War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA
War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA
War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA 09.08.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru
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 released no 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 a responsible 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 catastrophe 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.
“The Georgian administration has found the use to its arms, which they have been purchasing during the recent several years,” Lavrov said.
“The fact that Georgian peacemakers in the structure of joint peacemaking forces opened fire on their Russian comrades from one and the same contingent speaks for itself, I think,” the minister added.
“Now it is clear to us why Georgia never accepted Russia’s offer to sign a legally binding document not to use force for the regulation of the South Ossetian conflict,” Lavrov said. “Not so long ago, before the military actions in South Ossetia, Georgia’s President Saakashvili said that
there was no point in such a document because Georgia would not use force against its people, as he said. It just so happens that it is using it,” Sergei Lavrov said.
Sergei Lavrov believes that the international community should stop turning a blind eye on Georgia’s active deals to purchase arms.
“We have repeatedly warned that the international community should not turn a blind eye on massive purchases of offensive arms, in which the Georgian administration has been involved during the recent two years,” Lavrov said.
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 defenseofficials used to make statements about imminent aggression from Georgia, but the latter denied everything, whereas the US Department of State released no 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 a responsible 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 catastrophe 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.
“The Georgian administration has found the use to its arms, which they have been purchasing during the recent several years,” Lavrov said.
“The fact that Georgian peacemakers in the structure of joint peacemaking forces opened fire on their Russian comrades from one and the same contingent speaks for itself, I think,” the minister added.“Now it is clear to us why Georgia never accepted Russia’s offer to sign a legally binding document not to use force for the regulation of the South Ossetian conflict,” Lavrov said. “Not so long ago, before the military actions in South Ossetia, Georgia’s President Saakashvili said that
there was no point in such a document because Georgia would not use force against its people, as he said. It just so happens that it is using it,” Sergei Lavrov said.
Sergei Lavrov believes that the international community should stop turning a blind eye on Georgia’s active deals to purchase arms.
“We have repeatedly warned that the international community should not turn a blind eye on massive purchases of offensive arms, in which the Georgian administration has been involved during the recent two years,” Lavrov said.
Putin: Georgia’s actions are criminal, whereas Russia’s actions are absolutely legitimate 09.08.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru
Russia news reports say that Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has arrived in a region that neighbors South Ossetia, where the armed conflict is taking place.
They say Putin is visiting the city of Vladikavkaz, the provincial capital of the region of North Ossetia that neighbors South Ossetia.
Also read: War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA
Putin said at a work meeting in Vladikavkaz that he could not imagine how it could be possible to make South Ossetia become a part of Georgia afterwards.
“Georgia’s actions are criminal, whereas Russia’s actions are absolutely legitimate,” the Russian Prime Minister said.
Putin urged the Georgian administration to immediately end aggression in South Ossetia.
“The actions of the Georgian authorities in South Ossetia are obviously a crime. It is a crime against its own people, first and foremost,” Putin stated.
“A deadly blow has been struck on the territorial integrity of Georgia itself, which implies huge damage to its state structure,” Putin emphasized.
“The aggression has resulted in numerous victims including those among civilians and has virtually led to a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
The Russian PM stressed out that Russia would always treat the Georgian nation with great respect, as a brotherly nation, despite the current tragic events.
“Time will pass and the people of Georgia will give their objective estimations to the actions of the incumbent administration,” Putin said.
Putin believes that Georgia’s aspiration to become a member of NATO is not based on Georgia’s wish to become a part of the global international security system and contribute to the strengthening of international peace.
“It is based on an attempt of the Georgian administration to get other countries involved in its bloody affairs,” he said.
Russia ’s actions in South Ossetia are absolutely grounded and legitimate, Putin said.
“In accordance with international agreements, including the agreement of 1999, Russia does not only execute peacemaking functions, but is obliged, in case one party breaks the cease-fire agreement, to defend the other party, which is exactly what we are doing in case with South
Ossetia,” Putin stated.
Russia has been playing a positive and stabilizing role in the Caucasus for ages, Putin said.
“We perfectly realize what world we live in today. We will strive for fair and peaceful solutions of all conflicting situations, which we inherited
f
rom the past,” the head of the Russian government said.
Russia 's president Dmitry Medvedev has told U.S. President George W. Bush that Georgia must withdraw its forces from South Ossetia in order to end hostilities there.
The Kremlin says that President Dmitry Medvedev told Bush in a telephone conversation Saturday that Georgia must also sign a legally binding agreement not to use force.
Medvedev voiced hope that the United States could help push Georgia in that direction, and said Russia had to act to protect its citizens and enforce peace.
Georgia launched a massive attack Friday to regain control over South Ossetia. Russia responded by sending in tanks and troops and bombing Georgian territory.
Bush has urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops.
Military forces in the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia launched air and artillery strikes Saturday to drive Georgian troops from their bridgehead in the region, officials said.
Sergei Shamba, foreign minister in the government of Abkhazia, said Abkhazian forces intended to push Georgian forces out of the Kodori Gorge. The northern part of the gorge is the only area of Abkhazia that has remained under Georgian government control.
Shamba said the Abkhazian move was prompted by Georgia's military action to regain control over South Ossetia, which began Friday. He said Abkhazia had to act because it has a friendship treaty with South Ossetia.
Russia has close ties with both unrecognized republics and granted its passports to most of their residents.
Georgia 's Security Council secretary Alexander Lomaia said that Georgian administrative buildings in the Kodori Gorge were bombed, but he blamed the attack on Russia.
In 2006, Georgian forces moved into the upper part of the Kodori Gorge to root out members of a defiant militia. Georgia later established a local administration made up of people who fled the fighting in Abkhazia.
Abkhazian and Russian officials have said they believe Georgia intends to launch an offensive from there to retake Abkhazia and demanded the withdrawal of Georgian troops from the area.
Shamba said the Abkhazian forces had to act because diplomatic efforts to settle the dispute over Georgia's presence in the gorge had failed.
"Georgian forces in the Kodori Gorge posed a real threat," Shamba said.
They say Putin is visiting the city of Vladikavkaz, the provincial capital of the region of North Ossetia that neighbors South Ossetia.
Also read: War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA
Putin said at a work meeting in Vladikavkaz that he could not imagine how it could be possible to make South Ossetia become a part of Georgia afterwards.
“Georgia’s actions are criminal, whereas Russia’s actions are absolutely legitimate,” the Russian Prime Minister said.
Putin urged the Georgian administration to immediately end aggression in South Ossetia.
“The actions of the Georgian authorities in South Ossetia are obviously a crime. It is a crime against its own people, first and foremost,” Putin stated.
“A deadly blow has been struck on the territorial integrity of Georgia itself, which implies huge damage to its state structure,” Putin emphasized.
“The aggression has resulted in numerous victims including those among civilians and has virtually led to a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said.
The Russian PM stressed out that Russia would always treat the Georgian nation with great respect, as a brotherly nation, despite the current tragic events.
“Time will pass and the people of Georgia will give their objective estimations to the actions of the incumbent administration,” Putin said.
Putin believes that Georgia’s aspiration to become a member of NATO is not based on Georgia’s wish to become a part of the global international security system and contribute to the strengthening of international peace.
“It is based on an attempt of the Georgian administration to get other countries involved in its bloody affairs,” he said.
Russia ’s actions in South Ossetia are absolutely grounded and legitimate, Putin said.
“In accordance with international agreements, including the agreement of 1999, Russia does not only execute peacemaking functions, but is obliged, in case one party breaks the cease-fire agreement, to defend the other party, which is exactly what we are doing in case with South
Ossetia,” Putin stated.
Russia has been playing a positive and stabilizing role in the Caucasus for ages, Putin said.
“We perfectly realize what world we live in today. We will strive for fair and peaceful solutions of all conflicting situations, which we inherited
f
rom the past,” the head of the Russian government said.Russia 's president Dmitry Medvedev has told U.S. President George W. Bush that Georgia must withdraw its forces from South Ossetia in order to end hostilities there.
The Kremlin says that President Dmitry Medvedev told Bush in a telephone conversation Saturday that Georgia must also sign a legally binding agreement not to use force.
Medvedev voiced hope that the United States could help push Georgia in that direction, and said Russia had to act to protect its citizens and enforce peace.
Georgia launched a massive attack Friday to regain control over South Ossetia. Russia responded by sending in tanks and troops and bombing Georgian territory.
Bush has urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops.
Military forces in the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia launched air and artillery strikes Saturday to drive Georgian troops from their bridgehead in the region, officials said.
Sergei Shamba, foreign minister in the government of Abkhazia, said Abkhazian forces intended to push Georgian forces out of the Kodori Gorge. The northern part of the gorge is the only area of Abkhazia that has remained under Georgian government control.
Shamba said the Abkhazian move was prompted by Georgia's military action to regain control over South Ossetia, which began Friday. He said Abkhazia had to act because it has a friendship treaty with South Ossetia.
Russia has close ties with both unrecognized republics and granted its passports to most of their residents.Georgia 's Security Council secretary Alexander Lomaia said that Georgian administrative buildings in the Kodori Gorge were bombed, but he blamed the attack on Russia.
In 2006, Georgian forces moved into the upper part of the Kodori Gorge to root out members of a defiant militia. Georgia later established a local administration made up of people who fled the fighting in Abkhazia.
Abkhazian and Russian officials have said they believe Georgia intends to launch an offensive from there to retake Abkhazia and demanded the withdrawal of Georgian troops from the area.
Shamba said the Abkhazian forces had to act because diplomatic efforts to settle the dispute over Georgia's presence in the gorge had failed.
"Georgian forces in the Kodori Gorge posed a real threat," Shamba said.
A war waiting to happen
By F William Engdahl -Asian Times
The Caucasus Republic of Georgia, as nations go, is not apparently a major global player. Yet Washington has invested huge sums and
organized to put its own despot, Mikhail Saakashvili, in the presidency in order to close a nuclear North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
iron ring around Russia.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the capital Tbilisi and made sharp statements against Moscow for supporting the separatist
Georgian states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in essence blaming Moscow for an imminent war Washington has incited in order to bring
Georgia into NATO by the December NATO summit.
Western media have either tended to ignore the growing tensions in the strategic Caucasus region or to suggest, as Rice does, thatthe entire conflict is being caused by Moscow's support of the "breakaway" republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In reality, a quite
different chess game is being played in the region, one which has the potential to detonate a major escalation of tensions between Moscow and NATO.
The underlying issue is the fact that since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, one after the other former members as well as former states of the USSR have been coaxed and in many cases bribed with false promises by Washington into joining the counter organization, NATO.
Rather than initiate discussions after the 1991 dissolution of the Warsaw Pact about a systematic dissolution of NATO, Washington has systematically converted NATO into what can only be called the military vehicle of an American global imperial rule, linked by a network of
military bases from Kosovo to Poland to Turkey to Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 1999, former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania and Slovakia followed in March 2004. Now Washington is putting immense pressure on the European Union members of NATO, especially Germany and France, that they vote in December to admit Georgia and Ukraine.
The Georgia-Abkhazia military pictureThe present escalation of tensions in the region began in May when Abkhazia said it had shot down two Georgian drones over its airspace.
The announcement came two weeks after Georgia accused Russia of shooting down an unmanned drone over Abkhazia, which Tbilisi
c
onsiders its sovereign territory. Moscow has denied involvement.
Russia has administered a peacekeeping contingent in Abkhazia and South Ossetia since bloody conflicts in the 1990s, and sent additional troops to Abkhazia recently to deter what it calls a planned Georgian military offensive. The two sides, Georgia and Abkhazia, have been in a
state of suspended conflict since 1993, when Abkhaz separatists, backed by Russian forces, succeeded in driving the Georgians out of the province.
Tbilisi claims sovereignty over Abkhazia and South Ossetia and refers to both as "breakaway republics". In 2001, Georgian troops joined with anti-Moscow mujahideen-trained Chechyn soldiers from neighboring Russian Muslim province of Chechnya to mount a military attack,
unsuccessfully, against Abkhazia.
In an analysis of what a possible military clash, short of nuclear war between Russia and NATO might look like, the Russian government's RIA Novosti military commentator, Ilya Kramnik, laid out the array of forces on both sides. In late 2007, the Georgian armed forces had
about 33,000 officers and men, including a 22,000-strong army that comprised five brigades and eight detached battalions. These units had over 200 tanks, including 40 T-55 and 165 T-72 main battle tanks that are currently being overhauled.
Kramnik says that the Georgian military faces a 10,000-strong Abkhazian Self Defense Force with 60 tanks, including 40 T-72s, and 85 artillery pieces and mortars, including several dozen with a 122-152mm caliber and 116 armored vehicles of different types, numerous anti-
tank weapons ranging from RPG-7 rocket launchers to Konkurs-M anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). The Abkhazian navy has over 20 motor boats armed with machine-guns and small-caliber cannons.
But most decisive, as was shown in the experience of the 1992-1993 Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, even small units can resist superior enemy forces in mountainous areas for a long time. Consequently, the outcome of any hypothetical conflict would depend on the aggressors' level of
military training and the influence of third parties, primarily Russian units from the Collective Commonwealth of Independent States Peace keeping Force. Georgia's armed forces are notoriously corrupt and poorly trained.
Although the United States has trained several crack Georgian units in the past few years, the fighting effectiveness of all other elements is
uncertain. There are no trained sergeants, and troop morale is running low. Only about 50% of the military equipment is operational, and
coordinated operations in adverse conditions are impossible.
The Abkhazian armed forces pack a more devastating punch because they would resist an aggressor that has already tried to deprive the
republic of its independence. And Abkhazian units are commanded by officers trained at Russian military schools. Many of them fought in the
early 1990s. Most analysts agree that the combat-ready Abkhazian army does not suffer from corruption. Moscow has recently beefed up the
local peace-keeping contingent. Neighboring Caucasus states including North Ossetia side with Abkhazia and are ready to take on Georgia.
Moscow's possible strategyMoscow has stepped up ties with the two small republics against the backdrop of Georgia's NATO bid and Western recognition of Kosovo's
independence from Serbia. Russia, however, has not formally recognized Abkhazia or South Ossetia.
Moscow has long backed Abkhazia's de facto independence however. It has granted Russian citizenship to many of its residents and recently
legalized economic ties with the separatist republic. For Russia, the conflict provides a source of leverage on both Abkhazia and Georgia. The
more Georgia seeks to distance itself from Russia, the more Russia throws its weight behind Abkhazia.
However, Georgia under Washington's man, strongman President Mikhail Saakashvili - a pretty ruthless dictator as he recently showed against
domestic opposition - refuses to back off its provocative NATO bid.
Georgia is also a strategic transit country for the Anglo-American Caspian oil pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish
port of Ceyhan. As well, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline has been key to Azerbaijan as an alternative to the control of the Russian state
monopoly Transneft in order to convey its oil and gas resources toward the West. The entire Caucasus is part of what can be described as a
new Great Game for control of Eurasia between Washington and Russia.
As the Moscow Times sees it, "One way to disrupt Georgia's NATO aspirations would be to heat up the conflict in Abkhazia to a level that
would make it unacceptable for the Western alliance, which acts by the consensus of all members, to offer membership. Georgia's leadership
could be escalating tensions in hope of prompting Abkhazia and Russia to make a move that would leave the West with no chance but to
intervene.
"Regardless of the motivation, whoever is stoking the conflict must realize that they are playing with fire. This brinkmanship can lead to a full-
fledged war. Georgia would probably lose a war if Russia backed Abkhazia, while Russia would lose its hope of becoming a benign global
player and would risk seriously straining its ties with the European Union and the United States."
Rice adds gasoline to the fireThe George W Bush administration is adding gasoline to the fire in the Caucasus. In Tbilisi on July 10, Rice told the press, "Russia needs to be
a part of resolving the problem and solving the problem and not contributing to it. I have said it to the Russians publicly. I have said it
privately."
The effect of her comments, blaming Moscow for the escalating tensions, is to signal US support for the Georgia side in their efforts to force
Russian troops from South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In May, Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh said he was willing to conclude a military treaty with Moscow similar to that between the US and
Taiwan. "Abkhazia will propose to Russia the signing of a military treaty that would guarantee security to our republic," Bagapsh stated. "We
are also prepared to host Russian military bases on our territory within the framework of this treaty. I would like to emphasize that this would
not go against the precedents already existing in international practice. For instance, this treaty could be analogous to the treaty between the
US and Taiwan."
Just as Moscow refuses to recognize the sovereignty of Kosovo, so Washington refuses to admit the sovereignty of Abkhazia. In May, a
senior US State Department delegation was in Abkhazia, meeting with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)there as well as the
president. In the past, from Serbia to Georgia to Ukraine, Washington intelligence agencies have used NGOs, including the George Soros-
financed Open Society foundations, the US Congress-financed National Endowment for Democracy, the Central Intelligence Agency-linked
Freedom House and Gene Sharp's misleadingly-named Albert Einstein Institution to steer a wave of regime changes which became known as
"color revolutions".
In each case, the new regime was pro-Washington and anti-Moscow, as in the case of Saakashvili in Georgia and Viktor Yushchenko in
Ukraine. Both countries began seeking NATO entry after the success of the US-financed color revolutions.
In all this, Washington is definitely playing with potential nuclear fire by escalating pressure to push Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. Czech
Foreign Minister Karl Schwarzenberg on July 8 signed an agreement allowing US deployment of special radar facilities on Czech soil as part
of the top-secret US "missile defense" it alleges is aimed at rogue missile threats from Iran.
As even former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger recently pointed out, the Bush administration's categorical refusal to pursue the 2007
counter-offer of then-president Vladimir Putin to station US radar at the Russian-leased reconnaissance facility in Azerbaijan instead, was a
provocative mistake.
It makes abundantly clear that Washington is aiming its military strategy at the dismantling of Russia as a potential adversary. That is a recipe
for a possible nuclear war by miscalculation. Rice's latest Caucasus and Czech visit only added to that growing danger.
F William Engdahl is author of the book A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order and is finishing a book,
provisionally titled, The New Cold War: Behind the US Drive for Full Spectrum Dominance. He may be reached via his website,
The Caucasus Republic of Georgia, as nations go, is not apparently a major global player. Yet Washington has invested huge sums and
organized to put its own despot, Mikhail Saakashvili, in the presidency in order to close a nuclear North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
iron ring around Russia.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the capital Tbilisi and made sharp statements against Moscow for supporting the separatist
Georgian states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in essence blaming Moscow for an imminent war Washington has incited in order to bring
Georgia into NATO by the December NATO summit.
Western media have either tended to ignore the growing tensions in the strategic Caucasus region or to suggest, as Rice does, thatthe entire conflict is being caused by Moscow's support of the "breakaway" republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In reality, a quite
different chess game is being played in the region, one which has the potential to detonate a major escalation of tensions between Moscow and NATO.
The underlying issue is the fact that since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, one after the other former members as well as former states of the USSR have been coaxed and in many cases bribed with false promises by Washington into joining the counter organization, NATO.
Rather than initiate discussions after the 1991 dissolution of the Warsaw Pact about a systematic dissolution of NATO, Washington has systematically converted NATO into what can only be called the military vehicle of an American global imperial rule, linked by a network of
military bases from Kosovo to Poland to Turkey to Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 1999, former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania and Slovakia followed in March 2004. Now Washington is putting immense pressure on the European Union members of NATO, especially Germany and France, that they vote in December to admit Georgia and Ukraine.The Georgia-Abkhazia military pictureThe present escalation of tensions in the region began in May when Abkhazia said it had shot down two Georgian drones over its airspace.
The announcement came two weeks after Georgia accused Russia of shooting down an unmanned drone over Abkhazia, which Tbilisi
c
onsiders its sovereign territory. Moscow has denied involvement.Russia has administered a peacekeeping contingent in Abkhazia and South Ossetia since bloody conflicts in the 1990s, and sent additional troops to Abkhazia recently to deter what it calls a planned Georgian military offensive. The two sides, Georgia and Abkhazia, have been in a
state of suspended conflict since 1993, when Abkhaz separatists, backed by Russian forces, succeeded in driving the Georgians out of the province.
Tbilisi claims sovereignty over Abkhazia and South Ossetia and refers to both as "breakaway republics". In 2001, Georgian troops joined with anti-Moscow mujahideen-trained Chechyn soldiers from neighboring Russian Muslim province of Chechnya to mount a military attack,
unsuccessfully, against Abkhazia.
In an analysis of what a possible military clash, short of nuclear war between Russia and NATO might look like, the Russian government's RIA Novosti military commentator, Ilya Kramnik, laid out the array of forces on both sides. In late 2007, the Georgian armed forces had
about 33,000 officers and men, including a 22,000-strong army that comprised five brigades and eight detached battalions. These units had over 200 tanks, including 40 T-55 and 165 T-72 main battle tanks that are currently being overhauled.
Kramnik says that the Georgian military faces a 10,000-strong Abkhazian Self Defense Force with 60 tanks, including 40 T-72s, and 85 artillery pieces and mortars, including several dozen with a 122-152mm caliber and 116 armored vehicles of different types, numerous anti-
tank weapons ranging from RPG-7 rocket launchers to Konkurs-M anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). The Abkhazian navy has over 20 motor boats armed with machine-guns and small-caliber cannons.
But most decisive, as was shown in the experience of the 1992-1993 Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, even small units can resist superior enemy forces in mountainous areas for a long time. Consequently, the outcome of any hypothetical conflict would depend on the aggressors' level of
military training and the influence of third parties, primarily Russian units from the Collective Commonwealth of Independent States Peace keeping Force. Georgia's armed forces are notoriously corrupt and poorly trained.
Although the United States has trained several crack Georgian units in the past few years, the fighting effectiveness of all other elements is
uncertain. There are no trained sergeants, and troop morale is running low. Only about 50% of the military equipment is operational, and
coordinated operations in adverse conditions are impossible.
The Abkhazian armed forces pack a more devastating punch because they would resist an aggressor that has already tried to deprive the
republic of its independence. And Abkhazian units are commanded by officers trained at Russian military schools. Many of them fought in the
early 1990s. Most analysts agree that the combat-ready Abkhazian army does not suffer from corruption. Moscow has recently beefed up the
local peace-keeping contingent. Neighboring Caucasus states including North Ossetia side with Abkhazia and are ready to take on Georgia.
Moscow's possible strategyMoscow has stepped up ties with the two small republics against the backdrop of Georgia's NATO bid and Western recognition of Kosovo's
independence from Serbia. Russia, however, has not formally recognized Abkhazia or South Ossetia.
Moscow has long backed Abkhazia's de facto independence however. It has granted Russian citizenship to many of its residents and recently
legalized economic ties with the separatist republic. For Russia, the conflict provides a source of leverage on both Abkhazia and Georgia. The
more Georgia seeks to distance itself from Russia, the more Russia throws its weight behind Abkhazia.
However, Georgia under Washington's man, strongman President Mikhail Saakashvili - a pretty ruthless dictator as he recently showed against
domestic opposition - refuses to back off its provocative NATO bid.
Georgia is also a strategic transit country for the Anglo-American Caspian oil pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish
port of Ceyhan. As well, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline has been key to Azerbaijan as an alternative to the control of the Russian state
monopoly Transneft in order to convey its oil and gas resources toward the West. The entire Caucasus is part of what can be described as a
new Great Game for control of Eurasia between Washington and Russia.
As the Moscow Times sees it, "One way to disrupt Georgia's NATO aspirations would be to heat up the conflict in Abkhazia to a level that
would make it unacceptable for the Western alliance, which acts by the consensus of all members, to offer membership. Georgia's leadership
could be escalating tensions in hope of prompting Abkhazia and Russia to make a move that would leave the West with no chance but to
intervene.
"Regardless of the motivation, whoever is stoking the conflict must realize that they are playing with fire. This brinkmanship can lead to a full-
fledged war. Georgia would probably lose a war if Russia backed Abkhazia, while Russia would lose its hope of becoming a benign global
player and would risk seriously straining its ties with the European Union and the United States."
Rice adds gasoline to the fireThe George W Bush administration is adding gasoline to the fire in the Caucasus. In Tbilisi on July 10, Rice told the press, "Russia needs to be
a part of resolving the problem and solving the problem and not contributing to it. I have said it to the Russians publicly. I have said it
privately."
The effect of her comments, blaming Moscow for the escalating tensions, is to signal US support for the Georgia side in their efforts to force
Russian troops from South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In May, Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh said he was willing to conclude a military treaty with Moscow similar to that between the US and
Taiwan. "Abkhazia will propose to Russia the signing of a military treaty that would guarantee security to our republic," Bagapsh stated. "We
are also prepared to host Russian military bases on our territory within the framework of this treaty. I would like to emphasize that this would
not go against the precedents already existing in international practice. For instance, this treaty could be analogous to the treaty between the
US and Taiwan."
Just as Moscow refuses to recognize the sovereignty of Kosovo, so Washington refuses to admit the sovereignty of Abkhazia. In May, a
senior US State Department delegation was in Abkhazia, meeting with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)there as well as the
president. In the past, from Serbia to Georgia to Ukraine, Washington intelligence agencies have used NGOs, including the George Soros-
financed Open Society foundations, the US Congress-financed National Endowment for Democracy, the Central Intelligence Agency-linked
Freedom House and Gene Sharp's misleadingly-named Albert Einstein Institution to steer a wave of regime changes which became known as
"color revolutions".
In each case, the new regime was pro-Washington and anti-Moscow, as in the case of Saakashvili in Georgia and Viktor Yushchenko in
Ukraine. Both countries began seeking NATO entry after the success of the US-financed color revolutions.
In all this, Washington is definitely playing with potential nuclear fire by escalating pressure to push Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. Czech
Foreign Minister Karl Schwarzenberg on July 8 signed an agreement allowing US deployment of special radar facilities on Czech soil as part
of the top-secret US "missile defense" it alleges is aimed at rogue missile threats from Iran.
As even former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger recently pointed out, the Bush administration's categorical refusal to pursue the 2007
counter-offer of then-president Vladimir Putin to station US radar at the Russian-leased reconnaissance facility in Azerbaijan instead, was a
provocative mistake.
It makes abundantly clear that Washington is aiming its military strategy at the dismantling of Russia as a potential adversary. That is a recipe
for a possible nuclear war by miscalculation. Rice's latest Caucasus and Czech visit only added to that growing danger.
F William Engdahl is author of the book A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order and is finishing a book,
provisionally titled, The New Cold War: Behind the US Drive for Full Spectrum Dominance. He may be reached via his website,
Georgia pulls out forces
Vladimir Radyuhin
Russia asks it to sign a pledge
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Military sources say over 7,000 Georgian soldiers are still in South Ossetia
Moscow appears to have ignored Bush administration’s warning
Vladimir Radyuhin
Russia asks it to sign a pledge
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Military sources say over 7,000 Georgian soldiers are still in South Ossetia
Moscow appears to have ignored Bush administration’s warning
The Hindhu 11-08-08 MOSCOW:
Two days after it launched a massive offensive against South Ossetia, Georgia started pulling out its forces from the region under heavy Russian fire.
Moscow, however, said there would be no peace till Georgia signed a pledge not to use force against its breakaway territories.
A spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry was quoted as saying on Sunday that Georgia had withdrawn all its forces from South Ossetia
to avoid a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
Deputy Chief of the Russian Staff General Anatoly Nogovitsyn on Sunday confirmed that some Georgian troops were withdrawing, but
military sources in South Ossetia said over 7,000 Georgian soldiers and about 100 tanks were still in the region.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on Sunday there would be no peace talks with Georgia till it pulled back its forces
beyond the borders of South Ossetia and signed a legally binding pact renouncing the use of force against South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
another breakaway territory of Georgia.
More demands
He hinted that Russia may put forward more demands to Georgia when the sides sit down at the negotiating table, saying the talks would be
“extremely difficult.”
Russia continued to step up military pressure on Georgia on Sunday even as the United States warned this would seriously damage the
bilateral relations with Russia.
Moscow appears to have ignored the Bush administration’s warning about “significant long-term impact on the U.S.-Russia relations” if
Moscow continued “disproportionate and dangerous escalation” in the conflict.
Washington has not condemned Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia.
Warships deployed
Moscow has deployed warships off the Georgian coast to prevent the smuggling in of arms and other military supplies.
Russian warplanes have struck more military targets inside Georgia.
Gen. Nogovitsyn told reporters here that Russian planes attacked concentrations of troops and supplies to prevent Georgia from launching a
new attack in South Ossetia.
Denies claims
The General denied Georgian claims that apartment houses have been hit. He said Russia would send as many troops to South Ossetia “as the
situation may require,” but no Russian troops would cross into Georgia.
Moscow, however, said there would be no peace till Georgia signed a pledge not to use force against its breakaway territories.
A spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry was quoted as saying on Sunday that Georgia had withdrawn all its forces from South Ossetia
to avoid a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
Deputy Chief of the Russian Staff General Anatoly Nogovitsyn on Sunday confirmed that some Georgian troops were withdrawing, but
military sources in South Ossetia said over 7,000 Georgian soldiers and about 100 tanks were still in the region.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on Sunday there would be no peace talks with Georgia till it pulled back its forces
beyond the borders of South Ossetia and signed a legally binding pact renouncing the use of force against South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
another breakaway territory of Georgia.
More demands
He hinted that Russia may put forward more demands to Georgia when the sides sit down at the negotiating table, saying the talks would be
“extremely difficult.”
Russia continued to step up military pressure on Georgia on Sunday even as the United States warned this would seriously damage the
bilateral relations with Russia.
Moscow appears to have ignored the Bush administration’s warning about “significant long-term impact on the U.S.-Russia relations” if
Moscow continued “disproportionate and dangerous escalation” in the conflict.
Washington has not condemned Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia.
Warships deployed
Moscow has deployed warships off the Georgian coast to prevent the smuggling in of arms and other military supplies.
Russian warplanes have struck more military targets inside Georgia.
Gen. Nogovitsyn told reporters here that Russian planes attacked concentrations of troops and supplies to prevent Georgia from launching a
new attack in South Ossetia.
Denies claims
The General denied Georgian claims that apartment houses have been hit. He said Russia would send as many troops to South Ossetia “as the
situation may require,” but no Russian troops would cross into Georgia.
August 11, 2008
News Analysis
In Georgia and Russia, a Perfect Brew for a Blowup
By C. J. CHIVERS NYTimesAs the bloody military mismatch between Russia and Georgia unfolded over the past three days, even the main players were surprised by how
quickly small border skirmishes slipped into a conflict that threatened the Georgian government and perhaps the country itself.
Several American and Georgian officials said that unlike when Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979, a move in which Soviet forces were
massed before the attack, the nation had not appeared poised for an invasion last week. As late as Wednesday, they said, Russian diplomats
had been pressing for negotiations between Georgia and South Ossetia, the breakaway region where the combat flared and then escalated into
full-scale war.
“It doesn’t look like this was premeditated, with a massive staging of equipment,” one senior American official said. “Until the night before the
fighting, Russia seemed to be playing a constructive role.”
But while the immediate causes and the intensity of the Russian invasion had caught Georgia and the Western foreign policy establishment by
surprise, there had been signs for years that Georgia and Russia had methodically, if quietly, prepared for conflict.
Several other long-term factors had also contributed to the possibility of war. They included the Kremlin’s military successes in Chechnya,
which gave Russia the latitude and sense of internal security it needed to free up troops to cross its borders, and the exuberant support of the
United States for President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, a figure loathed by the Kremlin on both personal and political terms.
Moreover, by preparing Georgian soldiers for duty in Iraq, the United States appeared to have helped embolden Georgia, if inadvertently, to
enter a fight it could not win.
American officials and a military officer who have dealt with Georgia said privately that as a result, the war risked becoming a foreign policy
catastrophe for the United States, whose image and authority in the region were in question after it had proven unable to assist Georgia or to
restrain the Kremlin while the Russian Army pressed its attack.
Russia’s bureaucratic and military groundwork was laid even before Mr. Saakashvili came to power in 2004 and positioned himself as one of
the world’s most strident critics of the Kremlin.
Under the presidency of Vladimir V. Putin, Russia had already been granting citizenship and distributing passports to virtually all of the adult
residents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the much larger separatist region where Russia had also massed troops over the weekend. The
West had been skeptical of the validity of Russia’s handing out passports by the thousands to citizens of another nation.
“Having a document does not make you a Russian citizen,” one American diplomat said in 2004, as Russia expanded the program.
But whatever the legal merits, the Kremlin had laid the foundation for one of its public relations arguments for invading: its army was coming to
the aid of Russian citizens under foreign attack.
In the ensuing years, even as Russia issued warnings, Mr. Saakashvili grew bolder. There were four regions out of Georgian control when he
took office in 2004, but he restored two smaller regions, Ajaria in 2004 and the upper Kodori Gorge in 2006, with few deaths.
The victories gave him a sense of momentum. He kept national reintegration as a central plank of his platform.
Russia, however, began retaliating against Georgia in many ways. It cut off air service and mail between the countries, closed the border and
refused Georgian exports. And by the time the Kodori Gorge was back in Georgian control, Russia had also consolidated its hold over
Chechnya, which is now largely managed by a local leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, and his Kremlin-backed Chechen forces.
Chechnya had for years been the preoccupation of Russian ground forces. But Mr. Kadyrov’s strength had enabled Russian to garrison many
of its forces and turn its attention elsewhere.
Simultaneously, as the contest of wills between Georgia and Russia intensified, the strong support of the United States for Mr. Saakashvili
created tensions within the foreign policy establishment in Washington and created rival views.
Some diplomats considered Mr. Saakashvili a politician of unusual promise, someone who could reorder Georgia along the lines of a Western
democracy and become a symbol of change in the politically moribund post-Soviet states. Mr. Saakashvili encouraged this view, framing
himself as a visionary who was leading a column of regional democracy movements.
Other diplomats worried that both Mr. Saakashvili’s persona and his platforms presented an implicit challenge to the Kremlin, and that Mr.
Saakashvili made himself a symbol of something else: Russia’s suspicion about American intentions in the Kremlin’s old empire. They worried
that he would draw the United States and Russia into arguments that the United States did not want.
This feeling was especially true among Russian specialists, who said that, whatever the merits of Mr. Saakashvili’s positions, his impulsiveness
and nationalism sometimes outstripped his common sense.
The risks were intensified by the fact that the United States did not merely encourage Georgia’s young democracy, it helped militarize the
weak Georgian state.
In his wooing of Washington as he came to power, Mr. Saakashvili firmly embraced the missions of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.
At first he had almost nothing practical to offer. Georgia’s military was small, poorly led, ill-equipped and weak.
But Mr. Saakashvili’s rise coincided neatly with a swelling American need for political support and foreign soldiers in Iraq. His offer of troops
was matched with a Pentagon effort to overhaul Georgia’s forces from bottom to top.
At senior levels, the United States helped rewrite Georgian military doctrine and train its commanders and staff officers. At the squad level,
American marines and soldiers trained Georgian soldiers in the fundamentals of battle.
Georgia, meanwhile, began re-equipping its forces with Israeli and American firearms, reconnaissance drones, communications and battlefield
-management equipment, new convoys of vehicles and stockpiles of ammunition.
The public goal was to nudge Georgia toward NATO military standards. Privately, Georgian officials welcomed the martial coaching and
buildup, and they made clear that they considered participation in Iraq as a sure way to prepare the Georgian military for “national
reunification” — the local euphemism of choice for restoring Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgian control.
All of these policies collided late last week. One American official who covers Georgian affairs, speaking on the condition of anonymity while
the United States formulates its next public response, said that everything had gone wrong.
Mr. Saakashvili had acted rashly, he said, and had given Russia the grounds to invade. The invasion, he said, was chilling, disproportionate
and brutal, and it was grounds for a strong censure. But the immediate question was how far Russia would go in putting Georgia back into
what it sees as Georgia’s place.
There was no sign throughout the weekend of Kremlin willingness to negotiate. A national humiliation was under way.
“The Georgians have lost almost everything,” the official said. “We always told them, ‘Don’t do this because the Russians do not have limited
aims.’ ”
August 11, 2008
quickly small border skirmishes slipped into a conflict that threatened the Georgian government and perhaps the country itself.
Several American and Georgian officials said that unlike when Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979, a move in which Soviet forces were
massed before the attack, the nation had not appeared poised for an invasion last week. As late as Wednesday, they said, Russian diplomats
had been pressing for negotiations between Georgia and South Ossetia, the breakaway region where the combat flared and then escalated into
full-scale war.
“It doesn’t look like this was premeditated, with a massive staging of equipment,” one senior American official said. “Until the night before the
fighting, Russia seemed to be playing a constructive role.”
But while the immediate causes and the intensity of the Russian invasion had caught Georgia and the Western foreign policy establishment by
surprise, there had been signs for years that Georgia and Russia had methodically, if quietly, prepared for conflict.
Several other long-term factors had also contributed to the possibility of war. They included the Kremlin’s military successes in Chechnya,
which gave Russia the latitude and sense of internal security it needed to free up troops to cross its borders, and the exuberant support of the
United States for President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, a figure loathed by the Kremlin on both personal and political terms.
Moreover, by preparing Georgian soldiers for duty in Iraq, the United States appeared to have helped embolden Georgia, if inadvertently, to
enter a fight it could not win.
American officials and a military officer who have dealt with Georgia said privately that as a result, the war risked becoming a foreign policy
catastrophe for the United States, whose image and authority in the region were in question after it had proven unable to assist Georgia or to
restrain the Kremlin while the Russian Army pressed its attack.
Russia’s bureaucratic and military groundwork was laid even before Mr. Saakashvili came to power in 2004 and positioned himself as one of
the world’s most strident critics of the Kremlin.
Under the presidency of Vladimir V. Putin, Russia had already been granting citizenship and distributing passports to virtually all of the adult
residents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the much larger separatist region where Russia had also massed troops over the weekend. The
West had been skeptical of the validity of Russia’s handing out passports by the thousands to citizens of another nation.
“Having a document does not make you a Russian citizen,” one American diplomat said in 2004, as Russia expanded the program.
But whatever the legal merits, the Kremlin had laid the foundation for one of its public relations arguments for invading: its army was coming to
the aid of Russian citizens under foreign attack.
In the ensuing years, even as Russia issued warnings, Mr. Saakashvili grew bolder. There were four regions out of Georgian control when he
took office in 2004, but he restored two smaller regions, Ajaria in 2004 and the upper Kodori Gorge in 2006, with few deaths.
The victories gave him a sense of momentum. He kept national reintegration as a central plank of his platform.
Russia, however, began retaliating against Georgia in many ways. It cut off air service and mail between the countries, closed the border and
refused Georgian exports. And by the time the Kodori Gorge was back in Georgian control, Russia had also consolidated its hold over
Chechnya, which is now largely managed by a local leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, and his Kremlin-backed Chechen forces.
Chechnya had for years been the preoccupation of Russian ground forces. But Mr. Kadyrov’s strength had enabled Russian to garrison many
of its forces and turn its attention elsewhere.
Simultaneously, as the contest of wills between Georgia and Russia intensified, the strong support of the United States for Mr. Saakashvili
created tensions within the foreign policy establishment in Washington and created rival views.
Some diplomats considered Mr. Saakashvili a politician of unusual promise, someone who could reorder Georgia along the lines of a Western
democracy and become a symbol of change in the politically moribund post-Soviet states. Mr. Saakashvili encouraged this view, framing
himself as a visionary who was leading a column of regional democracy movements.
Other diplomats worried that both Mr. Saakashvili’s persona and his platforms presented an implicit challenge to the Kremlin, and that Mr.
Saakashvili made himself a symbol of something else: Russia’s suspicion about American intentions in the Kremlin’s old empire. They worried
that he would draw the United States and Russia into arguments that the United States did not want.
This feeling was especially true among Russian specialists, who said that, whatever the merits of Mr. Saakashvili’s positions, his impulsiveness
and nationalism sometimes outstripped his common sense.
The risks were intensified by the fact that the United States did not merely encourage Georgia’s young democracy, it helped militarize the
weak Georgian state.
In his wooing of Washington as he came to power, Mr. Saakashvili firmly embraced the missions of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.
At first he had almost nothing practical to offer. Georgia’s military was small, poorly led, ill-equipped and weak.
But Mr. Saakashvili’s rise coincided neatly with a swelling American need for political support and foreign soldiers in Iraq. His offer of troops
was matched with a Pentagon effort to overhaul Georgia’s forces from bottom to top.
At senior levels, the United States helped rewrite Georgian military doctrine and train its commanders and staff officers. At the squad level,
American marines and soldiers trained Georgian soldiers in the fundamentals of battle.
Georgia, meanwhile, began re-equipping its forces with Israeli and American firearms, reconnaissance drones, communications and battlefield
-management equipment, new convoys of vehicles and stockpiles of ammunition.
The public goal was to nudge Georgia toward NATO military standards. Privately, Georgian officials welcomed the martial coaching and
buildup, and they made clear that they considered participation in Iraq as a sure way to prepare the Georgian military for “national
reunification” — the local euphemism of choice for restoring Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgian control.
All of these policies collided late last week. One American official who covers Georgian affairs, speaking on the condition of anonymity while
the United States formulates its next public response, said that everything had gone wrong.
Mr. Saakashvili had acted rashly, he said, and had given Russia the grounds to invade. The invasion, he said, was chilling, disproportionate
and brutal, and it was grounds for a strong censure. But the immediate question was how far Russia would go in putting Georgia back into
what it sees as Georgia’s place.
There was no sign throughout the weekend of Kremlin willingness to negotiate. A national humiliation was under way.
“The Georgians have lost almost everything,” the official said. “We always told them, ‘Don’t do this because the Russians do not have limited
aims.’ ”
August 11, 2008
Russians Push Past Separatist Area to Assault Central Georgia
By ANNE BARNARD, ANDREW E. KRAMER and C. J. CHIVERS NYTimesThis article was reported by Andrew E. Kramer, Anne Barnard and C. J. Chivers, and written by Ms. Barnard.TBILISI, Georgia —
Russia expanded its attacks on Georgia on Sunday, moving tanks and troops through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advancing toward the city of Gori in central Georgia, in its first direct assault on a Georgian city with ground forces during three
days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.
The maneuver — along with bombing of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi — seemed to suggest that Russia’s aims in the conflict had gone beyond
securing the pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to weakening the armed forces of Georgia, a former Soviet republic and an
ally of the United States whose Western leanings have long irritated the Kremlin.
Russia’s moves, which came after Georgia offered a cease-fire and said it had pulled its troops out of South Ossetia, caused widespread
international alarm and anger and set the stage for an intense diplomatic confrontation with the United States.
Two senior Western officials said that it was unclear whether Russia intended a full invasion of Georgia, but that its aims could go as far as destroying its armed forces or overthrowing Georgia’s pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
“They seem to have gone beyond the logical stopping point,” one senior Western diplomat said, speaking anonymously under normal diplomatic protocol.
The escalation of fighting raised tensions between Russia and its former cold war foes to their highest level in decades. President Bush has promoted Georgia as a bastion of democracy, helped strengthen its military and urged that NATO admit the country to membership. Georgia
serves as a major conduit for oil flowing from Russia and Central Asia to the West.
But Russia, emboldened by windfall profits from oil exports, is showing a resolve to reassert its dominance in a region it has always considered its “near abroad.”
The military action, which has involved air, naval and missile attacks, is the largest engagement by Russian forces outside its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia escalated its assault on Sunday despite strong diplomatic warnings from Mr. Bush and European leaders, underscoring the limits of ......influence over Russia at a time when the rest of Europe depends heavily on Russia for natural gas and the United States needs
Moscow’s cooperation if it hopes to curtail what it believes is a nuclear weapons threat from Iran.
President Bush, in Beijing for the Olympics, strongly criticized the Russian attacks, especially those outside South Ossetia, and urged an immediate cease-fire.
In an interview on NBC on Monday morning, he said he had been “very firm” with both Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, and its president, Dmitri Medvedev.
Earlier, Vice President Dick Cheney expressed a strong warning for Russia. In a telephone conversation with the Georgian president, he said
“that Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United
States, as well as the broader international community,” a spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said in a statement released by the White House.
Russian officials say Georgia provoked the assault by attacking South Ossetia last week, causing heavy civilian casualties. But Western diplomats and military officials said they worried that Russia’s decision to extend the fighting and open a second front in Abkhazia indicated
that it had sought to use a relatively low-level conflict in a conflict-prone part of the Caucasus region to extend its influence over a much broader area.
On Sunday, Russian artillery shells slammed the city of Gori, a major military installation and transportation hub in Georgia. In the separatist region of Abkhazia, Russian paratroopers and their Abkhaz allies battled Georgian special forces and tried to cross the boundary into
undisputed Georgian territory, Georgian officials said.
Russia dropped a bomb on Tbilisi’s international airport shortly before Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France, who was sent by the European Union to try to mediate, was due to land, Georgian officials said. It twice bombed an aviation factory on the outskirts of the capital.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet patrolled the coast of Abkhazia, and its Defense Ministry said Russian warships had sunk a Georgian gunboat that fired on them.
The Kremlin declined to say whether its troops had entered Georgia proper but said all its actions were intended to strike at Georgian military
forces that had fired on its peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia.
A senior Russian defense official, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said early Sunday that Russia did not intend to “break into” Georgian territory.
The Bush administration said it would seek a resolution from the United Nations Security Council condemning Russian military actions in Georgia.
In a heated exchange with his Russian counterpart at the United Nations, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad of the United States accused the Kremlin of seeking to oust President Saakashvili.
He charged that Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, had said as much Sunday morning in a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, telling her “that the democratically elected president of Georgia ‘must go,’ ” Mr. Khalilzad said. Mr. Khalilzad said
the comment was “completely unacceptable.”
In Washington, American officials said that Georgian troops had tried to disengage but that the Russians had not allowed them to.
“The Georgians told them, ‘We’re done. Let us withdraw,’ ” one American military official said. “But the Russians are not letting them withdraw. They are pursuing them, and people are seeing this.”
The official was not authorized to brief the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official added: “This is not about military objectives. This is about a political objective: removing a thorn in their side.”
Tensions with Mr. Saakashvili escalated when he made a centerpiece of his presidency the reunification of Georgia with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, pro-Russian regions that won de facto autonomy in fighting in the early 1990s.
Russia has issued passports to many residents in the territories and has stationed peacekeeping troops in them. Heavy fighting broke out last week in South Ossetia when Georgian troops tried to take its capital in what seems to have been a major miscalculation.
Reports of the death toll varied widely, from the low hundreds to more than 2,000, but none could be independently verified.
Russian officials say more than 30,000 South Ossetians have fled into Russia.
Russia says it is acting to protect residents there and to punish Georgia for the assault, which Georgia says was to protect Georgian enclaves in the territory from attack and to push out illegally deployed Russian troops.
Russian officials told Russian news agencies late Sunday night that Georgian troops were attacking Tskhinvali.
There were no independent observers with either country’s forces, and verifying claims about military activity was not immediately possible.
Georgian officials expressed alarm on Sunday that Russia might be aiming to take Gori, about a 45-minute drive south from Tskhinvali. Gori, a
major staging area for the Georgian military, sits in a valley that is the main route connecting the east and west halves of Georgia.
Shota Utiashvili, an official in the Georgian Interior Ministry, said the Russians had moved tanks and troops to within a few kilometers of Gori
and were “trying to cut the country in half.”
Mr. Utiashvili said that if they tried to occupy Georgia, “there will probably be guerrilla warfare all over the country.”
He said: “We need large supplies of humanitarian aid, because we have thousands of wounded. And weapons. We need weapons.”
Sunday evening, artillery and tank fire could be heard from the outskirts of Gori. During a pause in the fighting, Georgian military personnel
appeared to be flowing into the city. Georgian officials said they would defend it.
Ambulances with flashing red and blue lights roared back and forth on the highway between Gori and Tbilisi, along with troop transports.
Families fled Gori in cars and donkey carts.
“The whole family is running away. There is nowhere for us to take shelter,” said Ketevan Sunabali, 40, who had left home in a pair of red
Winnie the Pooh slippers. She said she had heard the bombs exploding and seen the smoke and just jumped in the car with her husband,
without stopping to take any of their belongings.
“I had a home. I had a father,” said Gogita Kazahashvili, 29. “My father died today from the bombing. I’ve seen with my own eyes. My house
was destroyed. I buried my father myself, by where the house was.”
A man who said he was fleeing from Kakhvi, which he described as a Georgian-controlled enclave squeezed between parts of South Ossetia
along the winding border, said Russian soldiers had come to his house, and he had run away. Along the road, others who were displaced
carried their possessions in wheelbarrows and plastic bags.
A reporter for The New York Times saw artillery being fired from Russian-controlled areas into Georgian territory near the villages of Eredvy
and Prisi, about two miles from Tskhinvali. Grassy fields were burning in the villages and clouds of dust rose with the impact of the shells.
Even one close Russian ally, Maksim K. Gvindzhiya, expressed alarm about the possibility of Russian troops moving on Gori and clashing with
Georgians on unchallenged Georgian territory.
“If it happened, then it’s a big mess, it’s a big problem, because it is direct confrontation,” said Mr. Gvindzhiya, deputy foreign affairs minister
for the de facto government of Abkhazia. “It’s going out of the conflict zone.”
Fighting escalated in Abkhazia as well, Mr. Gvindzhiya and Georgian officials said.
Russia doubled the number of its troops in Abkhazia to about 6,000 early Sunday, landing paratroopers at an airport near the Black Sea.
There was heavy fighting in the Kodori Gorge, the only area in Abkhazia that Georgia controls, with Russian paratroopers ferried in by
helicopter.
In Washington, Secretary Rice worked through the night Saturday with other Bush administration officials on a Security Council resolution.
American diplomats said that they did not want an actual Security Council vote on the resolution until Tuesday or so, the better to draw out the
debate and publicly shame the Russian government. While the resolution will carry no punitive weight, and is almost sure to be vetoed by
Russia, a permanent Council member, the hope is that it could create more pressure for a cease-fire, officials said.
Meanwhile, Georgian and Western diplomatic officials said Georgia had offered a cease-fire proposal to Russia, though Russian officials did not acknowledge receiving such an offer.
Andrew E. Kramer reported from Tbilisi, and Anne Barnard from Moscow. Reporting was contributed by Michael Schwirtz and Nicholas
Kulish from Tbilisi, Helene Cooper from Washington, and Joseph Sywenkiy from Gori, Georgia.
Monday 11th August, 2008
Israel considers halting arms sales to Georgia
days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.
The maneuver — along with bombing of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi — seemed to suggest that Russia’s aims in the conflict had gone beyond
securing the pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to weakening the armed forces of Georgia, a former Soviet republic and an
ally of the United States whose Western leanings have long irritated the Kremlin.
Russia’s moves, which came after Georgia offered a cease-fire and said it had pulled its troops out of South Ossetia, caused widespread
international alarm and anger and set the stage for an intense diplomatic confrontation with the United States.
Two senior Western officials said that it was unclear whether Russia intended a full invasion of Georgia, but that its aims could go as far as destroying its armed forces or overthrowing Georgia’s pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
“They seem to have gone beyond the logical stopping point,” one senior Western diplomat said, speaking anonymously under normal diplomatic protocol.
The escalation of fighting raised tensions between Russia and its former cold war foes to their highest level in decades. President Bush has promoted Georgia as a bastion of democracy, helped strengthen its military and urged that NATO admit the country to membership. Georgia
serves as a major conduit for oil flowing from Russia and Central Asia to the West.
But Russia, emboldened by windfall profits from oil exports, is showing a resolve to reassert its dominance in a region it has always considered its “near abroad.”
The military action, which has involved air, naval and missile attacks, is the largest engagement by Russian forces outside its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia escalated its assault on Sunday despite strong diplomatic warnings from Mr. Bush and European leaders, underscoring the limits of ......influence over Russia at a time when the rest of Europe depends heavily on Russia for natural gas and the United States needs
Moscow’s cooperation if it hopes to curtail what it believes is a nuclear weapons threat from Iran.
President Bush, in Beijing for the Olympics, strongly criticized the Russian attacks, especially those outside South Ossetia, and urged an immediate cease-fire.
In an interview on NBC on Monday morning, he said he had been “very firm” with both Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, and its president, Dmitri Medvedev.
Earlier, Vice President Dick Cheney expressed a strong warning for Russia. In a telephone conversation with the Georgian president, he said
“that Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United
States, as well as the broader international community,” a spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said in a statement released by the White House.
Russian officials say Georgia provoked the assault by attacking South Ossetia last week, causing heavy civilian casualties. But Western diplomats and military officials said they worried that Russia’s decision to extend the fighting and open a second front in Abkhazia indicated
that it had sought to use a relatively low-level conflict in a conflict-prone part of the Caucasus region to extend its influence over a much broader area.
On Sunday, Russian artillery shells slammed the city of Gori, a major military installation and transportation hub in Georgia. In the separatist region of Abkhazia, Russian paratroopers and their Abkhaz allies battled Georgian special forces and tried to cross the boundary into
undisputed Georgian territory, Georgian officials said.
Russia dropped a bomb on Tbilisi’s international airport shortly before Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France, who was sent by the European Union to try to mediate, was due to land, Georgian officials said. It twice bombed an aviation factory on the outskirts of the capital.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet patrolled the coast of Abkhazia, and its Defense Ministry said Russian warships had sunk a Georgian gunboat that fired on them.
The Kremlin declined to say whether its troops had entered Georgia proper but said all its actions were intended to strike at Georgian military
forces that had fired on its peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia.
A senior Russian defense official, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said early Sunday that Russia did not intend to “break into” Georgian territory.
The Bush administration said it would seek a resolution from the United Nations Security Council condemning Russian military actions in Georgia.
In a heated exchange with his Russian counterpart at the United Nations, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad of the United States accused the Kremlin of seeking to oust President Saakashvili.
He charged that Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, had said as much Sunday morning in a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, telling her “that the democratically elected president of Georgia ‘must go,’ ” Mr. Khalilzad said. Mr. Khalilzad said
the comment was “completely unacceptable.”
In Washington, American officials said that Georgian troops had tried to disengage but that the Russians had not allowed them to.
“The Georgians told them, ‘We’re done. Let us withdraw,’ ” one American military official said. “But the Russians are not letting them withdraw. They are pursuing them, and people are seeing this.”
The official was not authorized to brief the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official added: “This is not about military objectives. This is about a political objective: removing a thorn in their side.”
Tensions with Mr. Saakashvili escalated when he made a centerpiece of his presidency the reunification of Georgia with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, pro-Russian regions that won de facto autonomy in fighting in the early 1990s.
Russia has issued passports to many residents in the territories and has stationed peacekeeping troops in them. Heavy fighting broke out last week in South Ossetia when Georgian troops tried to take its capital in what seems to have been a major miscalculation.
Reports of the death toll varied widely, from the low hundreds to more than 2,000, but none could be independently verified.
Russian officials say more than 30,000 South Ossetians have fled into Russia.
Russia says it is acting to protect residents there and to punish Georgia for the assault, which Georgia says was to protect Georgian enclaves in the territory from attack and to push out illegally deployed Russian troops.
Russian officials told Russian news agencies late Sunday night that Georgian troops were attacking Tskhinvali.
There were no independent observers with either country’s forces, and verifying claims about military activity was not immediately possible.
Georgian officials expressed alarm on Sunday that Russia might be aiming to take Gori, about a 45-minute drive south from Tskhinvali. Gori, a
major staging area for the Georgian military, sits in a valley that is the main route connecting the east and west halves of Georgia.
Shota Utiashvili, an official in the Georgian Interior Ministry, said the Russians had moved tanks and troops to within a few kilometers of Gori
and were “trying to cut the country in half.”
Mr. Utiashvili said that if they tried to occupy Georgia, “there will probably be guerrilla warfare all over the country.”
He said: “We need large supplies of humanitarian aid, because we have thousands of wounded. And weapons. We need weapons.”
Sunday evening, artillery and tank fire could be heard from the outskirts of Gori. During a pause in the fighting, Georgian military personnel
appeared to be flowing into the city. Georgian officials said they would defend it.
Ambulances with flashing red and blue lights roared back and forth on the highway between Gori and Tbilisi, along with troop transports.
Families fled Gori in cars and donkey carts.
“The whole family is running away. There is nowhere for us to take shelter,” said Ketevan Sunabali, 40, who had left home in a pair of red
Winnie the Pooh slippers. She said she had heard the bombs exploding and seen the smoke and just jumped in the car with her husband,
without stopping to take any of their belongings.
“I had a home. I had a father,” said Gogita Kazahashvili, 29. “My father died today from the bombing. I’ve seen with my own eyes. My house
was destroyed. I buried my father myself, by where the house was.”
A man who said he was fleeing from Kakhvi, which he described as a Georgian-controlled enclave squeezed between parts of South Ossetia
along the winding border, said Russian soldiers had come to his house, and he had run away. Along the road, others who were displaced
carried their possessions in wheelbarrows and plastic bags.
A reporter for The New York Times saw artillery being fired from Russian-controlled areas into Georgian territory near the villages of Eredvy
and Prisi, about two miles from Tskhinvali. Grassy fields were burning in the villages and clouds of dust rose with the impact of the shells.
Even one close Russian ally, Maksim K. Gvindzhiya, expressed alarm about the possibility of Russian troops moving on Gori and clashing with
Georgians on unchallenged Georgian territory.
“If it happened, then it’s a big mess, it’s a big problem, because it is direct confrontation,” said Mr. Gvindzhiya, deputy foreign affairs minister
for the de facto government of Abkhazia. “It’s going out of the conflict zone.”
Fighting escalated in Abkhazia as well, Mr. Gvindzhiya and Georgian officials said.
Russia doubled the number of its troops in Abkhazia to about 6,000 early Sunday, landing paratroopers at an airport near the Black Sea.
There was heavy fighting in the Kodori Gorge, the only area in Abkhazia that Georgia controls, with Russian paratroopers ferried in by
helicopter.
In Washington, Secretary Rice worked through the night Saturday with other Bush administration officials on a Security Council resolution.
American diplomats said that they did not want an actual Security Council vote on the resolution until Tuesday or so, the better to draw out the
debate and publicly shame the Russian government. While the resolution will carry no punitive weight, and is almost sure to be vetoed by
Russia, a permanent Council member, the hope is that it could create more pressure for a cease-fire, officials said.
Meanwhile, Georgian and Western diplomatic officials said Georgia had offered a cease-fire proposal to Russia, though Russian officials did not acknowledge receiving such an offer.
Andrew E. Kramer reported from Tbilisi, and Anne Barnard from Moscow. Reporting was contributed by Michael Schwirtz and Nicholas
Kulish from Tbilisi, Helene Cooper from Washington, and Joseph Sywenkiy from Gori, Georgia.
Monday 11th August, 2008
Israel considers halting arms sales to Georgia
IANS Sunday 10th August, 2008
Jerusalem, Aug 10 (Xinhua) Israel is planning to halt arms sales to Georgia amid fears of Russian retaliation, daily Ha'aretz reported Sunday.
'Israel needs to be very careful and sensitive these days,' an unnamed senior Israeli political source was quoted as commenting on the country's
stance over the fighting between Georgian and Russian forces in South Ossetia.
The Israeli foreign ministry last week held a meeting on the issue, and decided to recommend to the defence ministry to stop sales of military
equipment to Georgia because the country was now a 'combat zone,' said the report.
The newspaper added that the Jewish state is concerned that its continued military support for Georgia would spur Russia to retaliate by lifting
restrictions on its arms transfers to Iran and Arab states.
'The Russians are selling many arms to Iran and Syria and there is no need for them to offer an excuse to sell even more advanced weapons,'
the source said.
He highlighted that Israel is particularly concerned about Russia's interest in transferring advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, which
Israel considers to be its main strategic threat.
The Israeli defence ministry imposed significant limitations on the arms transfers to Georgia about six months ago, only allowing defensive
equipment and advisers, in view of the growing friction between Georgia and Russia, Ha'aretz reported.
Also in the day, the defence establishment held a special meeting to discuss the various arms deals held by Israelis in Georgia, yet no change of
policy has been announced, according to another daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
'The subject is closely monitored,' the newspaper quoted defence sources as saying. 'So far, we have placed no limitations on the sale of
protective measures.'
Israel began selling arms to Georgia about seven years ago, and the value of the defence deals between the two countries stands at $200
million, said the newspapers.
South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and was governed by a secessionist government since then although its
independence has not been internationally recognised.
Georgian troops Friday mobilised army against South Ossetia in an attempt to re-establish control over the region.
The development drew Russia into a war with Georgia and Russian jets and tanks drove into South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali to secure it
from the Georgian invasion.
Jerusalem, Aug 10 (Xinhua) Israel is planning to halt arms sales to Georgia amid fears of Russian retaliation, daily Ha'aretz reported Sunday.
'Israel needs to be very careful and sensitive these days,' an unnamed senior Israeli political source was quoted as commenting on the country's
stance over the fighting between Georgian and Russian forces in South Ossetia.
The Israeli foreign ministry last week held a meeting on the issue, and decided to recommend to the defence ministry to stop sales of military
equipment to Georgia because the country was now a 'combat zone,' said the report.
The newspaper added that the Jewish state is concerned that its continued military support for Georgia would spur Russia to retaliate by liftingrestrictions on its arms transfers to Iran and Arab states.
'The Russians are selling many arms to Iran and Syria and there is no need for them to offer an excuse to sell even more advanced weapons,'
the source said.
He highlighted that Israel is particularly concerned about Russia's interest in transferring advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, which
Israel considers to be its main strategic threat.
The Israeli defence ministry imposed significant limitations on the arms transfers to Georgia about six months ago, only allowing defensive
equipment and advisers, in view of the growing friction between Georgia and Russia, Ha'aretz reported.
Also in the day, the defence establishment held a special meeting to discuss the various arms deals held by Israelis in Georgia, yet no change of
policy has been announced, according to another daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
'The subject is closely monitored,' the newspaper quoted defence sources as saying. 'So far, we have placed no limitations on the sale of
protective measures.'
Israel began selling arms to Georgia about seven years ago, and the value of the defence deals between the two countries stands at $200
million, said the newspapers.
South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and was governed by a secessionist government since then although its
independence has not been internationally recognised.
Georgian troops Friday mobilised army against South Ossetia in an attempt to re-establish control over the region.
The development drew Russia into a war with Georgia and Russian jets and tanks drove into South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali to secure it
from the Georgian invasion.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 10 (Xinhua)
The UN Security Council ended on Sunday another round of consultations without reaching an agreement on a truce call for the escalating conflict in Georgia.
It was the 15-member body's fourth meeting on the subject since late-night Thursday, when Russia circulated a draft statement urging
Georgia and South Ossetian rebels to renounce the use of force.
After the previous three rounds of talks, the council did not approve the draft as well as its revised versions that included a call for the
parties to refrain from the use of violence.
During Sunday's meeting, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin traded accusations over the
conflict, which the UN said has spread to Abkhazia, another rebel enclave inside Georgia.
Citing a telephone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart Condoleezza Rice, Khalilzad accused
Russia of attempting a regime change in Georgia.
"This is completely unacceptable and crosses the line," Khalilzad said.
He also said through its military offensive against Georgia, Russia was trying to wage "terror" against the local people.
"We must condemn Russia's military assault on the sovereign state of Georgia ... including the targeting of civilians and the campaign of
terror against the Georgian population," he said.
Churkin vehemently denied the "terror" charge. "This is completely unacceptable, especially from the lips of a representative of a country
whose actions we are aware of in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia," he retorted.
Khalilzad said he was preparing a draft resolution that would urge the council to call for an immediate cease-fire and condemn Russia.
In a briefing to the council at Saturday's meeting, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet said
hostilities are continuing in Georgia and there have been a "substantial number of casualties, refugees and destruction. "
Citing reports from UN peacekeepers in the region, Mulet expressed concerns that the conflict appeared to be spreading into Abkhazia.
Since late Thursday, the council has been trying to adopt a statement that would call on the warring parties in Georgia to cease violence
immediately.
Belgian UN Ambassador Jan Grauls, the council's president this month, told reporters on Saturday it would be nearly impossible for the
council to take any actions at the moment.
"Regrettably I have come to the conclusion that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to find common ground within the council on a draft
statement to the press," Grauls said.
South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and was governed by a secessionist government since then although
its independence has not been internationally recognized.
On Friday, Georgian troops began a military action against South Ossetia's forces in an attempt to re-establish control over the region. In
response, Russian troops moved into the region to fight the Georgian forces. Its warplanes also bombed the region.
Russia said the two-day conflict has killed 1,500 people and the death toll is expected to rise.
Editor: Yan
It was the 15-member body's fourth meeting on the subject since late-night Thursday, when Russia circulated a draft statement urging
Georgia and South Ossetian rebels to renounce the use of force.
After the previous three rounds of talks, the council did not approve the draft as well as its revised versions that included a call for the
parties to refrain from the use of violence.
During Sunday's meeting, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin traded accusations over the
conflict, which the UN said has spread to Abkhazia, another rebel enclave inside Georgia.
Citing a telephone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart Condoleezza Rice, Khalilzad accused
Russia of attempting a regime change in Georgia.
"This is completely unacceptable and crosses the line," Khalilzad said.
He also said through its military offensive against Georgia, Russia was trying to wage "terror" against the local people.
"We must condemn Russia's military assault on the sovereign state of Georgia ... including the targeting of civilians and the campaign of
terror against the Georgian population," he said.
Churkin vehemently denied the "terror" charge. "This is completely unacceptable, especially from the lips of a representative of a country
whose actions we are aware of in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia," he retorted.
Khalilzad said he was preparing a draft resolution that would urge the council to call for an immediate cease-fire and condemn Russia.
In a briefing to the council at Saturday's meeting, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet said
hostilities are continuing in Georgia and there have been a "substantial number of casualties, refugees and destruction. "
Citing reports from UN peacekeepers in the region, Mulet expressed concerns that the conflict appeared to be spreading into Abkhazia.
Since late Thursday, the council has been trying to adopt a statement that would call on the warring parties in Georgia to cease violence
immediately.
Belgian UN Ambassador Jan Grauls, the council's president this month, told reporters on Saturday it would be nearly impossible for the
council to take any actions at the moment.
"Regrettably I have come to the conclusion that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to find common ground within the council on a draft
statement to the press," Grauls said.
South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and was governed by a secessionist government since then although
its independence has not been internationally recognized.
On Friday, Georgian troops began a military action against South Ossetia's forces in an attempt to re-establish control over the region. In
response, Russian troops moved into the region to fight the Georgian forces. Its warplanes also bombed the region.
Russia said the two-day conflict has killed 1,500 people and the death toll is expected to rise.
Editor: Yan
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