Stranger than Fiction
Peace talks fall flat following puncture
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia could have been avoided but for a flat tyre.
It appears that a Russian diplomat heading for peace talks in South Ossetia failed to turn up as a result of a puncture. The Georgian government refused to believe his excuse and, fearful of some Russian subterfuge, started the shelling that triggered the Russian invasion.
Timur Yakobashvili, Georgia’s chief negotiator, told the Telegraph, “Two days before, the South Ossetians had started using Russian positions to shoot at our troops. But we decided to make the trip anyway because a direct meeting would have been a breakthrough”. General Kulakhmetov, the head of the Russian delegation, explained the situation to the Georgians, but their patience ran out when it turned out that the missing Russian diplomat had apparently turned his mobile phone off, and the only spare diplomatic car also had a flat tyre. This all proved too much for the nervy Georgians, and the rest, as they say, is history.
You couldn’t make this stuff up!
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