Russian Il-86 transport aircraft in Sukhumi in Abkhazia
Russia announced the end of its “peace enforcement” operation in Georgia, but, reserves the right to take further military action in the event of any Georgian attack on South Ossetia. “I have made a decision to end the operation to force the Georgian authorities to stand down”, Mr Medvedev said on Tuesday afternoon. The decision to end the military operation was taken after a meeting with the leader of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity. The announcement came after five days of fighting that began with an attack by Georgian forces on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali on 8 August. Russia said that around 1,600 people died in the Georgian assault. Some 34,000 people also fled the fighting into Russia. Most residents of South Ossetia have Russian citizenship.
During the subsequent Russian military operation to force Georgian troops out of the de facto independent republic and to reinforce its peacekeepers in the region, Moscow sent some 10,000 servicemen and several hundred armoured vehicles into South Ossetia. Russian jets also carried out strikes against the Georgian military infrastructure. Western and Georgian media reported that Russia bombed civilian targets in Georgia, including in the city of Gori, but Moscow denied the allegations. “The operation has achieved its goal; security for the peacekeepers and civilians has been restored. The aggressor was punished, suffering huge losses, “Mr Medvedev said. However, he said the Russian military has orders to destroy any “centres of resistance” or other “attempts at aggression” from Georgia. Georgian Prime Minister Vladimir Gurgenidze said Georgia wanted proof that Russia had concluded its military operation in South Ossetia.
M Sarkozy in Moscow
Mr Medvedev’s statement coincided with peace mission trips to Moscow by the French and Finnish foreign ministers, as well as French President Nicolas Sarkozy. M Sarkozy welcomed Russia’s decision to halt its military operation in Georgia, and called on both countries’ troops to return to their pre-conflict positions. Speaking to Mr Medvedev in the Kremlin, M Sarkozy, who holds the EU rotating presidency, said the decision was “good news”, and urged for a timetable to be drawn up for each side to return to their positions before the conflict. He also said, in stark contrast to earlier US and UK statements unreservedly condemning Russia’s actions in Georgia, that “It is understandable that Russia wants to protect its compatriots’ and Russian speakers’ interests abroad, and it is also understandable that the international community wants to protect Georgia’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. Russia can use its might to ensure peace. This is the reason why I am in Moscow”, M Sarkozy added.
Mr Medvedev and M Sarkozy announced six principles of a joint peace plan. “The first is not to resort to the use of force. The second is to halt all military action. The third is free access to humanitarian aid. The fourth is that Georgian Armed Forces should return to their bases. The fifth is that Russian Armed Forces should pull back to their positions prior to combat”, Mr Medvedev said. “The sixth is the beginning of international discussions on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and on ways to ensure their security”, he added. The French leader was due to take the Russian-French peace plan to Tbilisi later on Tuesday. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the plan in a statement on Tuesday evening. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said however that if Tbilisi rejected the peace plan, Moscow would have to take measures to prevent further violence in South Ossetia.
Mr Medvedev said at the news conference with Sarkozy that Georgia’s 8 August attack on Tskhinvali should be taken into account when deciding the future status of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian republic. He made reference to the “precedent” of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in February, and its subsequent recognition by the United States and the majority of EU countries. The Russian president added that the residents of the two rebel regions should be consulted on whether they wanted to be part of Georgia. “They will give an unequivocal answer, an answer that cannot be given by Russia or any other country”, he said.
A RIA-Novosti correspondent reported hearing gunfire in Tskhinvali on Tuesday evening. The South Ossetian leader also said that the shooting was a “provocation” by Georgian forces seeking to “provoke a response by the Russian military in order to prove to their Western patrons that Russia is not keeping its promises”. The Russian Defence Ministry earlier dismissed Georgian claims that Russia was continuing to bomb villages near the South Ossetian border. Meanwhile, Abkhazian separatist officials claimed that their forces had completed an operation to dislodge Georgian troops from the upper part of the Kodori Gorge, the only area in the two breakaway republics that had remained under Georgian control. They said that Russian troops were not involved in the operation.
No Talks with Saakashvili
Ruins in Tskhinvali as a result of the bombardments ordered by the baby-faced pig Saakashvili. It is why no civilised person can sit down with such an Al Capone.
Moscow has ruled out future talks with Mr Saakashvili. “The best thing would be for him to resign”, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. However, he said Moscow has “no plans to force anyone from power”. Mr Lavrov also questioned elements of European-backed proposals for a Georgian-Russian ceasefire deal. “Russia supports the OSCE and EU line that a ceasefire agreement is absolutely essential, but, we have questions over several points”, he said. Russia’s main objection to the proposals is a stipulation that the peacekeeping format in South Ossetia revert to the setup before 7 August.
“We can hardly agree to this, as it implies that Georgian so-called peacekeepers should be in South Ossetia… Georgian peacekeepers cannot be there. They committed crimes, shooting their own [Russian] colleagues, with whom they were serving”, Mr Lavrov said. Russia reported on Tuesday afternoon that Georgian forces were continuing to attack their positions. “Separate Georgian military groups are sporadically attacking the positions of Russian peacekeepers”, the spokesman said. The Russian Defence Ministry also dismissed Georgian claims that Russia was continuing to bomb villages near the South Ossetian border.
Beginnings of the War
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region, both broke away from Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Both republics fought vicious wars with Tbilisi that eventually ended in the retreat of Georgian troops and the regions gaining de facto independence. Georgia alleged, although the claims were unproven, that the rebels had been armed with Russian-supplied military equipment. When the Rose Revolution street protests swept the pro-Western Saakashvili to power in 2004, the new president immediately vowed to bring the regions back under central government control. Russian had earlier granted citizenship to residents of both republics.
Mr Saakashvili, hailed by the West as an intellectual, US-educated lawyer leading the “youngest government in the world”, also pledged to bring Georgia into NATO. For this to happen, the country’s “frozen” conflicts would have to be resolved. Indeed, South Ossetia and Abkhazia were the reason why Georgia was refused a NATO Membership Action Plan in April, objections from Germany and France that doing so would unnecessarily antagonise Russia thwarted American enthusiasm for welcoming Tbilisi into the military alliance.
Mr Saakashvili later admitted that he had chosen the date for the attack of South Ossetia in the certainty that the world’s attention would be fixed on the Olympic Games. However, instead of a quick Georgian victory, Russia launched a major counter operation. Western condemnation of Russia’s actions was immediate. US President George Bush called Russia’s response to Georgia’s attack on Tskhinvali “disproportionate”, and also said Russia “has invaded a sovereign neighbouring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st Century”. US military transport planes subsequently brought some 2,000 Georgian troops back home from Iraq, where they had made up the third largest contingent after the US and the UK. Despite the conflict, NATO has refused to rule out the prospect of Georgia joining the military alliance in the future. ”I think that the Bucharest communique stands. The allies have said in Bucharest that one day Georgia will join NATO”, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference following NATO talks with Georgia in Brussels on Tuesday.
Aftermath
These ruins in Tskhinvali were created directly on the orders of the mafioso Saakashvili. A “great democratic leader”, indeed! What were you smokin’, Mr Bush? Can I have the roach?
Russia sent a second humanitarian aid convoy to Tskhinvali on Tuesday. Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu also arrived in the devastated capital of South Ossetia to coordinate the distribution of aid. Moscow spoke of a growing humanitarian crisis in the region. Mr Saakashvili announced to a crowd in Tbilisi on Tuesday afternoon that Georgia would leave the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and urged the Ukraine to follow suit. “We decided that Georgia will leave the CIS… We urge the Ukraine and other countries to also leave the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is dominated by Russia”, he said in front of parliament. The CIS is an alliance of former Soviet republics.
The fighting in South Ossetia has seen relations between Russia and the West fall to yet another post-Cold war low. On Monday, Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticised the US stance on the conflict, saying, “The very scale of this cynicism is astonishing, the attempt to turn white into black, black into white, and to adeptly portray victims of aggression as aggressors, and place the responsibility for the consequences of the aggression on the victims. The Cold War has long ended, but, this mentality has remained firmly in the minds of several US diplomats”. He also criticised Western media coverage of the armed conflict, calling it “biased”.
12 August 2008
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080812/115993612.html (in English)
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080812/115986501.html (in English)
