Dave has different view of the Georgian conflict

Sep 3 2008 by David Himelfield, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A LINDLEY man is back from a fascinating trip to Russia.

And he was there during the brutal unrest as Russian troops move into neighbouring Georgia.

Dave Tooley, of Lindley, recalling Russian news reports, said: “There was a lot of sympathy for people caught up in the conflict.”

While he was thousands of miles away in Petrozavodsk – a city 200 miles north east of St Petersburg – the battle over South Ossetia was affecting Russian citizens.

Dave, the secretary of Huddersfield Chess Club, spent three months in the university city as a break from his job as a council housing manager in Leeds.

“My Russian isn’t great,” says Dave, “but there was a lot of emphasis on showing refugees and people giving blood.

“It wasn’t like the news in the UK which focused on the political ramifications.

“The Russians were concerned; the emotional side was for the Russian people.”

Despite an obscene cartoon involving US secretary of state Condaleeza Rice and Georgian president Mikheil Sakashvili in a Russian tabloid, animosity towards the westerners was largely absent.

Dave, 36, said: “The Russians on a personal level were very nice.

“If there was any anger it wasn’t directed towards me or the American in my group.”