Fireworks over Georgia

[MosJan]

 

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Georgia used US and Ukrainian mercenaries in its aggression against South Ossetia

 

Russia has won the war in Georgia. US-based scientist of politics at Nixon Center, Dmitri Simes, told ITAR-TASS that Russia would now need to win the world in cooperation with the USA. The expert means that Russia currently needs to try to turn the past events in South Ossetia to advantage of US-Russian relations.

 

Simes believes that it is a possible, albeit a hard goal to achieve. Simes is certain that no one in the US political establishment incited the Georgian president to invade South Ossetia. Saakashvili simply overestimated his own significance in Washington’s eyes and misinterpreted messages, which the US administration was sending him, the expert believes.

 

In its turn, America decided not to fall into Russia’s confidence, especially when Georgian troops retreated beyond South Ossetian borders. In addition, Washington wanted not to keep its front going after the debacle it suffered in foreign politics.

 

In the meantime, the presidents of the unrecognized republics of North and South Ossetia, Sergei Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity, intend to strive for the international recognition of their small nations. In addition, they do not exclude that the two republics may become one some day in the future.

 

Bagapsh believes that they have excellent chances at this point, having referred to the recognition of Kosovo’s independence. However, the president reminded that neither North nor South Ossetia insisted on the international recognition of their independence after events in Kosovo.

 

S. Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity stated that Georgia used mercenaries from several countries during its aggression against his nation.

 

“There were many mercenaries from Ukraine and the Baltic states. We have found dead bodies of African Americans too,” Interfax quoted Kokoity as saying.

 

The official supposed that it was exactly the reason why the Georgian side had not provided any reports about the losses, which it was suffering during the military operation.

 

Presidents Bagapsh and Kokoity also accused Western media outlets of the schemed informational war against South Ossetia. They believe that the vast majority of Western news agencies provided the biased coverage of events.

 

“It was a well-prepared and thought-out action, when there was only one opinion provided – the opinion of the USA, Great Britain and several other countries. Everyone started to support this opinion,” Sergei Bagapsh said.

 

The president said that there were just a few countries which did not follow the fraudulent trend – Spain, France and Germany.

 

 

Part #1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MosJan]

Part #2

 

“The whole of Georgia talks about Russia’s bombing of Tskhinvali and South Ossetia. What are they talking about? One should not believe what the BBC or CNN said or what they will be saying,” he said.

 

“You may not be a professional, but a Western journalist must have at least an iota of honor and dignity. One should not lose their conscience and decency behind your profession, no matter whom you work for,” Bagapsh said.

 

S. Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity stated that journalists of Western news agencies were as much responsible for the conflict as those, who stormed Tskhinvali.

 

“It was the dual informational and armed aggression. Some were wielding guns, whereas others were armed with microphones and cameras,” Kokoity said.

 

The S. Ossetian president said that he was not going to allow Georgian peacemakers in the republic any longer.

 

“There will be only Russian peacemakers deployed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” he said.

 

The S. Ossetian president stated that that the Russian peacemakers did not open fire first.

 

“Believe me as an eyewitness. We were aware of all commands and we heard them all. I wonder what would happen to citizens of Israel, the USA or France, for example, if they found themselves in Ossetians’ shoes,” he said.

 

Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the USSR, said in an interview with CNN that Georgia’s President Saakashvili deserves to be deprived of the trust of his own nation, although it is a matter of the Georgians.

 

Gorbachev emphasized that Russia was acting accordingly responding to Georgia’s aggression.

 

Mikhail Gorbachev said that US officials should trust their Russian counterparts. It is absolutely obvious that the USA supports Georgia. However, Gorbachev is certain that Russia did not have the goal of overthrowing the Georgian president.

 

Analysts of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies calculated that one day in South Ossetia cost Russia 2.5 billion rubles, the supervisor of the center, Ruslan Pukhov said.

 

For Georgia, one day of war cost 4.8 billion rubles (about $200 million). However, Georgia’s defense economy is fully supported by the US budget. Georgia’s defense spending in 2007 made up 1 billion dollars. Georgia does not have this money per se.

 

 

[MosJan]

 

http://english.pravda.ru/img/idb/saakashvili-8.jpg

 

 

 

USA must choose between its virtual project of Georgia and real partnership with Russia

 

The USA must choose between the real partnership with Russia and “the virtual project of Georgia,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Wednesday.

 

“We realize and everyone writes about it that Georgia today is a special project of the USA. We understand that the USA worries about the fate of this project,” the minister added.

 

“But here we have either the notion of prestige about the virtual project or partnership, which requires collective actions to be taken,” the minister said.

 

Lavrov said that he was on the phone with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday.

 

“The US administration claims that illegal armed groups pillage the people on the outskirts of Gori [a town in Georgia] and that the Russian military do not take any measures. If something like that is confirmed – on the outskirts of Gori, Tskhinvali or anywhere else – we will react in the most serious way,” the minister said.

 

“The Russian Armed Forces and the Russian peacemakers have the order from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, i.e. the president of Russia, to observe all martial laws. Civilians must be protected against infringements of human life and dignity. We will look into every message saying that it is taking place and we will not let this happen,” Lavrov said.

 

As for the USA’s approach to the situation in the conflict zone, the Russian minister commented George W. Bush’s statement about South Ossetia:

 

“The qualification of the speechwriters, who prepared the statement, surprised me again,” Lavrov stated.

 

Russia instituted criminal proceedings upon the murder of citizens of South Ossetia in accordance with Article 357 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation – genocide, Interfax reports.

 

About 100 Russian investigators continue to work in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, which was virtually leveled as a result of the Georgian aggression. The officers investigate the murder of Russian citizens and Russian peacemakers.

 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered to collect the evidence to prove that the Georgian authorities had committed actions of genocide against the citizens of South Ossetia.

 

In the meantime, Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, stated that it was Georgia that triggered the armed conflict in South Ossetia. The official urged everyone not to perceive the situation in black and white colors.

 

The official stated that he rejected the black and white approach to the situation, when one is defined as a bad guy and the other one as a good guy. The Slovak premiere believes that the sides should cease fire, sit down for talks and solve the problems, ITAR-TASS reports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The vice-speaker of the parliament of Slovakia, Anna Belousovova stated that Georgia had attempted to commit genocide. She believes that many European media outlets provided the biased coverage of the military actions in Georgia. “The media outlets waged an informational war against Russia,” the Slovak official said.

 

 

 

 

 

The foreign media simply ignored what South Ossetians think of all those events, in spite of the fact that they were the people, who suffered from the war most. Belousovova reminded that it was the Georgian military that launched the aggression against Tskhinvali and South Ossetia.

 

“This was an attempt of genocide on Georgia’s part, and the International Tribunal must look into this issue,” the official stressed out.

 

Dmitri Simes of the Nixon Center supported Russia’s actions in South Ossetia. The expert believes that the USA made groundless accusations against Russia of its “disproportionate response” to Georgia’s actions.

 

The expert reminded of the situation in 2006, when Hezbollah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and murdered three others. Israel started bombing Lebanon immediately after the incident – over 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed in the attacks.

 

The expert continued with saying that several members of the UN Security Council attempted to condemn Israel for its “disproportionate response,” whereas the US administration firmly stood up to protect its ally and did not let the council pass an anti-Israeli statement.

 

Eduard Shevardnadze, a former Georgian president, said in an interview with Rheinischer Merkur that the current situation would not have occurred if the Georgian military had not invaded Tskhinvali.

 

“This is the main reason why the situation has aggravated so much. This conflict can be solved only through peaceful negotiations,” Shevardnadze said.

 

The ex-president of Georgia rode off on a side issue when asked if the conflict in South Ossetia had caused serious and long-term damage to relations between Russia and Georgia.

 

Shevardnadze believes that Georgia may eventually become a member of NATO.

 

“This process will most likely go faster now. The first priority, however, is to start serious talks with Russia. Even if Russia is against Georgia’s NATO membership, the Georgian government should pursue a long-term goal to convince Russia that it does not threaten its security,” the former Georgian president said.

 

Shevardnadze denied the supposition that the conflict between Russia and Georgia is connected with the struggle for the transit of oil and gas via the territory of Georgia.

 

“The question of oil reserves in the Caucasus and their shipments to the West was solved ten years ago,” he said.

 

The former Georgian president stated that he did not expect any other reaction from the US administration.

 

“One can not expect something else from the US administration. The USA has been providing financial, defense, political, economic and moral support to Georgia for almost ten years. What else can they do? The USA can not send their troops here, because they are busy with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They cannot afford another war,” he said.

 

“I exclude an opportunity for the US forces to leave the Caucasian region after Moscow’s display of power. Washington will strengthen its influence in the region, because Georgia takes an important geo-strategic position even though it is a small country,” Shevardnadze said.

 

 

[MosJan]

 

Sky News lies

 

videos - http://english.pravda.ru/world/ussr/15-08-...6112-sky_news-0

 

 

 

 

 

Sky New lies giving ruins of South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, for Georgia’s key town of Gori, which they say Russian bombed.

 

The channel simply used the footage of Tskhinvali, which was literally ruined as a result of Georgia’s attacks, to make reports about the situation in the town of Gori, which the Russian aviation supposedly bombed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pravda.ru journalists concluded that the footage of destruction, fires and crying civilians used by Sky News in its Gori report was identical to the footage aired by Russian TV channel Zvezda (Star) when it reported about Tskhinvali.

 

On Wednesday, Sky News made a report about Russian tanks supposedly advancing towards Georgia’s Gori (the information was subsequently rebutted). The company aired the footage, which showed that the small town had been destroyed.

 

Georgian authorities and Western media outlets previously said that the Russian aviation had bombed Gori, which led to numerous casualties. Russia strongly rejected those statements.

 

The footage aired by the British TV channel was preceded with a picture of a road sign displaying the name of the town – Gori – written in Georgian and English languages. The report also said that a Sky News correspondent was reporting from the Georgian town.

 

However, the footage that followed the picture of the road sign was fake.

 

Russia ’s TV channel Zvezda, which has five camera crews working in Tskhinvali, aired the same footage two days before, on Monday. Sky News showed its report with no sound, whereas the people showed in the Russian report could be heard speaking Russian and Ossetian languages. The crying people shown in the report were heard cursing Georgian President Saakashvili for destructions and manslaughter.

 

Pravda.ru managed to find the reports of Sky News and Zvezda. Watch and compare for yourself.

 

Sky News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcKIY8RqJ_8

 

zvezda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z67JPMN9J4

[MosJan]

Грузинское "наследство" в Кодорском ущелье

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OchoVf8keo

[MosJan]

 

Bush: Why don’t you shut up?

 

Taking the words of the illustrious King of Spain, in his imbecillic retort to President Hugo Chavez, we use them not as a response to a diatribe but rather, a just retort to an imbecile. President George W. Bush, why don’t you shut up?

 

President Bush,

 

Why don’t you shut up? In your statement on Monday regarding the legitimate actions of the Russian Federation in Georgia, you failed to mention once the war crimes perpetrated by Georgian military forces, which American advisors support, against Russian and Ossetian civilians. Kinda embarrassing, eh?

 

President Bush,

 

Why don’t you shut up? Your faithful ally, Mikhail Saakashvili, was announcing a ceasefire deal while his troops, with your advisors, were massing on Ossetia’s border, which they crossed under cover of night and destroyed Tskhinvali, targeting civilian structures just like your forces did in Iraq. Kinda humanitarian, eh?

 

President Bush,

 

Why don’t you shut up? The military forces of your faithful ally, Georgia, supported by American advisors, while on a mission as peacekeepers in Ossetia, were ordered to open fire on Russian peacekeeping forces in the same team. Kinda noble, eh?

 

President Bush,

 

Why don’t you shut up? Your American transport aircraft gave a ride home to thousands of Georgian soldiers from Iraq directly into the combat zone. Did your boys wish them good luck as they stepped off the aircraft? I can almost hear it, “Give ‘em Hell!” Kinda friendly, eh?

 

President Bush,

 

Why don’t you shut up? How do you account for the fact that among the Georgian soldiers fleeing the fighting yesterday you could clearly hear officers using American English giving orders to “Get back inside” and how do you account for the fact that there are reports of American soldiers among the Georgian casualties? Kinda odd, eh?

 

President Bush,

 

Why don’t you shut up? Do you really think anyone gives any importance whatsoever to your words after 8 years of your criminal and murderous regime and policies? Do you really believe you have any moral ground whatsoever and do you really imagine there is a single human being anywhere on this planet who does not stick up his middle finger every time you appear on a TV screen? Kinda makes ya’ll think, eh?

 

Do you really believe you have the right to give any opinion or advice after Abu Ghraib? After Guantanamo? After the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens? After the torture by CIA operatives? Kinda difficult, eh?

 

 

Do you really believe you have any right to make a statement on any point of international law after your trumped-up charges against Iraq and the subsequent criminal invasion? Like spittin’ into the wind, right?

 

President Bush,

 

Why don’t you shut up? Suppose Russia for instance declares that Georgia has weapons of mass destruction? And that Russia knows where these WMD are, namely in Tblisi and Poti and north, south, east and west of there? And that it must be true because there is “magnificent foreign intelligence” such as satellite photos of milk powder factories and baby cereals producing chemical weapons and which are currently being “driven around the country in vehicles”? Suppose Russia declares for instance that “Saakashvili stiffed the world” and it is “time for regime change”?

 

Nice and simple, isn’t it, President Bush?

 

So, why don’t you shut up? Oh and by the way, send some more of your military advisors to Georgia, they are doing a sterling job. And they look all funny down the night sight, all green. Hahaha!

 

Thank you, That would be all.

 

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

 

PRAVDA.Ru

 

 

[MosJan]

Condoleezza Rice believes that she can instruct Russia of its actions in Georgia

 

The United States challenged Russia to keep its word to end a crushing invasion of U.S.-backed Georgia, siding decisively with the former Soviet republic and rejecting Russian justifications.

 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, headed for emergency meetings on the crisis in Europe and in the Georgian capital, said Russia's now-weeklong military action in Georgia is a throwback to darker Cold War times.

 

"The message is that Russia has perhaps not accepted that it is time to move on from the Cold War and it is time to move to a new era in which relations between states are on the basis of equality, and sovereignty and economic integration," Rice said Wednesday.

 

She met Thursday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has led the European pressure campaign on Russia, at his summer residence in Toulon, France. From there she was going to Paris to meet with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner; on Friday she is flying to Tbilisi, Georgia.

 

The Bush administration is reeling from the near collapse of its closest friend among the former Soviet republics, a strategic Black Sea nation that is an emerging pathway for undeveloped energy reserves and that has worn its zeal for America and the West as a badge of honor.

 

As the United States mustered humanitarian aid for Georgia, President George W. Bush demanded that Russia end all military activity inside its neighbor and withdraw all troops sent in recent days onto Georgian territory.

 

Bush announced that U.S. military assets and personnel would be deploying into the conflict zone. Though they are only going on a humanitarian mission, he made a point of noting that "we will use U.S. aircraft, as well as naval forces" to distribute supplies. He warned Russia not to impede relief efforts in any way.

 

All this appeared designed to answer criticism that Bush has not done enough to stand by his 2005 pledge, made from the center of Tbilisi before tens of thousands of citizens, to "stand with" the people of Georgia.

 

Amid some fear that Russian troops may be setting up for some type of medium-term occupation of parts of Georgia or even have intentions to press on to its capital of Tbilisi, Bush promised Wednesday to "rally the free world in the defense of a free Georgia."

 

Speaking in grave tones in the White House Rose Garden, Bush decried Moscow's apparent violation of a cease-fire agreement.

 

He demanded that Russia "keep its word and act to end this crisis."

 

"The United States stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia and insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected," he said.

 

The president postponed Thursday's planned start of a two-week Texas vacation for a couple of days to monitor developments.

 

A Russian military convoy defied a cease-fire agreement Wednesday and rolled through a strategically important city in Georgia, where officials claimed fresh looting and bombing by the Russians and their allies.

 

The Kremlin announced Thursday that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting with the leaders of Georgia's two separatist provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

 

"One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

 

Russia and its small neighbor had agreed Tuesday to a French-brokered cease-fire to end the dispute that began over two pro-Russian breakaway territories. The United States accuses Russia of pressing the war far beyond the initial conflict zone and threatening the democratically elected government in Georgia.

 

"I have to say that the reports are not encouraging about Russia's respect for this cease-fire," Rice said.

 

U.S. officials have had difficulty determining exactly what's happening on the ground in Georgia, despite considerable intelligence resources. U.S. spy satellites have been repositioned to refocus on the conflict area.

 

Rice said Moscow is harming its standing in the world and eligibility for global clubs whose eligibility depends on responsible behavior, but she made no explicit threats about U.S. retaliation.

 

"This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it," Rice said. "Things have changed."

[MosJan]

 

Chavez accuses Bush of ordering attack on South Ossetia

18:42 | 15/ 08/ 2008 http://img.rian.ru/i/b_print.gif BUENOS AIRES, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez believes that Georgian forces launched their attack on South Ossetia on the orders of the U.S. president, the Union radio station reported Friday.

 

"The leadership of the U.S., which gives orders to Georgian authorities, is to blame for the Caucasus' burning," began Chavez, as quoted by the Venezuelan radio station.

 

"The president of the U.S., the imperialist George Bush, I am absolutely certain was the one who gave the order to Georgian forces to burn towns and villages and to kill innocent people," he said.

 

The conflict began with an attack by Georgian forces on Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetian, on August 8. Russia has said that around 1,600 people died in the Georgian assault.

 

During the subsequent Russian military operation to force Georgian troops out of the de facto independent republic and to reinforce its peacekeepers in the region, Moscow sent some 10,000 servicemen and several hundred armored vehicles into South Ossetia.

 

Washington has supported its ally throughout the crisis, refusing to condemn Tbilisi's attack on South Ossetia and calling Moscow's response "disproportionate."

 

"Russia's actions were fully justified," Chavez said.

 

He also said that the U.S. was seeking to surround a Russia which had "risen from its knees thanks to the firm hand of ex-president Putin, and has again become a world power."

 

He was speaking in Asuncion at the inauguration of the new president of Paraguay, the leftist former bishop Fernando Lugo.

 

 

[MosJan]

Russia finds Ukrainian car plates at Georgian army base

22:03 | 15/ 08/ 2008

 

Print version

 

BRUSSELS, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow intends to send an official request to Kiev to identify Ukrainian diplomatic license plates discovered by Russian intelligence officers at a Georgian military base, Russia's NATO envoy said Friday.

 

"We do not know what they were intended for, we are merely stating a fact," Dmitry Rogozin said.

 

The suspicious discovery, which could signal that Ukraine was involved in the recent conflict in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia, was made in Senaki, in western Georgia.

 

Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chef of Russia's General Staff, reported earlier in the day that Russian reconnaissance officers in Abkhazia had spotted a large number of cars with license plates of Ukrainian diplomats.

 

Commenting on the purpose of the plates, the Defense Ministry official said cars with such plates could have moved freely across Georgia and its breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

 

"Diplomatic cars are not subject to checks on roads. They can carry any cargoes, including arms," Nogovitsyn said.

 

[MosJan]

 

What court will Saakashvili be taken to?

13:05 | 12/ 08/ 2008 http://img.rian.ru/i/b_print.gif

 

 

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MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti correspondent Valentin Rakhmanov) - Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali after lengthy artillery preparations and shootings. Was this an attempt to resolve the conflict with South Ossetia by force, as some experts see it? The answer is both "yes" and "no."

 

Russia and Abkhazia were likely to defend South Ossetia from a Georgian attack, and NATO was likely not to help the Georgian army directly. Tbilisi fully realized that, and for this reason Mikheil Saakashvili could hardly have hoped to resolve his territorial problem by a military operation. So, what was the point of what Vladimir Putin described as a "bloody venture?"

 

Before this conflict, Saakashvili often emphasized the need for NATO peacekeepers' presence in the region. It would help him exert more pressure on Abkhazia, and particularly, South Ossetia with a view to bringing them back to Georgia.

 

Apparently, Georgia's current aggression is designed to prove that Russia has failed as a peacekeeper, turn it into a side in this conflict, and eventually invite NATO peacekeepers to come to the region.

 

What will Russia do in this situation? It seems that it is ready only to prevent the occupation of South Ossetia by Georgian troops.

 

A spokesman for the Russian navy said that although the Black Sea Fleet has approached the conflict zone, it is not going to block Georgian ports because Russia is not at war with Georgia.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said more than once that Russia is carrying a peace-enforcement operation rather than fighting against Georgia. Moreover, Russia agreed to a ceasefire on condition that Georgian troops leave South Ossetia and the talks are resumed.

 

This strategy has its pros and cons. On the one hand, Russia is demonstrating that it controls the situation, and continues to be neutral. However, the Western media and politicians may choose to ignore this position, if they wish. On the other hand, Georgia's troop pullout from South Ossetia will not restore the status quo in the region because thousands of lives in Ossetia have already been lost. Hence, a troop withdrawal will not be enough. Georgia will have to be punished, most likely, by some international tribunal.

 

Some experts are already toying with this idea, although Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin is the only official to have voiced it on the record. However, it is not clear how Georgian leaders may be brought to trial. Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein were taken to court after the collapse of their regimes.

 

Political analyst Leonid Radzikhovsky said that those who are to blame for the events in the conflict zone can be put on trial legally. He said that it is possible to establish a special agency for this purpose, but that it will not be internationally recognized. He recalled the Hague Tribunal in this context. It is somewhat politicized but respected in the West.

 

"I don't know a single case when the political leaders of a state were brought to responsibility while they were still in power," Radzikhovsky said.

 

South Ossetia's recent moves also show that Saakashvili may be punished by law. Its investigation committee has instituted criminal proceedings against Georgia. In response, the Georgian leaders have taken the case against Russia to the Hague Tribunal. It is hard to say who will win the legal battle. But thousands of victims cannot be deleted from evidence against Saakashvili.

 

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

 

 

[MosJan]

 

Georgia's president says signed S.Ossetia peace plan

20:53 | 15/ 08/ 2008 http://img.rian.ru/i/b_print.gif August 15 (RIA Novosti) - President Mikheil Saakashvili said Friday he had signed the peace plan to resolve Georgia's conflict with its breakaway republic of South Ossetia earlier in the day.

 

The peace plan was agreed Tuesday by the Russian and French presidents and signed Thursday in Moscow by the leaders of Georgia's two rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Kremlin said Friday that Russia would sign the deal only after Georgia had done so.

 

The agreement bans the use of force and any military action, and envisages free access to humanitarian aid. Under the deal, Georgian armed forces should return to their bases, and Russian troops should pull back to their pre-combat positions.

 

Saakashvili said his next step would be to replace Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone with an international contingent.

 

Russia has no objections to the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in the Caucasus, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said adding however, that Abkhazia and South Ossetia trusted only Russian troops.

 

"The party that has suffered from violence and aggression should have the final say in this situation," Medvedev said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

 

He also expressed doubt that Abkhazia and South Ossetia could remain part of Georgia.

 

Saakashvili, who received U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Tbilisi on Friday, warned there would be no compromise and that both Abkhazia and South Ossetia would remain part of Georgia.

 

Before Tbilisi's August 8 attack on Tskhinvali, 1,500 peacekeepers were deployed in South Ossetia, 500 apiece from Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia. The peacekeepers were only armed with light weapons.

 

Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that its peacekeeping force would be expanded and strengthened with armored vehicles, including tanks.

 

"The numerical strength of peacekeepers to be deployed there on a permanent basis will be increased," Lt.-Gen. Nikolai Uvarov said. "Peacekeepers will be armed not only with small arms and light weapons, but with heavy weaponry, and will also have armored vehicles and tanks attached to them."

 

 

[MosJan]

 

Yushchenko gives refuge to Saakashvili’s family

http://www.russiatoday.com/media/news/f/48a5522be3ab4.jpg

 

Viktor Yushchenko holds Saakashvili's son, Nikolaz, during the ceremony of christening (AFP Photo / Zviad Nikolaishvili)

 

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s wife and two children are reported to have taken refuge in the Ukraine at the holiday home of its President, Viktor Yushchenko. Russian newspaper DNI.ru reports that Saakashvili’s wife, Sandra Roelofs, was visiting the Olympics in Beijing with her children when Georgia attacked South Ossetia. But instead of returning to Tbilisi, they decided to stay at Yushchenko’s closely guarded dacha on the Crimean Peninsula.

 

The two presidents’ families have a close relationship – Yushchenko is a godfather of Saakashvili’s younger son, while Saakashvili christened one of Yushchenko’s daughters.

 

It was earlier reported that Roelofs was set to return to the U.S. and seek help from her psychotherapist. She was said to be stressed by the news of Georgia’s offensive in its breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

 

As a result of the attack by the Georgian army, the ancient town of Tskhinvali was almost wiped out and over two thousand people were killed.

 

 

 

[MosJan]

News Send to friend | Print version http://www.russiatoday.com/media/news/5/48a5ac959d7ac.jpg August 15, 2008, 21:46

Fox News cuts American child for thanking Russian troops

A 12-year-old American girl visiting relatives during the conflict in South Ossetia has thanked Russian soldiers for saving her from the Georgian attack. However, America’s Fox News attempted to cut her and her aunt off air. Amanda Kokoeva was in a cafe in Tskhinvali when the firing from Georgian troops began.

 

She managed to get back to her uncle's basement where she spent the night. In a lull, she then managed to flee across the border to Russia, before boarding a plane bound for San Francisco.

 

"I want to say that I was running from Georgian troops bombing the city,” she told America’s Fox News Channel. “I want to say thank you to the Russian troops that were helping us out."

 

After that her aunt started saying that it was Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili who is to be blamed for the bloodshed, but the presenter tried to cut her off and go to a commercial break. Still, he finally let the woman finish the phrase at least.

 

Moscow has already called the incident a violation of the journalistic ethics.

[MosJan]

CNN LIE! SHAME FOR CNN!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baOIwiGCDAY

[MosJan]

duq patkeratsnum eq te USA inch kani ir azeri xperutyan hamar yete iysor iyspes e varvum vrastanum katarvatsy hamar

[Nané]

"This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it," Rice said. "Things have changed."

 

Oh yes, of course ... things have changed. Now it's USA's turn to "threaten, occupy and overthrow" and get away with it. How dare the Russians threaten their monopoly!!!

 

This is so ridiculous it's irritating.

[Nané]

duq patkeratsnum eq te USA inch kani ir azeri xperutyan hamar yete iysor iyspes e varvum vrastanum katarvatsy hamar

 

Bayts inch e anum vor? It's all just talk.

Parzapes piti aynpes arvi vor Hayastan@ Rusastani hamar ir karovorutyun@ yerbeq ch@kortsni. It's sad but it's true.

[MosJan]

Bayts inch e anum vor? It's all just talk.

Parzapes piti aynpes arvi vor Hayastan@ Rusastani hamar ir karovorutyun@ yerbeq ch@kortsni. It's sad but it's true.

 

 

invch a naum - l@rphutyun

[hyethga]

I rest my case about Russia losing the media war.

 

BBC NEWS

Russians losing propaganda war

 

By Paul Reynolds

World affairs correspondent, BBC News

 

The Bush administration appears to be trying to turn a failed military operation by Georgia into a successful diplomatic operation against Russia.

 

It is doing so by presenting the Russian actions as aggression and playing down the Georgian attack into South Ossetia on 7 August, which triggered the Russian operation.

 

Yet the evidence from South Ossetia about that attack indicates that it was extensive and damaging.

 

Blame game

 

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford has reported: "Many Ossetians I met both in Tskhinvali and in the main refugee camp in Russia are furious about what has happened to their city.

 

"They are very clear who they blame: Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, who sent troops to re-take control of this breakaway region."

 

Human Rights Watch concluded after an on-the-ground inspection: "Witness accounts and the timing of the damage would point to Georgian fire accounting for much of the damage described [in Tskhinvali]."

 

One problem for the Russians is that they have not yet learned how to play the media game. Their authoritarian government might never do so.

 

Most of the Western media is based in Georgia. The Russians were slow to give access from their side and this has helped them lose the propaganda war.

 

Georgia, meanwhile, was comparing this to Prague in 1968 and Budapest in 1956. Even the massacre at Srebrenica was recalled.

 

Mud sticks

 

The comparisons did not fit the facts, but some of the mud has stuck and Russia has been on the international defensive.

 

The visit by the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Georgia is a signal of support for Mr Saakashvili.

 

Significantly, she is not paying a matching visit to Moscow but will return directly to the United States where she will brief President George W Bush in Texas.

 

She has refused to condemn Georgia and barely acknowledged Russia's point that it had to protect its peacekeeping forces (a battalion-sized unit allowed in South Ossetia along with Georgian and North Ossetian and South Ossetian forces under a 1992 agreement).

 

Instead she blamed Russia for widening the conflict by bombing beyond what the 1992 deal called the "zone of conflict" in South Ossetia.

 

She said: "This is something that, had it been about South Ossetia, could have been resolved within certain limits.

 

"Russian peacekeepers were in the area; that is true. And Russia initially said it needed to act to protect its peacekeepers and its people.

 

"But what Russia has done is well beyond anything that anyone could say is for the protection of those people and for those peacekeepers."

 

HAVE YOUR SAY Russia's relations with the US may recover. Its relations with the "near abroad" are shattered forever Stephen Thake, Valletta, Malta

 

The Americans have sent in planes full of humanitarian aid, again a symbol of support.

 

But they have sent no military supplies. Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said: "I don't see any prospect for the use of military force by the United States in this situation. Is that clear enough?"

 

US diplomacy is also concentrating on the issue of sovereignty and territorial integrity - which means that South Ossetia and the other restless region, Abkhazia, must remain within Georgian borders. Russian has questioned this.

 

Moscow's anger

 

This widens the whole question into one of Russian behaviour generally, which is much surer ground for the Bush administration. The US will continue to press for eventual Georgian and Ukrainian membership of Nato.

 

The Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain also sees in this conflict an opportunity to put Russia in the dock, declaring: "We are all Georgians now."

 

All this is likely to anger Moscow, which will feel that it has a case and that it is being ignored. Right from the start it said that the operation was not an invasion.

 

The adverse effect on US-Russia relations, about which Mr Gates warned, is going to be a two-way process.

 

There are signs, though, that there is some sympathy for Russia within the European Union - although not among the Eastern European states who still fear Russia and not in the British government, which has matched the US line about Russian "aggression".

 

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeing Russian leaders and while she too will urge them not to challenge borders, the German government has been notably reluctant to blame Russia.

 

Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7562611.stm

 

Published: 2008/08/15 09:08:17 GMT

 

© BBC MMVIII

 

[MosJan]

 

Ossetians collect evidence of Georgian ‘genocide’

South Ossetian residents and local journalists have launched their own investigation into claims of genocide perpetrated by Georgian soldiers. They accuse Georgians of attempting to destroy Ossetian graves and memorials to locals killed in earlier conflicts. School number five is one of the most significant symbols of the long Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

 

During the South Ossetian war in the early 1990s, the local cemetery was occupied by Georgians, so the school's football field became a graveyard for Ossetian soldiers.

 

The latest conflict saw Georgian troops attempting to bomb the piece of Ossetian history, say locals.

 

Part of the definition of genocide is the destruction of the historical and cultural identity of a people.

 

"It's a cemetery of Ossetian heroes," said Dmitry Poukhati. The Ossetian, who spoke good English, showed RT's correspondent around the cemetery and pointed out the graves of local soldiers who had given their lives in the defence of Tskhinvali in the 1991-92 war.

 

A local woman described how one soldier buried at the site had been tortured and burned by Georgians for three days in an industrial oven.

 

One grave is inscribed with the words, "I am Ossetian." Poukhati explained that these were the hero's final defiant words.

 

"Georgians were asking him to say he was Georgian. But he said, 'No. I am Ossetian.' So they killed him," said Poukhati.

 

 

[skhara]

 

HAVE YOUR SAY Russia's relations with the US may recover. Its relations with the "near abroad" are shattered forever Stephen Thake, Valletta, Malta

 

Incidentally, read up on the commentary folks are leaving in the "have your say" section.

 

I repeat that Russians never had a chance in the "western press". There is no tactic they can use here. Western press is a mouthpiece of hostile governments. Nonetheless, I am disappointed with the arguments they push. Russians should have tied their own security much to the issue here.

[MosJan]

 

 

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer 59 minutes ago

 

IGOETI, Georgia - Russian forces pulled back Saturday from the center of a town not far from Georgia's capital after Russia's president signed a cease-fire deal, but his foreign minister later suggested there would be no immediate broader withdrawal.

ADVERTISEMENT

 

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said Russia would strengthen its peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian region at the center of more than a week of warfare that has sharply soured relations between Moscow and the West.

 

Lavrov signaled Russia's determination to set the rules for peace in an area where it has long viewed growing U.S. influence as an encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence. He said it is up to the South Ossetian people — and not Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — to determine which countries can send peacekeepers and which cannot.

 

The cease-fire deal, signed a a day earlier by Georgian President Mikhail Saakshvili after lengthy talks with Rice, calls for both Russian and Georgian forces to pull back to positions they held before fighting erupted Aug. 8.

 

Georgia launched a massive barrage to try to take control of the Russian-backed separatist region of South Ossetia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed the forces of its small U.S.-backed neighbor and Moscow's troops drove deep into Georgia.

 

The Russian seizure of territory, including Gori and its positions in Igoeti, raised fears that Russia was aiming for a permanent occupation of the country that once was part of its empire.

 

President Bush told reporters at his ranch Saturday that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's signing of the cease-fire plan was "an important development."

 

"Russia now needs to honor that agreement" and withdraw its forces, he said.

 

Lavrov, the foreign minister, confirmed that Medvedev signed the cease-fire and ordered its implementation. But he suggested there would be no immediate withdrawal.

 

He said Russian peacekeepers must strengthen security. "As these measures of addition security are taken, the units of the Russian armed forces that were sent into the zone of the South Ossetian conflict ... will be withdrawn."

 

Asked how much time it would take, he responded: "As much as is needed."

 

The crisis has chilled relations between the United States and Russia. The fighting comes as the U.S. is sealing the deal on a missile shield in Europe — an issue already unraveling ties between the two former Cold War foes.

 

Poland and the U.S. signed a deal Thursday for Poland to accept a missile interceptor base as part of a system the U.S. says is aimed at blocking attacks by adversaries such as Iran. Moscow feels it is aimed at Russia's missile force.

 

Keeping up the diplomatic pressure, Rice planned to go to Brussels next week for meetings with the foreign ministers of NATO allies and European Union officials.

 

Lavrov was not specific about the security measures, but suggested they would be limited mostly to South Ossetia, not Georgia proper, and accused Georgia of undermining security.

 

"We are constantly encountering problems from the Georgian side, and everything will depend on how effectively and quickly these problems are resolved," he said.

 

While Russian forces abandoned the center of Igoeti, they maintained positions on a hillside with a view of the area. Such deployments could be intended as defensive positions for the Russians to guard their comrades as they withdraw.

 

In Gori, a crossroads city where Georgia says the presence of Russian forces has cut the country in half, two columns of military vehicles could be seen and there was no immediate sign of a pullout. Gori is on the same road as Igoeti, further from Tbilisi and closer to South Ossetia.

 

Even if Russian forces do withdraw from Georgia proper, Moscow appears likely to maintain strong control over South Ossetia, whose leaders claim independence from Georgia and have sought to join Russia by merging with a neighboring Russian region also populated largely by ethnic Ossetians.

 

Lavrov said there is "no ceiling" on the number of peacekeepers Russia can have in South Ossetia.

 

He said Russia is in talks about outside monitors and has suggested raising the number of international observers for South Ossetia.

 

But he said any "international mechanism" for South Ossetia must back the work of Russian peacekeepers long stationed in the province, indicating that Georgia would not be able to restore its peacekeeping contingent there.

 

"These questions are not decided by Condoleezza Rice or somebody else. They are decided first of all by the side that has suffered in the conflict," Lavrov said. "What peacekeepers from what countries are needed for the people of South Ossetia to feel comfortable is a primarily up to the people of South Ossetia."

 

Lavrov also said the cease-fire deal Saakashvili differed from the one signed by Medvedev, lacking the introductory portion. While the difference appeared largely to be a technicality, it was one that either side might potentially cite if it wanted to abandon the deal.

 

___

 

Associated Press writers Mansur Mirovalev in Gori and Tskhinvali, Jim Heintz in Moscow, and Deb Riechmann in Crawford, Texas contributed to this report.

[MosJan]

Georgian President Saakashvili eats his tie on TV live (video) The BBC has recently aired a TV report, in which Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili ate his tie. The report was about the situation in the area of the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia. The footage showed Saakashvili making a call to a top Western official. It could be clearly seen that Mr. Saakashvili was having a nervous breakdown. Needless to say that it will never occur to either Mr. Bush or Ms. Condoleezza Rice to speak about the nightmare that thousands of South Ossetian residents had to experience after Georgia’s attack on the republic. They do not want even to hear about it

 

 

[MosJan]

 

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid?

 

Has the US Secretary of State got her cassette stuck? For a week now she has been reiterating the same phrase “Russian forces must leave Georgia now” and for a week now the world has been informed of Georgian war crimes against Russians in Ossetia. The war crimes happened, the Russians call the shots now, Ms. Rice. Like it or lump it.

 

http://english.pravda.ru/img/idb/rice1.jpg

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid? OK her boss is, we all know that and that’s why nobody pays any attention to what he says or if they do, it is to have a good laugh at how such an imbecile could supposedly rule the roost in Washington (when everyone knows it is Cheney and his energy and arms lobbies). So Bush gets a discount, like the uncle that farts at family dinners, like the retarded nephew who belches swearwords after his third litre of Coke, like the simpleton that sits outside the church on Sundays begging for money informing everyone that he is an astronaut on Thursday afternoons.

 

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid? She claims to be a Russian expert but her command of the language was recently exposed as being basic/elementary level on a Russian radio programme, just as her grasp of what is going on in Russia today seems beneath the informed blogger level.

 

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid? How can this female purport to broker events between an evil regime in Tblisi supported by her own evil regime in Washington, and Russia, while not mentioning one single time the war crimes committed by Georgia against Russian peacekeepers and civilians?

 

So we come to the conclusion that she is either stupid, or incompetent, or downright evil. If she didn’t know about Georgia’s war crimes, when everyone else did, she is incompetent (as she proved as National Security Advisor during 9/11). If she knows about the war crimes and fails to mention them, as Secretary of State, she is plain stupid and if she purposefully covers them up, maybe because her own armed forces were involved, then she is one evil piece of work, as many of us suspected all along.

 

Is Condoleeza Rice stupid? Or incompetent? Or just plain evil?

 

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

 

PRAVDA.Ru

 

 

[MosJan]

Russian troops prevent arms smuggling to South Ossetia

13:40 | 16/ 08/ 2008

 

Print version

 

MOSCOW, August 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian troops detained two cars carrying ammunition via a humanitarian channel into the Georgian breakaway republic of South Ossetia, a senior Russian military official said Saturday.

 

Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said that on Friday afternoon Russian troops stopped two cars with civilian and military people.

 

"A gun shot erupted during the inspection as a result of which one car was damaged and the other managed to flee the scene of the incident," he said.

 

Nogovitsyn said that the damaged car contained 19 grenade launchers and a box with cartridges and grenades.

 

Russia sent troops and armored vehicles into the conflict region to expel Georgian troops from South Ossetia following Tbilisi's offensive on Tskhinvali, the capital of the rebel republic, on August 8.

 

As a result of Georgia's military offensive Tskhinvali was mostly destroyed. According to Russian figures, around 1,600 civilians were killed.