Fireworks over Georgia

[MosJan]

The ugly face of war - revealed

 

The following video may be very disturbing for some people.

http://russiatoday.com/news/news/28802/video

 

did you see the part that the women was saying about Georgian man that had US flags on their uniforms ??

 

also they have used a artery that has been banned over 25 years a go - in Russian " casetvi bambi"

[Arpa]

Ossetians speak an Indo European, Iranian Farsi Language?

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=66099...ionid=351020602

Ethnically, the Ossetians are of Iranian stock and speak their own language, which is closely related to Pashto, and more distantly to Farsi. They claim to be the descendents of the ancient Alanian and Scythian tribes and therefore to have been inhabiting the South Caucasus for thousands of years. The Georgians, on the other hand, are a Caucasian people and speak a language belonging to the Caucasian family. The Georgians also claim to have ancient roots in the South Caucasus, while at the same time arguing that the Ossetians only migrated to the Caucasus between the 17th and 19th centuries. Along religious lines, both are predominately Orthodox Christian, with a Sunni Islam minority among the Ossetians. Therefore, the conflict between the two peoples is not based on religion, but rather on ethnicity, and territory.

 

 

 

[MosJan]

http://www.russiatoday.com/media/news/4/48a06bc0b8991.jpg August 11, 2008, 19:41

US sends more arms to Georgia – Israeli media

The United States is sending fresh supplies of weapons to Georgia from its base in the Jordanian port of Aqabah. That’s according to the Israeli newspaper – Maariv. The paper says the US began flying weapons from the transport hub on Saturday.

 

According to Maariv, the US is hiring Russian-made freight planes belonging to UTI Worldwide Inc. to transport arms and ammunition to Georgia. The paper says the Pentagon is redirecting supplies to Tbilisi that were earmarked for Iraq.

 

The Aqabah terminal is used by the US to supply troops in Iraq. The American military relies on the hub mainly because it’s safer to use Aqabah than Iraq’s own ports in the Persian Gulf.

 

Georgia stocks a wide range of weapons from many sources. This is a strategic move in case Russia were to block off the channels through which it gets its military supplies.

 

 

 

 

 

www.russiatoday.com

[MosJan]

News Send to friend | Print version http://www.russiatoday.com/media/news/2/48a0766ab4ccf.jpg August 11, 2008, 20:44

RT attacked

In the course of the last 24 hours RT’s website (www.russiatoday.com) has endured numerous DDoS attacks, which have made it unavailable for some time. Channel’s security specialists say the initial attack was carried out from an IP-address registered in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. RT’s team apologizes for the inconvenience and gives a list of comprehensive external resources on the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict which can be used, should the attacks continue. “As the world's diplomats hurried to contain the violence and prevent the conflict engulfing the wider Caucasus region, Russia made clear it no longer considered Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili a partner, prompting accusations from his main ally, the United States, that Moscow was resisting peace and wanted regime change”.

Georgia bows to might of Russia, The Independent

 

“There are three basic facts to keep in mind about the smokin’ little war in Ossetia:

1. The Georgians started it.

2. They lost.

3. What a beautiful little war!”

War Nerd: South Ossetia, The War of My Dreams, Exiled Online

 

“There is some truth in this analysis - but only some. In the first place, Russia may have behaved with shocking brutality, but this was in response to Georgian troops going into South Ossetia.

 

There was provocation. This tiny disputed parcel of land is admittedly legally part of Georgia, but it has been independent for 15 years, and its population of 70,000 includes Russian passport holders and many sympathetic to Russia”.

Shamed by the loss of empire, Russia is a wounded bear we provoke at our grave peril, Daily Mail

 

“First, diplomacy. President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia is a headstrong fellow. Reference has been made to his Harvard education as if that should ensure sound judgment. Alas, however, the President's tutor was not the greatest of Harvard diplomatists, Henry Kissinger – but Anthony Eden at Suez. Mr. Saakashvili has only one defence against the charge of criminal irresponsibility: a plea of insanity”.

The West must share the blame for war in Georgia, The Independent

 

“My own view is that the U.S. has displayed a reckless disregard for Russian interests for some time. I don't like Russia's swing to greater domestic authoritarianism and worry about its stiffened posture on a number of international fronts -- but [President of the Nixon Center, Dimitri] Simes convinces me in his important Foreign Affairs essay, "Losing Russia," that much of what we are seeing unfold between Russia and Georgia involves a high quotient of American culpability”.

Georgia-Russia Clash: American Culpability and the Kosovo Connection, The Washington Note

[MosJan]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...nd-Tbilisi.html

 

 

Georgia: Russia fighting on several fronts as Georgian troops withdraw to defend Tbilisi

 

Russian troops have advanced into Georgia on two fronts after Vladimir Putin rejected calls for a ceasefire and strongly criticised the US's role in the crisis.

 

By Damien McElroy and Adrian Blomfield in Georgia and Jon Swaine

Last Updated: 6:45PM BST 11 Aug 2008

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00789/departing-troops-go_789317c.jpg Russian rocket fire hits a convoy of departing Georgian troops just outside Gori Photo: AFP/GETTY A Georgian official has said it is transferring "all its troops" from South Ossetia towards Tbilisi amid fighting in the city of Gori, about 35 miles to the south-east of the capital.

 

Georgians were witnessed by the Telegraph in a full scale disorganised and panicked retreat from Gori. They were crammed into vehicles heading down road from Gori to Tbilisi, the capital. They say 6,000-7,000 Russian troops are heading their way and the Georgians are abandoning their positions.

 

Kakha Lomaia, a senior Georgian security official, said: "We received very reliable information that the Russians decided to move towards Gori. That's why we decided to pull out all our troops and to relocate them - to defend Tbilisi."

 

Lomaia has since claimed that Russian forces have "captured" the city. However a Reuters reporter in Gori said: "We are right now driving through the town and I see no trace of troops or military vehicles. It is absolutely deserted."

 

A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman said that Russian forces had also moved into the town of Zugdidi in the west and seized police stations, and had made bombing raids against communications facility in Tblisi, the Georgian capital.

 

Moscow began moving troops from the breakaway region of Abkhazia into the town of Senaki, well inside western Georgia, earlier today, while most Georgian troops were tied up in the north, and just hours after senior military figures insisted Russia was not planning offensives in the main area of the country.

 

The new troop movements were revealed as Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister, said: "There is no justification for continued Russian military action in Georgia, which threatens the stability of the entire region and risks a humanitarian catastrophe." He said there was a "clear responsibility" on Moscow to agree a ceasefire and bring a swift end to the conflict.

 

Responding to international diplomatic pressure to bring hostilities to a close, Mr Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, said his country would pursue operations to their "logical conclusion" and accused the US of aiding its enemy by transporting Georgian troops to the conflict zone from Iraq.

 

"It is a shame that some of our partners are not helping us but, essentially, are hindering us," said Mr Putin. "The very scale of this cynicism is astonishing.

 

"Russia, of course, will take its peacekeeping mission to a logical conclusion. We will strive for working relations with all participants of this conflict."

 

Leading a joint effort with fellow foreign ministers from the group of seven largest economic powers, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, urged Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire with Georgia. A State Department spokesman said: "We want to see the Russians stand down."

 

George W. Bush, the US President, said yesterday that he had told Mr Putin of his "grave concern" over Russia's "disproportionate" response in the conflict. His vice-president, Dick Cheney, upped pressure on Moscow by saying that Russian aggression "must not go unanswered" and warned of serious consequences for the world if hostilities continued.

 

The Russian Defence Ministry said that its operation in Senaki, which sits 30 miles outside the Abkhaz border, was necessary to avert renewed Georgian attacks on South Ossetia.

 

A spokesman said: "Russian peacekeepers and support units are carrying out an operation aimed at preventing Georgian forces from regrouping to carry new attacks on South Ossetia. Senaki is one of the places where such actions were underway."

 

Witnesses have reported at least six Georgian attack helicopters bombed targets in the region around the South Ossetian capital, apparently breaking their self-imposed ceasefire. Russia claims the shelling has killed three Russian troops and injured dozens more.

 

The Daily Telegraph has seen a large group of Russian soldiers wearing flak jackets near Senaki. The troops, who were flanked by about 40 vehicles including lorries and armoured personnel carriers, were carrying heavy weaponry and could be seen securing positions, including ambush positions.

 

The town is at a strategically important point on the main east-west highway through Georgia. Control of the highway could cut off the port of Poti on the Black Sea, south of Abkhazia. There is a Russian naval presence off the port and Russian air strikes have already been launched on it.

 

A Georgian Defence Ministry spokesman said that Russian armoured vehicles had seized a military base in the town. It is thought that Russian troops could also be targeting a Georgian radar station.

 

The Gergian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, said in a televised address that Russia is seeking to occupy all of Georgia. "This provocation was aimed at occupying South Ossetia, Abkhazia and then all of Georgia," he said.

 

Earlier today the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, had said that the "major part" of his country's assault on Georgia was over, raising hopes of a swift end to the fighting, which was sparked on Friday after Georgia entered South Osettia, attempting to wrest back control of the breakaway state by military means.

 

Both sides accuse each other of ethnic cleansing in the violence, in which more than 2,000 civilians are thought to have died and more than 40,000 are feared to have been displaced.

 

 

 

 

[MosJan]

hima srantsits ova sut ova jisht ??

[Arpa]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080811/us_nm/...vacuations_dc_1

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said about 170 private American citizens joined several U.S. convoys bound for Armenia.

170 Americans evacuated from Georgia: U.S. 28 minutes ago

The U.S. State Department said on Monday it had helped to evacuate at least 170 American citizens from Georgia as well as dependents of embassy staff in the capital Tbilisi because of fighting with Russia.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said about 170 private American citizens joined several U.S. convoys bound for Armenia. Dependents of U.S. embassy staff were also in those convoys, he said.

He said the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi was open despite these departures and it was unclear how many other Americans had fled the fighting, which broke out last Thursday over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Dependents of U.S. embassy staff were also in those convoys, he said.

If only those SOBs in the north, east and west, not to forget DC, would realize that Armenia and Yerevan is th only safe haven in th region?

Edited August 11, 2008 by Arpa

[shiner]

I think ultimately Putin is on a mission to replace the Georgian government with someone who is friendly to Russia. Comparing Georgia's military to Russia's is like comparing an ant to an elephant. He probably won't be stopped.

[DominO123]

I think ultimately Putin is on a mission to replace the Georgian government with someone who is friendly to Russia. Comparing Georgia's military to Russia's is like comparing an ant to an elephant. He probably won't be stopped.

 

There is no way he could find a pro-Russian government. He will only drive Georgians away.

[Yervant1]

Wouldn't you love the diplomacy of Armenia by not having one of those stupid colour revolutions. Why should a country belong to this camp or the other?

[MosJan]

Russia says Georgian troops in S.Ossetia surrendering

17:05 | 11/ 08/ 2008

 

Print version

 

MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian troops have been surrounded in South Ossetia and are giving themselves up, a senior Russian military official said on Monday.

 

"Russian troops are currently disarming the surrounded Georgian forces in South Ossetia," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nagovitsyn, deputy head of the General Staff, told a news conference.

 

Russian troops are currently forcing all Georgian troops out of Georgian-populated villages in the east and west of the breakaway region, he said.

 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier on Monday that the operation declared on Saturday to "force Georgia to accept peace" was almost complete.

 

Russia drove Georgian troops out of the devastated capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, on Sunday, two days after Tbilisi launched a major ground and air offensive to regain control of the pro-Russian region.

 

Shelling and bombing attacks continued on Monday morning. Russia, which has maintained peacekeepers in the region since conflicts in the early 1990s, said over 2,000 civilians have been killed by Georgian forces. Moscow has also highlighted a humanitarian catastrophe in the region.

 

Georgia says it has lost 150 people in the conflict, and that hundreds of Georgians are injured. Nagovitsyn said 18 Russian troops have been killed and 52 wounded.

 

He warned that in the Black Sea near Georgia's other breakaway region, Abkhazia, Russian forces will attack all Georgian ships and aircraft entering the security zone to deter a Georgian attack on Abkhazia.

 

Earlier reports said Russia had sent more than 9,000 troops and 350 armored vehicles into Abkhazia.

 

On Saturday Russia sent vessels to patrol the area near Abkhazia, where martial law has been declared. On Sunday, Russian defense officials said one Georgian missile boat was destroyed after it attacked Russian ships.

 

Nagoviotsyn also said two more Russian military aircraft have been downed in the conflict zone in the past 24 hours, bringing the Air Force's overall losses to four aircraft. He said Russia has gained full control over Georgian airspace, and is preventing all flights by Georgian combat aircraft.

 

"We have eliminated the possibility of an aerial threat from Georgia in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone," Nogovitsyn said.

 

He denied Georgian claims that Russian warplanes have targeted Georgian oil pipelines in bombing raids, in particular the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, which pumps crude from the Caspian to Europe.

 

"We did not bomb Georgia's oil pipelines. If we had done this, oil spills and possible oil fires could have led to a regional environmental disaster," Nogovitsyn said.

 

The general also denied reports that Russia had dropped bombs on Tbilisi's international airport or any other civilian targets, but admitted to an attack on a radar facility.

 

The United States and other Western nations have criticized Russia for what they have called a 'disproportionate' response to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia, and are urging both Russia and Georgia to stop armed hostilities.

 

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who seeks NATO membership for the South Caucasus country, has pledged to bring the two pro-Russian separatists republics under central control. Most people in both republics have Russian passports.

[MosJan]

Russian Navy ships approach Georgia's sea border

12:19 | 10/ 08/ 2008

 

Print version

 

MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - A group of ships from Russia's Black Sea Fleet including the flagship Moskva guided missile cruiser arrived on Sunday in the eastern part of the sea near the Georgian border, a high-ranking navy official said.

 

"The purpose of the Black Sea Fleet vessels' presence in this region is to provide aid to refugees," the source in the Russian Navy's headquarters told RIA Novosti.

 

The move comes on the third day of fighting between Georgian and Russian troops in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

 

The source said the Moskva, accompanied by a patrol vessel and supply ships, travelled from the Russian naval base at Sevastopol in Ukraine's Crimea. The ships will join three large landing craft that earlier arrived in the area from Sevastopol and the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

 

The source denied media reports saying the Russian fleet's warships were blockading the Georgian coast.

 

"These reports are not true. A blockade of the coastline would mean war with Georgia, and we are not in a state of war with Georgia."

 

A spokesman for the president of Georgia's other breakaway republic, Abkhazia, earlier said the local administration and peacekeepers had asked Russia to reinforce its naval presence near the Abkhazian coast after Georgian warships attempted to approach the coastline.

 

Georgia 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.

 

South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali has been largely destroyed, and around 2,000 civilians have died according to local and Russian officials. Around 34,000 South Ossetians have fled across the Russian border.

 

Georgia's leadership began talks on Sunday with the Russian military on creating a humanitarian corridor to allow residents of South Ossetia to escape the ongoing conflict, Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili said.

[MosJan]

U.S. military aircraft bring 800 Georgian troops home from Iraq

17:18 | 11/ 08/ 2008

 

Print version

 

MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. military aircraft have flown 800 Georgian troops and a number of armored vehicles back home from Iraq amid an armed conflict in breakaway South Ossetia, a senior Russian military official said on Monday.

 

NBC reported on Monday that U.S. military transport planes had started to bring all the Georgian troops deployed in Iraq back home.

 

"U.S. aircraft have made eight flights to bring Georgian troops home from Iraq," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said.

 

Nogovitsyn pledged to take adequate measures. "We are ready to increase our forces in view of the relocation of Georgian troops." He said following Russia's deployment of 58th Army units to supplement its peacekeepers in South Ossetia, Georgian and Russian troop numbers in the conflict zone were around the same.

 

Georgian troops launched a major ground and air offensive on South Ossetia on Friday, which according to Russia left around 2,000 civilians dead. The attacks prompted Russia to send in tanks and hundreds of troops. The capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, has been virtually destroyed in the violence.

 

Until Georgia made the decision to pull out its troops from Iraq, the country had 2,000 service personnel deployed in the Middle East region, the third largest contingent after the U.S. and Britain.

 

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the U.S., which has backed Georgia's NATO membership aspirations, is hampering the peacekeeping operation in South Ossetia by flying the Georgian troops from Iraq to Georgia.

 

"It's a pity that some of our partners instead of helping are trying to get in the way, I mean the United States using its military transport aircraft to relocate Georgia's military contingent from Iraq virtually into the conflict zone, among other things," Putin said during a government meeting.

 

Putin said pulling Georgian troops out of Iraq would not change the situation, but called the move a "step back from a settlement."

 

He said he was astonished by the double standards and cynicism of U.S. foreign policy and accused U.S. diplomats of retaining a Cold-War mentality, labeling the aggressor the victim while the real victim ends up being blamed as the aggressor.

 

"Of course, it was right that Saddam Hussein was hanged for butchering several Shia villages, while the current Georgian rulers, who wiped out ten Ossetian villages in no time and burnt people alive in their homes, must be protected," Putin said sarcastically.

 

A top Russian diplomat accused foreign media on Sunday of showing pro-Georgian bias in their coverage of the ongoing conflict.

[MosJan]

so not even 8-8-8 helped sahakashvili,

[MosJan]

Russia detains 10 Georgian intelligence officers - FSB

15:56 | 11/ 08/ 2008

 

Print version

 

MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained 10 Georgian intelligence service officers who were preparing terrorist attacks, including in Russia, the head of the security service said on Monday.

 

"We have detained 10 agents of the Georgian special services who were spying on military facilities and preparing terrorist attacks, including on Russian territory," Alexander Bortnikov said at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

 

Georgia launched major ground and air attacks to seize control of South Ossetia last Friday, prompting Russia to send in tanks and hundreds of troops. Around 2,000 civilians have since died in Tskhinvali, according to Russia. A total of 34,000 people are also reported to have fled across the Russian border.

 

As a result of the developing situation Bortnikov ordered the FSB, the Border Guard Service and the National Anti-Terrorism Committee to take measures to tighten border security in Russia's Southern Federal District.

 

"The situation in the Southern Federal District is complicated, but under control," Bortnikov told Medvedev.

 

He also said that the service had information that a group of 12 foreign mercenaries had entered Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Daghestan.

 

"We are currently working on this group with our partners from the Commonwealth of Independent States," he said.

 

[Arpa]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080811/us_nm/...vacuations_dc_1

 

 

If only those SOBs in the north, east and west, not to forget DC, would realize that Armenia and Yerevan is th only safe haven in th region?

More laughable is that the US is evacuating its citizens to a country that strictly speaking, thanks to mehmet genocide-oglu, has no formal diplomatic relations, no functioning embassy so to speak.

[MosJan]

THOUSANDS POUR INTO ARMENIA FROM WAR-STRICKEN GEORGIA

 

*

 

article's photo

Armenia evacuated thousands of its citizens and received a significant number of foreigners from neighboring Georgia over the weekend and on Monday as the Russian-Georgian military conflict increasingly escalated into an all-out war. The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan said at least 7,500 Armenians spending their summer holidays on the Georgian Black Sea coast and some 2,000 foreign nationals, including relatives of Tbilisi-based U.S. diplomats, have entered the country since the outbreak of large-scale fighting in South Ossetia on Friday. Georgia’s attempt to win back the breakaway region triggered a harsh Russian retaliation involving air strikes on military and civilian targets across the South Caucasus state. Armenia expressed serious concern about the worst regional crisis since the early 1990s and urged Armenian vacationers to return home on Saturday. The vast majority of them appear to have heeded the call. Scores of cars and minibuses, which the Armenian government helped to send to popular Black Sea resorts in Georgia’s Ajaria region, have since been streaming into Armenia, bypassing Tbilisi and the main Georgian road leading to the Armenian border. The highway passes near airfields and other military facilities bombed by Russian warplanes. The convoys of Armenian evacuees, led by Georgian police patrols, have moved along a longer road than runs through Georgia’s Armenian-populated Javakheti region to the Bavra border crossing in northwestern Armenia. A kilometer-long line of vehicles could be observed there in the early hours of Monday. Each vehicle needed hours to go through rigorous passport and customs checks on either side of the frontier. Security at the Georgian and Armenian checkpoints was visibly tightened. Armenian border officials there told RFE/RL that more than 1,500 vehicles carrying more than 7,600 people have crossed into Armenia through Bavra since Saturday. “The situation was very tense there in the last few days,” said one man returning from the Ajarian town of Kobuleti with his family. “There is hardly any vacationer left there. Everyone is coming back. Kobuleti is now empty.” “We decided to come back because it was impossible to rest in that panicky situation,” explained another, female vacationer. Another woman said she and her family headed to Ajaria shortly after the Georgian assault on South Ossetia. “We saw the war with our own eyes,” she told RFE/RL. “On our way to Georgia we saw a bomb explode just a 100 meters away from us.” The Georgian Black coast has become a popular holiday destination of Armenians in recent years. An estimated 50,000 of them spent their summer holidays there last year. Armenia’s consulate-general in Ajaria’s capital Batumi was tasked with organizing the evacuation process. According to Hakob Haji-Hakobian, the consul general, more than 300 Armenian nationals left the area on Monday morning. “The situation is calm at the moment, but you can’t take any chances,” Haji-Hakobian told RFE/RL by phone. “It is certainly right to leave the area because the situation is unpredictable.” Armenia also appears to be the main transit point for thousands of Western nationals caught up in the Georgian-Russian fighting. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, about 2,000 of them have entered the country from Georgia as of Monday afternoon, heeding travel advisories issued by the U.S. and European governments. Armenian immigration bodies were instructed to issue them with visas swiftly and free of charge. Some 130 Italians evacuated from Tbilisi returned home on Monday night on board a plane sent by the Italian government to Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri. Another plane was sent to Yerevan by the government of Poland. It was due to collect 180 mostly Polish citizens waiting there. According to a Spanish diplomatic source cited by AFP news agency, a group of Spanish tourists have already been also evacuated through Armenia. The evacuees also included members of the families of the U.S. embassy staff in Tbilisi. “They were relocated to Yerevan and will stay here for the time being, until circumstances improve,” a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Armenia, Thomas Mittnacht, told RFE/RL. He said the Armenian authorities have been “extremely helpful” in the evacuation of these and other American citizens. (EPA photo: A column of Russian troops on the march to South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali on August 9.)

* By Satenik Vantsian in Gyumri, Ruben Meloyan and Emil Danielyan

[MosJan]

try finding a place to stay in Yerevan - it's next to imposable

 

 

[MosJan]

how is this effecting the transportation roads from armenia to russia?

 

 

harjan mi nayi es mek@

 

ARMENIA FACES TRADE BLOCKADE AS RUSSIA WIDENS GEORGIA ASSAULT

• http://www.armtown.com/img/photo/rfe_en_200808112.jpgRussia’s intensifying military campaign against Georgia has reportedly paralyzed commercial traffic through two Black Sea ports handling the bulk of cargos shipped to and from Armenia, threatening to cut off the country from the outside world. In a related development, the Armenian national gas distribution company said on Monday that Georgia has abruptly reduced the volume of Russian natural gas shipped to Armenia via Georgian territory. "There has been a reduction of gas delivered to Armenia from Russia via Georgia," ArmRosGazprom spokeswoman Shushan Sardarian told AFP news agency. She said a 30-percent supply reduction occurred with no advance warning. At least one of the Georgian ports, Poti, has been targeted by Russian warplanes bombing military and civilian targets across Georgia following the outbreak of all-out fighting in South Ossetia. Armenia has long been heavily reliant on its rail-ferry services with the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Ilyichevsk and Russia’s Port-Kavkaz. According to Vladimir Badalian, a government-linked parliamentarian co-chairing an Armenian-Georgian business association, both Poti and the other Georgian port, Batumi, are standing idle now because of the worsening security situation in the country. “Because the work of the ports ground to a halt, a fairly large numbers of goods are piling up there,” he told RFE/RL on Monday. He said the military confrontation has also left 160 rail cars laden with goods bound for Armenia stranded in Port-Kavkaz. “Work is underway to transport those cargos to Poti,” he said without elaboration. Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham Gharibjanian likewise assured journalists in Yerevan that Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian is personally dealing with the problem. He gave no details, though. “Right now the Georgian ports of Batumi and Poti do not accept freight,” Railvneshtrans, a Russian company operating the Poti-Port-Kavkaz service, said in a statement cited by the Regnum news agency. Regnum also quoted the executive director of the Armenian shipping company Trans-Alliance, Sarkis Martirosian, as saying that it is unable to move its goods out of Poti. He said authorities in the western Georgian city promised to allow their transportation “in the coming days” and to restore the ferry link with Ukraine “soon.” The normal functioning of the port could be further complicated by the reported seizure by Russian troops of a nearby Georgian military base. Citing the Georgian Defense Ministry, the Associated Press news agency reported that Russian armored vehicles rolled into the base in Senaki, a town about 30 kilometers (20 miles) inland from Poti, later on Monday. Armenia’s rail communication with Georgia appears to have not been affected yet by the unprecedented fighting. “There has been no change in the train schedule and trains from Yerevan to Tbilisi and Batumi continue to run as planned,” Susanna Tonoyan, a spokesman for the Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communications, told RFE/RL. “Another train will leave Yerevan for Batumi this evening,” she said. No disruptions were also reported in international flights to and from Yerevan, many of which are carried out via Georgian airspace. According to Norayr Beluyan, chief executive of the national airline Armavia, the fighting and the Russian air strikes have so far forced no changes in the carrier’s flight schedule. “The air routes we are using are very safe,” Beluyan told RFE/RL. Armavia checks with Georgia’s civil aviation authority before every flight, he said. A spokeswoman for the Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Department said several overnight flights from European cities to Tbilisi were diverted to Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport. (Photolur photo)
• By Karine Kalantarian

[MosJan]

so espes asats 1990 tvajkaner@ hnaravor e shat shutov het gan... yete US iranii yet paterazmi mej m@rtni menq eli janaparh chenq unena

[MosJan]

LTP'in el arden p@chatsats radioi a n@manvum gnalov

 

 

# President Serzh Sarkisian did not cut short his vacation in China on Monday, ignoring opposition accusations of “criminal indifference” to the worsening situation in Georgia and its potentially grave consequences for Armenia. Sarkisian began on a two-week vacation last week, flying to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games along with other heads of state from around the world. His office said he will watch the performances of Armenian athletes for an unspecified period of time before returning to Armenia and continuing his summer holiday there. The presidential press service said Sarkisian visited the Olympic village in Beijing and met Armenian athletes living there on Sunday. He was accompanied by the secretary of Armenia’s National Security Council, Artur Baghdasarian, the chairman of the National Olympic Committee, Gagik Tsarukian, and other senior officials. A spokesman for Sarkisian told RFE/RL that the Armenian leader is due to return home “at the end of this week.” In a weekend statement, Armenia’s main opposition alliance led by former President Levon Ter-Petrosian strongly criticized Sarkisian for not rushing back to Yerevan following the onset of the Russian-Georgian war over South Ossetia. It said he should have begun urgent “consultations” with Russian and Georgian officials on how to secure Armenia’s main supply lines passing through Georgia. “We condemn the criminal indifference shown by Serzh Sarkisian toward national security and the fate of the country’s citizens,” charged the statement. “He is continuing to enjoy his vacation as if nothing has happened,” Levon Zurabian, a top aide to Ter-Petrosian, told RFE/RL on Monday. “This is an unacceptable and irresponsible behavior which does not befit a head of state.” Sarkisian’s office refused to respond to the allegations. Nor has it officially commented on the Russian-Georgian conflict yet. (Presidential press service photo: Serzh Sarkisian is greeted by Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Friday.)

# By Ruben Meloyan

[skhara]

There is no way he could find a pro-Russian government. He will only drive Georgians away.

 

No, Russian's have nothing to lose in Georgian public opinion -- they are and were universally despised. No what Russians should do is stomp them hard, humiliate them completely and polarize Russians to "hate" Georgians in equal and opposite fashion (I suppose two can play the 'hate' game). The Georgians can discover that Russian "hate" directed at them is much more damaging to them then the puny little hate they can display towards Russia.

[MosJan]

ok lav hima sranrtsits vor mekna sut xosum ?? russner@ te vratsiq ?? yes drantsits voch mekin el chem havatum -

[Nané]

ok lav hima sranrtsits vor mekna sut xosum ?? russner@ te vratsiq ?? yes drantsits voch mekin el chem havatum -

 

Yes kartsum em vor chi kareli kataryal havatal ays kam ayn koghmin. Rusner@ chen asum amboghj jshmartutyun@ (vor@ kartsum em aydqan el zarmanali che) ... isk Vratsiner@ mrjun@ pigh (փիղ) en nerkayatsnum. Verjin hashvov kartsum em Rusneri teghekatvutyun@ aveli vstaheli e.

[shiner]

Another problem is Russia can do this again and again. The Ukraine could be next.