Fireworks over Georgia

[MosJan]

im karciqov vracinere irents dzerov et lakot (saakashvili) oqnutyamb irants pos@ porin

 

another neo-con game, bush, soros, albright......he is noting but a tool and a lap dog for neo consses@

 

did you know saakashvili is one of the richest man in the world? 3 billion and counting

 

 

bayts Moves jishtes, et takanq aliyev@ es urish dzeva haskanalu, lav ban chem spasum

 

 

Ed mi hat es mek@ nayi

 

Baku: Georgia proved that Azerbaijan "has the right to return its land by use of force" 08.08.2008 18:51 GMT+04:00 http://www.panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_print.gif http://www.panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_mail.gif http://www.panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_rus.gif http://www.panarmenian.net/news/images/ico_arm.gif /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgia has proved that peaceful talks is not the only way to restore territorial integrity, says a statement issued by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on the recent development in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone.

 

It means that Azerbaijan "has the right to return its lands by use of force, the statement says, Bakililar.az reports

[MosJan]

Aftermath of the air strikes in Gori

 

Russian jets have carried out strikes on military targets in the central Georgian town of Gori, close to the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

 

Most of the targets seem to have been military bases, but Georgian officials said a number of civilians had been killed in residential buildings.

 

Russia said it had "liberated" the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

 

Earlier, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country was seeking "to force the Georgian side to peace".

 

The comments came after Russian commanders announced they were sending more troops into South Ossetia to support peacekeeping operations.

 

The Russian defence ministry confirmed two of its jets had been shot down over Georgia, although it did not say where.

 

In a live televised address, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said he would ask parliament to approve the introduction of martial law.

 

After days of exchanging heavy fire with the Russian-backed separatists, Georgian forces launched a surprise attack on Thursday night to regain control of the region, which has had de facto independence since a war in 1992.

 

In response, Moscow sent armoured units across the border. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said about 1,500 people had been killed so far, including 15 of his country's soldiers.

 

President Saakashvili said 30 Georgians had been killed in two days and that Russia was at war with his country.

 

'Military invasion'

 

Fighting raged around the breakaway region's capital, Tskhinvali, overnight and into Saturday morning, although not at the same intensity as on Friday, Russian media reported.

 

Later, the Russian Army's Ground Forces commander, Gen Vladimir Boldyrev, told Russian media that his troops had retaken the city from Georgian forces.

 

"Tactical groups have fully liberated Tskhinvali from the Georgian military and have started pushing Georgian units beyond the zone of peacekeepers' responsibility," he said, after paratroopers were airlifted into the city.

 

Georgia said Russia had also launched air strikes on targets inside its territory, in what it described as "a full-scale military invasion".

 

Later, Russian aircraft bombed mostly military targets in Gori, where Georgian troops have been massing at three bases to support their forces engaged in South Ossetia.

 

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Gori heard loud explosions and saw large plumes of smoke rising into the sky; soldiers and civilians were seen running through the streets.

 

One missile hit a military base, from which most of the soldiers appeared to have managed to escape beforehand, he says.

 

The Georgian military said residential buildings had also been struck, leaving a number of civilians dead. Our correspondent says injured civilians were being pulled from the buildings, which were on fire.

 

The Georgian foreign ministry said the Black Sea port of Poti, which is the site of a major oil shipment facility, had also been "devastated" by a Russian aerial bombardment.

 

Hospitals 'overflowing'

 

President Medvedev said Russia's military aim was to force the Georgians to stop fighting. He was speaking at a meeting on Saturday morning in the Kremlin with Defence Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov and the head of the Russian Armed Forces.

 

"Our peacekeepers and the units attached to them are currently carrying out an operation to force the Georgian side to [agree to] peace," he said.

 

"They also bear the responsibility for protecting the population."

 

At the same time, a spokesman for Russian ground forces said reinforcements, including elite paratroopers, were being deployed.

 

On Friday, the Russian government said it had to act to defend South Ossetia's civilians, most of whom have been given Russian citizenship.

 

It also voiced anger over the reported fatalities of Russian servicemen in the breakaway province, vowing not to allow their deaths to go unpunished.

 

Tskhinvali, where inhabitants are said to be sheltering in basements without electricity or phone lines, is reported to be devastated.

 

International Red Cross (ICRC) spokeswoman Anna Nelson said the ICRC had received reports that hospitals in the city were "overflowing" with casualties.

 

The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says diplomatic initiatives to end the fighting have so far proved fruitless.

 

On Friday evening, the UN Security Council failed to agree on the wording of a statement calling for a ceasefire.

 

Russia holds a permanent place on the Council, and has the power of veto over any official statements that it regards as unfair or inaccurate.

 

Permanent members Britain, the US and France, are pinpointing what they say is Russia's aggression as the key factor in the slide towards war, while Moscow insists Georgia is to blame.

 

In other developments:

 

* US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Russia to pull its troops out of Georgia and respect its territorial integrity

* Georgia's president said his country was withdrawing its contingent of 2,000 troops from Iraq to help deal with the crisis

* The European security organisation, the OSCE, warned that the fighting in South Ossetia could escalate into a full-scale war

* The US and the EU were reported to be sending a joint delegation to the region to seek a ceasefire and Nato said it was seriously concerned.

 

 

[MosJan]

SOUTH OSSETIA TIMELINE

1991-92 S Ossetia fights war to break away from newly independent Georgia; Russia enforces truce

2004 Mikhail Saakashvili elected Georgian president, promising to recover lost territories

2006 S Ossetians vote for independence in unofficial referendum

April 2008 Russia steps up ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia

July 2008 Russia admits flying jets over S Ossetia; Russia and Georgia accuse each other of military build-up

7 August 2008 After escalating Georgian-Ossetian clashes, sides agree to ceasefire

8 August 2008 Heavy fighting erupts overnight, Georgian forces close in on Tskhinvali

 

[MosJan]

 

No quick fix to S Ossetia conflict

 

By Kevin Connolly

BBC News, Washington

 

Video still from Russia's Channel One shows a Georgian tank burning in Tskhinvali (08/08/2008)

Georgia accuses Russia of waging war, and says it has suffered heavy losses

 

The dog days of August are generally a quiet time in the world's foreign ministries and newsrooms - a time when second-string officials hold the fort while their senior colleagues sun themselves on vacation.

 

So news of a crisis in South Ossetia will have had plenty of people reaching for their atlases and dictionaries of pronunciation - after all, only old hands will remember the way violence flared here in the past as Georgia began to build its independence on the ruins of the old Soviet Union.

 

South Ossetia was one of the three enclaves within the new country - the others were Abkhazia and Ajaria - which had traditionally enjoyed the status of semi-autonomous regions under the Soviet constitution.

 

Separatists in each region decided their interests and loyalties lay with Moscow and set about resisting attempts by the newly independent government in Tbilisi.

 

There were inconclusive bouts of violence, which established two key facts - first, Georgia didn't have the military firepower or the political will to bring the rebel regions to heel.

 

Secondly, the existence of those loyalist populations gave Russia a licence to meddle in the affairs of a republic which it regards as a permanent part of its own sphere of influence.

 

Question of sovereignty

 

So Georgia's independence has always been constrained to some extent by the proximity of that powerful and intimidating neighbour to the north.

 

As Russia began to transform itself from the stumbling and shambolic failed superpower of the Boris Yeltsin era into the powerful and diplomatically-assertive, energy exporting giant over which Vladimir Putin presided, that constraint began to become a little more obvious, and a little more problematic.

 

Georgia's American-educated, English-speaking leader Mikhail Saakashvili is always careful to stress that he wants better relations with Russia - but his attempts to exert control over the wayward enclave of South Ossetia were always bound to bring him into conflict with Moscow.

 

He has a point when he argues that this off-shore off-shoot of Russia has become a haven for criminality and corruption, but this is really all about sovereignty.

 

It has implications far beyond the frontiers of the old Soviet Union though, because of the strategy the West pursued as the communist superpower collapsed in the early 1990s.

 

Essentially, it held out the promise for countries like Georgia of full membership of the club of Western nations - and that meant the right to join Nato as well as the European Union.

 

It was relatively easy for countries like Poland and the Czech Republic to travel that road - they were after all merely former satellite states of eastern Europe.

 

It was possible - although more difficult - for the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

 

They had been independent European states within living memory, had plenty of support from old allies in the continent and in any case began the process while Russia was still reeling from Soviet collapse.

 

Low expectations

 

In Russian eyes, at least, Georgia is different.

 

First it lies on Russia's southern border in the turbulent Caucasus region, and the Kremlin would not want to see a Nato presence in such a violent and unpredictable place.

 

More importantly, it is part of what Russians would regard as a kind of heartland of influence - Russians have seen their borders fluctuate in recent centuries according to their fluctuating political fortunes but they believe their right to influence in certain areas transcends the precise location of those borders at any given moment.

 

Mr Saakashvili - Western-oriented and ambitious for his country - tends to complicate the picture.

 

Western leaders would admit that guarantees were given to republics like Georgia in the past, but the world of diplomacy is a world of pragmatism and those guarantees have to be seen in the overall context of the West's desire to maintain the best possible relationship with Moscow.

 

So expect plenty of calls for restraint and ceasefire from the West, but don't expect much else - after all America needs Russian co-operation on more pressing issues like North Korea and other members of the Western alliance like Germany will hardly be anxious for a confrontation with a country that supplies much of their energy needs.

 

You don't start a military showdown with someone who can turn the gas off.

 

Quick fix

 

President Saakashvili sees the world to some extent in the same moral and ideological terms as George W Bush, and is very free with talk of the need to defend liberty.

 

He compares Russia's military actions today with the German invasion of Poland in 1939, or the Soviet intervention to crush Czechoslovakian liberalisation in the Prague Spring of 1968.

 

In both cases of course, the democracies of the West were unwilling or unable to contain aggression - and Mr Saakashvili is hoping to shame them into reacting more strongly this time around with those carefully chosen examples.

 

He is likely to be disappointed.

 

It would be difficult even for Washington to accede to a Georgian request for transport aircraft to bring Georgian combat troops home from Iraq without looking as though it was involving itself directly in an armed conflict with Russia.

 

The best the US state department and the foreign ministries of Europe can hope for is a quick fix to end the violence and bring in humanitarian supplies, followed by some long-term commitment in Moscow and Tbilisi to some kind of dialogue.

 

With little thought having been given to the Caucasus region in recent times though, even achieving those limited goals is not going to be easy.

[MosJan]

War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA

 

The US administration urged for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict between Russia and Georgia over the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia.

 

In the meantime, Russian officials believe that it was the USA that orchestrated the current conflict. The chairman of the State Duma Committee for Security, Vladimir Vasilyev, believes that the current conflict is South Ossetia is very reminiscent to the wars in Iraq and Kosovo.

 

“The things that were happening in Kosovo, the things that were happening in Iraq – we are now following the same path. The further the situation unfolds, the more the world will understand that Georgia would never be able to do all this without America. South Ossetian defense officials used to make statements about imminent aggression from Georgia, but the latter denied everything, whereas the US Department of State reloaded not comments on the matter. In essence, they have prepared the force, which destroys everything in South Ossetia, attacks civilians and hospitals. They are responsible for this. The world community will learn about it,” the official said.

 

In the meantime, it became known that the Georgian troops conducted volley-fire cleansings of several South Ossetian settlements, where people’s houses were simply leveled.

 

“The number of victims with women, children and elderly people among them, can be counted in hundreds and even thousands,” a source from South Ossetian government in the capital of Tskhinvali said.

 

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, told reporters that Georgia’s actions in South Ossetia question its consistency as a state and as aresponsible member of the international community, Interfax reports.

 

"Civilians, including women, children and elderly people are dying in South Ossetia. In addition to that, Georgia conducts ethnic scouring in South Ossetian villages. The situation in South Ossetia continues to worsen every hour. Georgia uses military hardware and heavy arms against people. They shell residential quarters of Tskhinvali [the capital] and other settlements. They bomb the humanitarian convoys. The number of refugees continues to rise – the people try to save their lives, the lives of their children and relatives. A humanitarian disaster is gathering pace,” Russia’s Foreign Minister said.

 

The minister added that the Georgian administration ignored the appeal from the UN General Assembly to observe the Olympic truce during the Beijing Olympics.

[MosJan]

Russia says 1,500 killed in S.Ossetia

12:37 | 09/ 08/ 2008

 

Print version

 

MOSCOW, August 9 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that 1,500 people have been killed in South Ossetia since the start of Georgia's attack on the breakaway republic.

 

Georgia launched a large-scale offensive to seize control over the province early on Friday using tanks, combat aircraft, heavy artillery and infantry. South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, has been devastated in the onslaught, and Russia earlier said at least 15 of its peacekeepers had lost their lives

 

Lavrov said in a conference call for journalists that the death toll in the separatist province was continuing to rise, and warned that Georgia should not feel safe from Russian retaliation.

 

More than 30,000 residents of South Ossetia have fled to neighboring Russia since the Georgian attack, the Russian government said earlier.

 

"Over the past one and a half days, more than 30,000 people have crossed the border," Chief of Government Staff Sergei Sobyanin told President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting to discuss humanitarian aid to the province.

 

Most residents of the breakaway province have Russian citizenship.

 

Medvedev said earlier in the day that the country's troops have begun a military operation in South Ossetia to force Georgian troops to cease violence.

[MosJan]

 

 

By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI, Associated Press Writer 32 minutes ago

 

GORI, Georgia - Russia sent hundreds of tanks and troops into the separatist province of South Ossetia and bombed Georgian towns Saturday in a major escalation of the conflict that has left scores of civilians dead and wounded.

 

Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, launched a major offensive Friday to retake control of breakaway South Ossetia. Russia, which has close ties to the province and posts peacekeepers there, responded by sending in armed convoys and military combat aircraft.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that some 1,500 people have been killed, with the death toll rising Saturday.

 

The figure could not be independently confirmed, but witnesses who fled the fighting said hundreds of civilians had probably died. They said most of the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, was in ruins, with bodies lying everywhere.

 

The air and artillery bombardment left the provincial capital without water, food, electricity and gas. Horrified civilians crawled out of the basements into the streets as fighting eased, looking for supplies.

 

Russian Gen. Vladimir Boldyrev claimed in televised comments Saturday that Russian troops had driven Georgian forces out of the provincial capital. Witnesses confirmed that there was no sign of Georgian soldiers in the streets.

 

Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili proposed a cease-fire Saturday. As part of his proposal, Georgian troops were pulled out of Tskhinvali and had been ordered to stop responding to Russian shelling, said Alexander Lomaia, secretary of his Security Council.

 

Russia did not immediately respond to Saakashvili's proposal. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had said earlier that Moscow sent troops into South Ossetia to force Georgia into a cease-fire.

 

Lomaia said there had been direct fighting between Russian and Georgian soldiers on the streets of Tskhinvali. He estimated that Russia sent 2,500 troops into Georgia. The Russian military has not said how many of its troops were deployed.

 

Russian military aircraft also bombed the Georgian town of Gori on Saturday. An Associated Press reporter who visited Gori shortly afterward saw several apartment buildings in ruins, some still on fire, and scores of dead bodies and bloodied civilians. The elderly, women and children were among the victims.

 

"Georgia is facing Russia's military aggression," Saakashvili said, noting that Russian forces were attacking areas outside South Ossetia. "Georgian authorities support a cease-fire and separation of the warring parties."

 

It is the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won de facto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992.

 

The fighting threatens to ignite a wider war between Russia and Georgia, which accused Russia of bombing its towns, ports and air bases. Georgia, a former Soviet republic with ambitions of joining NATO, has asked the international community to help end what it called Russian aggression.

 

It also likely will increase tensions between Moscow and Washington, which Lavrov said should bear part of the blame for arming and training Georgian soldiers.

 

Moscow has said it needs to protect its peacekeepers and civilians in South Ossetia, most of whom have been given Russian passports. Ethnic Ossetians live in the breakaway Georgian province and in the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia.

 

Overnight, Russian warplanes bombed the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of the Georgian capital and near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. He also said two other military bases were hit, and that warplanes bombed the Black Sea port city of Poti, which has a sizable oil shipment facility.

 

Georgia, meanwhile, said it has shot down 10 Russian planes, including four brought down Saturday, according to Kakha Lomaya, head of Georgia's Security Council.

 

The first Russian confirmation that its planes had been shot down came Saturday from Russian Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the General Staff, who said two Russian planes were downed. He did not say where or when.

 

Russian military commanders said 15 peacekeepers have been killed and about 150 wounded. Russian troops went in as peacekeepers but Georgia alleges they now back the separatists.

 

Russian military spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov accused Georgian troops of killing and wounded Russian peacekeepers when they seized Russian checkpoints. Konashenkov's allegations couldn't be independently confirmed Saturday.

 

Russia's foreign minister said that Georgia brought the airstrikes upon itself by bombing civilians and Russian peacekeepers, and warned that the small Caucasus country should expect more attacks.

 

"Whatever side is used to bomb civilians and the positions of peacekeepers, this side is not safe and they should know this," Lavrov said.

 

Asked whether Russia could bomb the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Lavrov answered: "I don't think the bombing is coming from Tbilisi, but whatever part of Georgia is used for this aggression is not safe."

 

It was unclear what might persuade either side to stop shooting. Both claim the battle started after the other side violated a cease-fire that had been declared just hours earlier after a week of sporadic clashes.

 

Diplomats have issued a flurry of statements calling on both sides to halt the fighting and called for another emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, its second since early Friday morning seeking to prevent an all-out war.

 

President Bush said Saturday the outbreak of fighting is endangering peace throughout the volatile region, and he urged an end to the deadly outbreak of violence.

 

"I'm deeply concerned about the situation in Georgia," Bush said in a statement to reporters while attending the Olympics in Beijing. "The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis.

 

"The violence is endangering regional peace, civilian lives have been lost and others are endangered. We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for an end to the Russian bombings, and a return by the parties to the status quo of Aug. 6."

 

Russia, which has granted citizenship to most of the region's residents, appeared to lay much of the responsibility for ending the fighting on Washington.

 

Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership — a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.

 

Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, long has pledged to restore Tbilisi's rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and have built up ties with Moscow.

 

Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. But Saakashvili has called them home in the face of the South Ossetia fighting. The Georgian commander of the brigade in Iraq said Saturday they would leave as soon as transport can be arranged.

 

___

 

Associated Press writers Douglas Birch and Musa Sadulayev on the Russian-Georgian border, George Abdaladze in Gori, Georgia, and Vladimir Isachenkov and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.

[MosJan]

The two-faced, underhanded foreign policy of Georgia

 

Ask anyone in the Caucasus region, and they will tell you never to trust a Georgian because they would shake your hand with a smile and then stab you in the back. On Friday morning, we saw a perfect example of this treachery, when hours after declaring a ceasefire, Georgian military units launched a savage attack on the civilians of South Ossetia.

 

Hours after Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili, the pro-western Washington-backed anti-democratic stooge (attacks on opposition policians in Georgia are rife) declared a unilateral ceasefire, the Georgian army lanched a savage attack on the capital of the province of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, with tanks and infantry, while the air force bombed a village and strafed a Russian humanitarian aid convoy.

 

According to South Ossetian government sources, there were many civilian casualties in the city of Tskhinvali, a large part of which was destroyed. The Parliament house has burned down and several buildings are on fire. Apart from this, Georgian Su-25 Frogfoot aircraft strafed civilians in the village of Kvernet and attacked a Russian humanitarian aid convoy.

 

Yet where is the criticism of the West against this blatant act of war crimes perpetrated by the criminal and murderous regime of failed lawyer Saakashvili? While the Russian Foreign Ministry has been issuing daily reports about the escalating tension in the area, and while Moscow has bent over backwards to find a peaceful and mutually acceptable solution, the Western media have consistently ignored the story while Georgia has consistently snubbed all efforts towards peace, while carrying out cowardly underhanded and treacherous attacks such as we have seen today.

 

Then when there is a retaliation, Tblisi goes whining like a cry-baby to the UN Security Council, playing the victim.

 

http://img.rian.ru/images/11588/81/115888130.jpg

 

 

The question remains, what is behind Tblisi's policy? Is it the USA, launching a war by proxy against Russia, using its puppet in the area to start a full-scale confrontation? What does Washington hope to gain with such a policy? Is this Custer's last stand, as the Bush-Cheney regime flushes down the sewer where it belongs, a last-gasp attempt at world domination by provoking the only country capable of standing up to Washington's imperialist plans?

 

The position of the Russian Federation has been consistent, clear and as usual, by the book of diplomacy. Mocow has worked tirelessly behind the scenes, convening peace councils, trying to mediate between the two sides, always respecting both positions and constantly stressing the need to find a solution which satisfies Tblisi as well as Tskhinvali. The Foreign Ministry has been careful to inform all media outlets of what has been going on and of the growing escalation in the region.

 

It seems that nothing changes. The West remained silent, as if nothing was happening then when Georgia gets a hiding, suddenly become interested, but fail to report who started the conflict. It seems that nothing changes. Georgia declares a ceasefire one minute and within hours commits war crimes in savage attacks against civilians.

 

It seems that nothing changes. Georgia's most infamous exports are its undrinkable wines and disgusting, low-quality dangerous food products while its most famous export was Josef Stalin. Maybe he should have stayed at home and concentrated more of his efforts there.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

 

PRAVDA.Ru

[MosJan]

 

Georgia imposes martial law as violence continues

15:28 | 09/ 08/ 2008 http://img.rian.ru/i/b_print.gif TBILISI, August 9 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's parliament accepted President Mikheil Saakashvili's declaration of martial law on Saturday, as the country battled with Russia for control over breakaway South Ossetia.

 

Russia sent tanks and hundreds of troops into Georgia on Friday after Tbilisi launched ground and air strikes in a major operation to seize control over the rebel region, devastating the province's main city, and killing around 1,500 civilians according to Russian reports.

 

Saakashvili told the national Security Council in a televised statement: "Georgia is now being subjected to Russian military aggression."

 

The ongoing conflict is the most severe since South Ossetia fought its way to independence from Georgia in 1992. The majority of the local population have Russian citizenship.

 

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said earlier that Russian combat aircraft had bombed several Georgian military bases, one near the capital Tbilisi, as well as the Black Sea port city of Poti.

 

Georgian media also reported airstrikes on the city of Gori, and said several civilians had been killed.

 

However, Russian Deputy Air Force Commander Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn denied that warplanes had struck non-military targets.

 

"We are not fighting peaceful towns, and are not conducting military strikes against civilians. We are only seeking to ensure peace," he said.

 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier on Saturday that the country's troops had begun a military operation in South Ossetia to force Georgian troops to cease violence.

 

Russia's peacekeeping command said later that the country's troops had driven Georgian forces from South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali. Paratroopers from Russia's Ivanovo, Moscow and Pskov airborne divisions have been sent to the city.

 

Georgia says it has shot down a total of 10 Russian combat aircraft, while Russia says it has lost two planes.

 

Georgia's Interior Ministry said it was questioning the pilot of one of the Russian planes.

 

Nogovitsyn told a RIA Novosti news conference that Russian peacekeepers had lost contact with an Su-25 Frogfoot close-support aircraft and a Tu-22 Blinder bomber, and that the fate of the pilots was unknown.

 

The Russian government has warned that a humanitarian disaster is developing as South Ossetians, many of them injured, flee across the border into Russia. In the past 36 hours around 30,000 people have arrived in Russia.

 

President Medvedev sent Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu to Vladikavkaz, where injured refugees are being treated, to coordinate relief efforts. The country has pledged to provide assistance to all refugees from the province.

 

 

[MosJan]

Medvedev tells Bush Russia aims to force Georgia to accept peace

18:17 | 09/ 08/ 2008

 

Print version

 

MOSCOW, August 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian president told his U.S. counterpart on Saturday that Russia's ongoing military operation in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia is aimed at forcing Georgia to accept peace.

 

Bush's phone conversation with Dmitry Medvedev came after the U.S. leader called on Russia to stop bombing targets in Georgia, and voiced concern over the escalating violence.

 

Medvedev was quoted by the Kremlin as telling Bush: "Acting within our peacekeeping mission, and in line with the mandate issued by the international community, Russia is engaged in the task of forcing the Georgian side to accept peace, while defending the lives and property of its citizens, as is required under the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation, and the legal standards of any civilized country.

 

Georgia, the main U.S. ally in the Caucasus Region, launched a major ground and air offensive to seize control of South Ossetia on Friday, prompting Russia to send in tanks and hundreds of troops. Georgia imposed martial law on Saturday after Russian warplanes began bombarding military bases.

 

Russia says 12 of its servicemen have been killed in the violence, and 2,000 civilians in South Ossetia have lost their lives. Around 30,000 refugees have flooded across the border into Russia to escape the violence since Friday morning.

 

A senior Russian diplomat said on Saturday that the country may ask the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights to investigate war crimes committed by Georgia.

 

"I do not rule out that the Hague and Strasbourg courts and institutions in other cities will be involved in investigating these crimes, and this inhuman drama that has been played out," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told news agencies in an interview broadcast on the Vesti-24 TV channel.

 

Russian peacekeepers "were killed by their own [Georgian] partners in the peacekeeping forces," he said.

 

"There is a Russian battalion, an Ossetian battalion, and a Georgian battalion... and all of a sudden the Georgians, Georgian peacekeepers, begin shooting their Russian colleagues. This is of course a war crime," Karasin said.

 

The ongoing conflict is the most severe since South Ossetia fought its way to independence from Georgia in 1992. The majority of the local population have Russian citizenship.

 

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said earlier that Russian combat aircraft had bombed several Georgian military bases, one near the capital Tbilisi, as well as the Black Sea port city of Poti.

 

Georgian media also reported airstrikes on the city of Gori, and said several civilians had been killed.

 

However, Russian Deputy Air Force Commander Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn denied that warplanes had struck non-military targets.

 

"We are not fighting peaceful towns, and are not conducting military strikes against civilians. We are only seeking to ensure peace," he said.

 

Georgia says it has shot down a total of 10 Russian combat aircraft, while Russia says it has lost two planes.

 

The Russian government has warned that a humanitarian disaster is developing as South Ossetians, many of them injured, flee across the border into Russia.

[MosJan]

Abkhasia starts war with Georgia

 

 

Armed forces belonging to Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia have begun an operation to force Georgian troops out of the upper part of the Kodori gorge. Abkhazia have used artillery and air strikes against Georgian troops in the gorge.

 

Thousands of Russians are on holiday in the picturesque republic with the long coastline. They fear a conflict could result in innocent blood being spilled.

 

But RT correspondent Aleksandr Luchaninov says Russians are not ready to leave the area just yet.

 

"Those I spoke to said they are very concerned, and in case of trouble they are prepared to leave the region immediately," he said.

 

For several days Georgian troops have been amassing on the border.

 

Abkhasia's president, Sergey Bagapsh, said the breakaway republic’s troops are in contact with the peacekeeping forces in the region.

 

The atmosphere in the capital Sukhumi is tense, and officials are anticipating Georgian aggression.

 

"Today it's South Ossetia, tomorrow it might be Abkhasia," said Bagapsh, explaining his decision to move the troops.

[MosJan]

The Georgian war – minute by minute

15:20 GMT – Prime Minister Putin arrives in Russia’s republic of North Ossetia to discuss aid for the refugees arriving from South Ossetia.

 

14:19 GMT – Russia’s Interfax news agency quotes locals in Georgia claiming convoys of ‘NATO military vehicles’ are travelling to South Ossetia.

 

14:02 GMT – Fifty journalists in Tskhinvali ask Russia, Georgia and United States to organise safe passage for them and civilian refugees.

 

14:16 GMT – South Ossetian President says second Georgian assault on Tskhinvali was repelled.

 

14:13 GMT – Georgian troops are regrouping ‘ready to repel any attack’, says Georgian Interior Ministry.

 

13:50 GMT - UN High Commissioner for Refugees confirms up to 7,400 people flee from South Ossetia.

 

13:34 GMT – At least 2,000 people were killed in Tskhinvali -Russia’s ambassador to Georgia.

 

13:16 GMT – Russia considers bringing the killing of peacekeepers to the international court - Foreign Ministry.

 

13:03 GMT – Tbilisi may ask the West for military aid – head of Georgia’s national security council.

 

12:53 GMT – Bush assures Medvedev he will help return the situation in South Ossetia to the sphere of diplomacy.

 

12:53 GMT – Georgian troops block 2,000 refugees from fleeing South Ossetia – Russian Foreign Ministry.

 

12:48 GMT – Medvedev tells Bush by phone: ‘Russia is forcing Georgia to peace, protecting the lives and dignity of its citizen’ - Ria Novosti.

 

12:30 GMT – Websites from the .ru domain are blocked in Tbilisi – Russian embassy.

 

11:52 GMT – Abkhazia says it has launched an offensive against Georgian troops in the Kodory gorge.

 

11:05 GMT – Saakashvili calls for an immediate ceasefire, accuses Russia of invasion.

 

11:09 GMT – Georgian parliament approves declaration of martial law in the country.

 

10:34 GMT – Georgian media report Russia has bombed Tbilisi-controlled villages in Abkhazia.

 

10:16 GMT – Georgia is de facto at war with Russia – Georgian Foreign Ministry.

 

10:10 GMT – Georgian websites are under attack – Saakashvili.

 

10:02 GMT – Georgian artillery resumes shelling the peacekeepers’ headquarters in Tskhinvali, according to Interfax.

 

09:40 GMT – Georgia has 50 dead and 450 wounded after three days of battles – unidentified military source in the conflict zone, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

 

09:00 – Georgia to declare martial law – President Mikhail Saakashvili.

 

08:59 GMT – Georgian troops ‘surrender and flee’ in Tskhinvali – peacekeeping commander.

 

08:59 GMT – Georgian media claim a Russian pilot has been captured after two planes were shot down. Another was found dead, reports say.

 

08:46 – Experts from the EU, the US and the OSCE are to mediate in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict – office of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

 

08:32 GMT – The use of multiple-launch rocket systems by Georgia caused mass civilian losses – Russian military.

 

08:32 GMT – Georgia is building up forces near the Abkhazian border, according to Abkhazian officials.

 

08:24 GMT – Russian military denies bombing civilians in Georgia.

 

08:20 GMT – Russian military admits loosing two aircraft in South Ossetian conflict.

 

07:54 – Russian troops do not control Tskhinvali so they resort to air strikes – Georgian official.

 

07:54 – Moscow accuses Kiev of encouraging the Georgian offensive by supplying Tbilisi with arms.

 

07:40 GMT – Russian units ‘have cleared Tskhinvali of Georgian troops’, according to the commander of Russia’s ground forces, General Boldirev.

 

07:24 GMT – Russian paratrooper units arrive in South Ossetia.

 

07:22 GMT – Peacekeeping commander reports Russian troops have suppressed the intensive bombardment of Tskhinvali by Georgian military.

 

07:16 GMT – U.S. Ministry of State condemns Russia’s ‘use of strategic bombers and missiles’ against Georgia.

 

07:15 GMT – Russian Emergencies Ministry sets up temporary refugee camps in southern Russia.

 

07:12 GMT – Tskhinvali death toll rises to 1,600 people, according to South Ossetian officials.

 

07:13 GMT – South Ossetia claims it has shot down a second Georgian fighter plane.

 

07:06 GMT – NATO has no mandate to interfere in the South Ossetian conflict - alliance official.

 

07:04 GMT – An estimated 30,000 refugees have fled South Ossetia over the past 1.5 days - Russian Government official.

 

06:56 GMT – Those responsible for the humanitarian crisis in South Ossetia must be held responsible for their actions – Medvedev.

 

06:46 GMT – Georgia to withdraw all its troops from Iraq – Reuters agency.

 

06:48 GMT – Georgia says Russian aircraft have bombed a telecom site in the Georgian city of Gori.

 

05:56 GMT – Georgia’s Defence Minister reports that his country’s troops are advancing into South Ossetian territory.

 

05:51 GMT – South Ossetians say Georgian snipers are hampering the transfer of the wounded to hospitals.

 

05:51 GMT – Georgian media reports 12 Georgian soldiers were killed during bombing of a military base by Russian aircraft.

 

05:46 GMT – Russian peacekeepers have launched a peace enforcing operation in South Ossetia – Medvedev.

 

05:30 GMT - Russian Special Forces attachment arrives on outskirts of Tskhinvali – Russian military source

 

05:15 GMT – Russian unit breaks through to peacekeepers base camp, says military official. Evacuation of wounded soldiers starts.

 

05:09 GMT – South Ossetians claims Georgian troops captured hostages while retreating.

 

05:02 GMT – Russian military prosecutors launch an investigation into peacekeeper deaths in South Ossetia.

 

05:02 GMT – Russian military prosecutors launch an investigation into peacekeepers deaths in South Ossetia.

 

04:03 GMT – Russia sends special forces troops to South Ossetia.

 

03:56 GMT – Three Russian peacekeepers die overnight, raising the total death toll for peacekeeping forces to 15 - Russian military.

 

03:45 GMT – Evacuees report to Russian military that Georgian artillery shelled a convoy with wounded people - Interfax

 

02:00 GMT – U.S. condemns Russia’s ‘military actions against Georgia’, announces U.S. envoy to the United Nations.

 

00:10 GMT – The shelling of Tshinvali stops.

[MosJan]

Georgia vs. South Ossetia: roots of a 100-year conflict

Georgia and its breakaway republic of South Ossetia have always had an uneasy relationship. The current armed conflict has its roots in a dispute that goes back almost one hundred years.

 

The first major conflict between the sides took place in 1918-1920. It began in a series of uprisings in the Ossetian-inhabited areas of what is now South Ossetia.

 

The uprisings were against the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, which claimed several thousand lives and left painful memories among the two communities.

 

During Soviet times the conflict was frozen because of Moscow’s tight control of the area. However, it began to gain momentum in late 1980s, not long before the collapse of the Soviet Union, amid the rising nationalism among both Georgians and Ossetians.

 

The influential South Ossetian Popular Front was created in 1988. But in the summer of 1990 the Georgian Supreme Council adopted a law barring regional parties.

 

This was interpreted by Ossetians as a move against the South Ossetian Popular Front and led to Ossetians proclaiming South Ossetia a Soviet Democratic Republic, fully sovereign within the USSR.

 

 

 

http://www.russiatoday.ru/media/image/1/489c1e5dbcf27.jpg

 

 

The map of the region

Ossetians boycotted subsequent Georgian parliamentary elections and held their own contest in December. The Georgian government headed by Zviad Gamsakhurdia declared this election illegitimate and abolished South Ossetia's autonomous status altogether in December, 1990.

 

Violent conflict broke out towards the end of 1991. Many South Ossetian villages were attacked and burned down as well along with Georgian houses and schools in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.

 

As a result of the violence, approximately 1,000 people died and about 100,000 ethnic Ossetians fled the territory and moved mostly to North Ossetia, a republic within the Russian Federation.

 

In 1992, Georgia was forced to accept a ceasefire to avoid a large scale confrontation with Russia. The government of Georgia and South Ossetian separatists reached an agreement to avoid the use of force against one another, and Georgia pledged not to impose sanctions against South Ossetia.

 

A peacekeeping force of Ossetians, Russians and Georgians was established at the time. And late in 1992 the OSCE set up a mission in Georgia to monitor the peacekeeping operation.

 

From then, until mid-2004, South Ossetia was generally peaceful.

 

In June 2004, tensions began to rise as the Georgian authorities strengthened their efforts against smuggling in the region. Hostage takings, shootouts and occasional bombings left dozens dead and wounded.

 

A ceasefire deal was reached on August 13, but it has been repeatedly violated.

 

Tensions in the region soared in 2008 and outbreaks of violence became increasingly frequent in the border area.

 

Georgia said it was an internal affair as the breakaway republic had never been recognized internationally.

 

The Georgian side repeatedly insisted the conflict could be resolved without outside interference.

 

However, early on August 8 Georgia launched a massive military offensive to take control of the republic.

 

Legal status of peacekeepers in South Ossetia

 

Peacekeeping duties in South Ossetia are overseen by a Joint Control Commission, composed of Georgian, Ossetian and Russian officials.

 

The military force under the commission includes troops from all the three sides. They are authorised to carry out policing and peacekeeping duties in the region.

 

Peacekeepers also take part in joint-observer groups, which monitor the demilitarised zone and investigate alleged violations of the peace agreements.

 

The commission was created in 1992. The regulating document called ‘Dagomys agreement’ was sighed by Georgian President Eduard Shevarnadze and Russian President Boris Yeltsin on June 24 of that year.

 

Post this story to del.icio.us

[skhara]

I am quite surprised by the lack of responses/debate about this. Yo people, this is extremely serious.

[hyethga]

I am quite surprised by the lack of responses/debate about this. Yo people, this is extremely serious.

 

The Georgian and Azeri media claim that Russian fighters flew out of air base near Gyumri. They have a little difficulty explaining that there are no bombers stationed there and even more as to how they passed through the Georgian AA defense shield.

[MosJan]

Saakashvili suffered heart attack, some sources say

09.08.2008 13:09 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail In Russian In Armenian

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ According to some unconfirmed data, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has suffered a heart attack and is a grave condition now. He last made an announcement at 6.40 p.m. and vanished from sight of journalists, who spread rumors that the President was hospitalized with cardiac insufficiency.

 

There is hearsay that the Georgian President can be transported to Turkey for an urgent operation.

 

Georgian Ministry of Health refused to comment on the rumors. To all appearance, the Saakashvili is still in Georgia, Geopolitika.ru reports.

 

 

PanArmenian is the only one talking about the heart attack

[MosJan]

Russia stages raid near key oil pipeline: Georgia

 

 

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20080809/capt.cps.nfv84.090808174159.photo00.photo.default-512x334.jpg

 

TBILISI (AFP) - Russian warplanes on Saturday staged a raid near a major international oil pipeline that runs through Georgia but did not damage it, Georgia's prime minister said.

ADVERTISEMENT

 

The 1,774-kilometre (1,109-mile) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline is the world's second longest and takes oil from Azerbaijan to Western markets.

 

Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told Georgian television: "The area of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline was bombed by Russian planes. Miraculously, the pipeline was not damaged."

 

The BTC has a capacity of 1.2 million barrels of oil a day but is currently shut down after an explosion in a Turkish section which has been claimed by Kurdish rebels.

[MosJan]

if Russia wished to bombed the pipeline it would not be in existences now

 

it's a way for vratsys to get more attention form it's western partners and people / countries who depend on that oil

[MosJan]

Military operation in South Ossetia wasn’t abrupt

09.08.2008 15:44 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail In Russian In Armenian

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Gaining the maps of Georgian military, Russian peacekeepers got evidence that military operation in South Ossetia was not abrupt. The attack was planned scrupulously.

 

This afternoon, units of the 58th army freed Tskhinvali. Battles are going on along the responsibility zone of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, land forces commander Vladimir Boldyrev said.

 

Wounded are being evacuated. Special forces are sent to Tskhinvali. Landing and assault battalions of the 76 Pskov division entered the South Ossetian capital, Vesti reports.

 

[MosJan]

Armenian citizens didn’t suffer in Georgian-South Ossetian clashes

09.08.2008 15:39 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail In Russian In Armenian

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian citizens didn’t suffer in the August 8 Georgian-South Ossetian clashes, says a statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the press office said.

 

On August 9, the Armenian Consulate General in Batumi organized return of 150 Armenian citizens to homeland. The buses were accompanied by the Georgian police.

 

The RA MFA press office provides information round the clock. You can call +37410 562543 и +37410 544041 (+202).

 

[MosJan]

RA Defense Ministry: Russian planes don’t take off from Armenia to raid Georgia

09.08.2008 14:30 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail In Russian In Armenian

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russian planes don’t take off from Armenia to raid Georgia, RA Defense Minister’s spokesman, colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

 

“This is nothing but provocation and misinformation. There are no bombers at the 102 military bas in Gyumri. Furthermore, taking off from Armenia, the planes’ route would lie over Tbilisi and the Georgian anti-missile system would detect them,” he said.

 

Yesterday, some Georgian media circulated information that Russians planes may have taken off from the Armenian territory. The Azeri press took up the information concluding that “planes from Russian military base in Armenia were enabled in bombing of the Georgian territory.”

 

[MosJan]

RA Defense Minister calls for vigilance

09.08.2008 13:50 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail In Russian In Armenian

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s Foreign Minister Seyran Ohanyan called on the nation for vigilance in connection with the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict.

 

“Tanks, warplanes and infantry were enabled in the attack on Tskhinvali, killing civilians. We should be vigilant and unified to resist the challenges we face,” he said Friday in Nagorno Artsax.

 

“The conflict is Georgia’s internal affair but we wish peace in the neighbor country,” he added, Novosti Armenia reports.

 

[MosJan]

Georgia threatens Russia with war

08.08.2008 18:03 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail In Russian In Armenian

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgia's National Security Council on Friday warned that Moscow and Tbilisi will be in "a state of war" if reports of Russian tanks, military trucks and troops entering South Ossetia prove true.

 

"If it's true that Russian troops and armaments have been sent to Georgia, it means that we are in a state of war with Russia," Alexander Lomaia, secretary of the security council, said.

 

The warning was issued as dozens of Russian tanks, trucks and troops were seen heading towards South Ossetia, travelling through North Ossetia, AFP reports.

 

[MosJan]

South Ossetian capital mostly destroyed

08.08.2008 17:29 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail In Russian In Armenian

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Commander of combined peacekeeping forces, major general Marat Kulakhmetov said that South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, has been nearly destroyed.

 

"Gunfire has been suspended. Tskhinvali is enveloped in fires," Interfax's correspondent reported from the site.

 

Meanwhile, according to some sources, Russian armored vehicles entered the city.

 

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said 150 Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers entered South Ossetia.

 

[MosJan]

Military operation in South Ossetia wasn’t abrupt

09.08.2008 15:44 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail In Russian In Armenian

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Gaining the maps of Georgian military, Russian peacekeepers got evidence that military operation in South Ossetia was not abrupt. The attack was planned scrupulously.

 

This afternoon, units of the 58th army freed Tskhinvali. Battles are going on along the responsibility zone of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, land forces commander Vladimir Boldyrev said.

 

Wounded are being evacuated. Special forces are sent to Tskhinvali. Landing and assault battalions of the 76 Pskov division entered the South Ossetian capital, Vesti reports.