of victims of the latest peacekeeping companies.