Georgia on my Mind

Missing From the Georgia Report

2009-10-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/opinion/03iht-edhimmelreich.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

By JÖRG HIMMELREICH
Op-Ed Contributor
Published: October 2, 2009

BERLIN — The Russian-Georgian “five-day war” in August 2008 did not end the political conflict: It has all the potential to explode into a new armed confrontation any day.

This week, a much-anticipated report by an independent European Union fact-finding commission, of which I was a member, into the origins and causes of this conflict confirmed the common view that the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, bears responsibility for the outbreak of the war and that Russia is equally responsible by escalating the political pressures that led to the hostilities.

But the report has a major flaw. It fails to thoroughly analyze the decisive role that the United States played before, during and after the conflict. Only a detailed assessment of President George W. Bush’s Georgia policy and its failures can fully explain the outbreak of the war and help the E.U. and President Obama shape new policies toward Russia and Georgia.

At the beginning of his presidency, President Bush in many regards continued the Georgia policy of President Clinton, accepting Georgia’s Western orientation and rejecting Russia’s claim to a sphere of influence in its “near abroad”; supporting Georgia’s aspirations for membership in NATO; and viewing Georgia as important for American and Western security and energy interests.

After 9/11, however, President Bush changed the policy toward Georgia, introducing two elements that developed into serious strategic disadvantages. Mr. Bush not only made Georgia into a partner in the “war on terror,” but he promoted Mr. Saakashvili and Georgia into a centerpiece of his “promotion of democracy.” In Tbilisi in 2005, Mr. Bush proclaimed Mr. Saakashvili’s Georgia “a beacon of liberty.”

Even as President Bush became increasingly aware that he needed the Kremlin’s help in Iran and for other American interests, he was kept a prisoner by this exaggeration of Georgia’s importance for U.S. foreign policy.

Senior officials of the Bush administration claim they warned Mr. Saakashvili against using force against Russia. But having invested so much ideological importance in the Georgian president, Mr. Bush couldn’t warn him publicly — or, as it turned out, stop him. Having become so dependent on Mr. Saakashvili’s success, the United States lost the political influence to stop him.

Once the war broke out on the night of Aug. 7, President Bush decided against any U.S. military action, and instead to encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, then holding the E.U. presidency, to seek a cease-fire. That was also a strategic mistake: Only the United States had the political clout to negotiate and enforce a serious peace agreement with Russia.

Mr. Sarkozy deserves credit for stopping the war, but he had to accept onerous Russian conditions. Since then, the E.U. has had to swallow constant Russian violations of the cease-fire agreements. President Bush’s policy failure was thus not doing rather than wrongdoing: not stopping Mr. Saakashvili and not taking the lead in the peace settlement.

Today, with Russia’s refusal to prolong international peacekeeping missions, the only political framework for American political engagement in the conflict is the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership agreement to rebuild Georgia’s military — hardly a vehicle for conflict resolution.

A rethinking of U.S. diplomacy and policy toward Georgia is urgently needed. The Obama administration should follow the E.U. lead and set up its own commission of inquiry — not only to fill in the gaps in the E.U. report, but to prepare the ground for a new, balanced policy toward Georgia that takes into account the “reset” in U.S.-Russian relations.

Jörg Himmelreich, a senior trans-Atlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, served on the European Union’s fact-finding mission on the conflict in Georgia, whose report was issued this week.

EU: Russia, Georgia share responsibility for 2008 conflict

2009-09-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

September 30th, 2009

(CNN) — Historical tensions and overreaction on the part of both Russia and Georgia contributed to a five-day conflict between the two in 2008, a European Union fact-finding mission concluded in a report released Wednesday.

“The conflict is rooted in a profusion of causes comprising different layers in time and actions combined,” said the report from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia .

“While it is possible to identify the authorship of some important events and decisions marking its course, there is no way to assign overall responsibility for the conflict to one side alone. They have all failed, and it should be their responsibility to make good for it.”

Georgia launched a campaign against South Ossetia , a Russian-backed separatist Georgian territory, on August 7, 2008. The following day, Russian tanks, troops and armored vehicles poured into South Ossetia and another Russian-backed breakaway Georgian territory, Abkhazia, advancing into Georgian cities outside the rebel regions.

A total of about 850 people were killed on all sides, the report said, and untold numbers of others were wounded or went missing. About 100,000 civilians fled their homes, and about 35,000 have been unable to return.

“The fighting did not end the political conflict, nor were any of the issues that lay beneath it resolved,” the report said. “Tensions still continue. The political situation after the end of fighting turned out to be no easier and in some respects even more difficult than before.”

Russia and Georgia each blamed the other for starting the conflict, and accused each other of a variety of offenses leading up to and during the fighting, including ethnic cleansing.

Resolving Conflicts in the Caucasus

2009-08-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/opinion/22iht-edlet.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Letters to the Editor

Published: August 21, 2009

While many of the aspirations Georgians, Abkhazians and South Ossetians are divergent, as described by Oksana Antonenko (“Grim expectations,” Views, Aug. 14), there are some hopeful signs in their relationships.

Georgians, Abkhazians and South Ossetians are already engaging in the kind of informal dialogues that Oksana Antonenko calls for, and these discussions are having an effect. An informal dialogue among Georgians and South Ossetians which I facilitated in March concluded that water issues were an area that both groups wanted to resolve quickly. An official agreement on irrigation and drinking water was signed in Geneva in July.

The international community can support these dialogues by acknowledging and celebrating influential local participants who bravely meet informally in efforts to prevent a return to war.

Susan Allen Nan, Silver Spring, Maryland,

South Ossetia Tries to Disarm Its Citizens

2009-08-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

By ELLEN BARRY
Published: August 14, 2009

TSKHINVALI, Georgia — For years, there was not much difference between a civilian and a soldier in South Ossetia, which was embroiled in a long struggle to separate from Georgia.

David G. Sanakoyev, for example, wore a tie during the day. As South Ossetia’s ombudsman for human rights, he handled complaints about prison conditions or unlawful firings. Three times a week, after work, he changed into camouflage and took up a position at the territory’s border, rotating in and out of combat duty until morning.

Then he put his suit back on, and returned to his desk — a pattern interrupted only once, he recalled, when he was shot through the thigh in a Georgian ambush.

This has been the strange way of life inside South Ossetia, on and off, since the end of the Soviet Union. The tiny population of this valley — factory workers, university students, farmers and smugglers — has been turned into a loosely organized fighting force, deployed along the boundary that separates South Ossetia from Georgian-controlled territory.

Now, with Russia guaranteeing its security, South Ossetia is asking residents to turn in their weapons voluntarily. The police have opened 50 criminal prosecutions for illegal weapons and plan to offer $300 to $400 for each Kalashnikov rifle, a top official said.

The program is a test of confidence, a year after the war between Russia and Georgia.

Mr. Sanakoyev said he had never owned a gun but felt it was still too early to disarm.

“Life has changed,” he said. “But inside, you don’t yet feel that life has changed.”

Twenty years ago, few people in this valley were armed. The first clash between Ossetians and Georgians was fought with wooden bats and hunting rifles in 1989, after an estimated 12,000 Georgian demonstrators surrounded Tskhinvali to protest its first separatist bid. In the two days of violence that followed, six people died, according to Human Rights Watch.

That began a great surge of arming. Timur Tskhovrebov, then working as a tomato farmer, became “a specialist in stealing from Soviet warehouses,” he recalled, with a broad, reminiscent smile. The commander of a 10-man local militia, he would bribe a sentry, throw a mattress over the barbed-wire fence, and clamber in and out, arms loaded with weapons, for two hours until the next sentry arrived.

“This is only one way,” said Mr. Tskhovrebov, 51. “It’s the most honest way. You just steal them.”

As they withdrew into Russian territory, Soviet troops were ready to make deals, in any case. A Kalashnikov could be traded for a Zhiguli or Lada car or, in the case of villagers, a cow. Whole arsenals, put up for sale in Chechnya, supplied South Ossetia.

Irina Kozayeva, a 74-year-old woman with a cloud of hennaed hair, recalled the awe she felt at her first major purchase: a 12.7-caliber machine gun, a World War II-era weapon often mounted on Soviet tanks and capable of shooting down aircraft.

“When I saw it, I closed the door and laid it down on the rug,” she said. “I almost fainted. The sight of such a weapon can make you crazy.”

Ossetians’ attachment to their weapons grew fierce during those years, said Dmitri Medoyev, South Ossetia’s ambassador to Russia. Before the first clashes, authorities in Georgia had stripped many Ossetian hunters of their rifles, and then the Soviet Army twice betrayed Ossetia by withdrawing its forces, Mr. Medoyev said, so “we, the population, cannot trust anyone.”

In addition to a small army, Tskhinvali contrived a defense based on the Swiss armed forces, in which every adult man was required to show up, prepared to fight, during periods of tension.

For an Ossetian, Mr. Medoyev said, “a weapon is an essential part of daily life, his worldview, his accessory, if you will.” Asked how many guns were owned privately, he said, “As many as there are people in the population, that’s how many weapons there are.”

“Of course,” he added, “I’m not counting small children.”

But conditions have changed since last August, said Vitaly G. Gassiyev, South Ossetia’s first deputy interior minister. At a brand-new Russian base in Tskhinvali, dozens of tanks and self-propelled artillery are lined up a few minutes’ drive from Georgian positions, making it unlikely that Ossetian volunteers will be called to the front anytime soon.

By disarming, Mr. Gassiyev said, South Ossetia was using the lessons Russia had learned in the north Caucasus, where wars left a residue of crime, with “guns in hands and lots of uncontrolled elements.”

Two weeks ago, the call went out for people to turn in their arms voluntarily. So far, the police have collected or confiscated 100 machine guns — among them 15 American-made M-4 carbines, presumably lost by Georgian soldiers — and 110 pounds of explosives. In the near future, the police are planning to offer citizens from $370 to $470 in exchange for turning in guns and other weapons.

“I think the project will work without question,” Mr. Gassiyev said. “There is a guarantee of security now.”

When the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe tried to sell this idea to Ossetia’s populace several years ago, it was met with ridicule, recalled Magdalena Frichova, who monitored the conflict in South Ossetia for 10 years for the International Crisis Group. But last year’s war has transformed the dynamics in Ossetia, she added, and Russia may feel a need to ensure control in a region where small militias have thrived.

“This is the fear for the Russians, that it’s going to become like the north Caucasus,” Ms. Frichova said. “You have all these armed groups that aren’t under a command.”

Nerves were still strung tight last week at a border post south of Tskhinvali. The Russian border patrol was nowhere in sight, and two Ossetian men, one in camouflage, were watching cows grazing in no man’s land, waiting for something to happen, just as they have for 18 years. A Georgian police post in Ergneti was visible through the summer foliage. Five days before, the two men said, a rocket-propelled grenade was shot from the Georgian side and exploded in the air.

“If you call someone your brother, but he shoots at you, is he still your brother?” said the man in camouflage, his face weathered by the sun. “For 18 years, they have devoured us. They are jackals, jackals.” He refused to give his name.

His friend, Timur, 39, had left military service after the war, and was watching in slacks and a turtleneck. This year has been quiet, he allowed, but not calm, not yet. Asked about the government’s program to collect weapons, he grinned mischievously.

“Officially, I have given up my gun,” he said.

Putin Pledges to Fortify, Defend Breakaway Abkhazia

2009-08-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a0hA7f4GgZW4

By Lyubov Pronina and Helena Bedwell

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Russia will spend as much as 16 billion rubles ($487 million) in 2010 to develop its military base in Abkhazia and fortify the border of the separatist Georgian region, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today, a year after Russia’s five-day war with Georgia.

Russia recognized Abkhazia as a sovereign country after the war over another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia. Russia has deployed thousands of troops in the two regions and agreed to defend their borders.

On a visit to the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi today, the first anniversary of a European Union-brokered cease-fire agreement that brought the fighting to an end, Putin renewed Russia’s pledge to defend Abkhazia against attack and to help the region rebuild its economy.

“The Abkhaz people will succeed in reviving their economy as Russia continues to give systemic economic and political -- and, if needed, military -- support,” Putin told reporters after talks with Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh.

Russia has deployed 1,700 soldiers in Abkhazia and will increase that number to 3,636 by the end of this year when renovations are completed at its military base in the region, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told reporters, adding that no further troop increase is planned.

‘Illegal’ Entry

The number of Russian military personnel stationed in South Ossetia is slightly smaller, Serdyukov said. Russia has military cooperation agreements with both regions.

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Nalbandov said Putin’s trip to Sukhumi was “illegal,” because Georgian law forbids entry to the region from Russia. Georgia regards Abkhazia and South Ossetia as occupied territories. Apart from Russia, only Nicaragua has recognized the regions’ sovereignty.

“It’s no coincidence that Putin’s visiting today,” Nalbandov said. “It’s a planned provocation aimed at challenging the international community, because the cease-fire agreement was signed one year ago today.”

Georgia and its Western allies, including the U.S., say Russia has failed to meet its obligations under the cease-fire, specifically the requirement in the Aug. 12, 2008, agreement to withdraw its troops to their pre-war positions.

Black Sea Base

Russia insists that it has implemented the cease-fire agreement. In a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who led the EU’s mediation effort last year, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev said on Aug. 8 that Russia had “fulfilled its obligations” under the agreement “in full” by last October. Medvedev hailed the cease-fire as the “only ‘code of conduct’ in this part of the Caucasus.”

Eka Tkeshelashvili, head of Georgia’s Security Council, said Russia’s military spending in Abkhazia is aimed at bolstering its military presence on the Black Sea.

“Abkhazia wasn’t chosen for nothing,” Tkeshelashvili said by telephone in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. “We always knew that the Soviet-era base at Gudauta was operational anyway. Now they’re talking again and clearly they have further plans for these bases.”

The town of Gudauta is located on the Black Sea coast a short distance from Sochi, the Russian resort that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Bagapsh said in December that Abkhazia plans to benefit from the Olympics construction boom in Sochi by supplying building materials such as road metal, sand and trim stone.

‘Military Outposts’

Nalbandov said Russia’s military buildup in Abkhazia and South Ossetia “proves once more that these territories will be nothing but Russian military outposts.”

Putin said he hopes Abkhazia can achieve a level of prosperity similar to that enjoyed by small countries in Europe such as San Marino and Monaco, which have “special relations” with their neighbors.

“Monaco has a special relationship with France,” Putin said. “So the fact that a special relationship is developing between Russia and Abkhazia is an entirely normal thing.”

Putin said Russia gave Abkhazia about 2.5 billion rubles this year to support the region’s budget and will give “slightly less” in 2010.

Abkhazia requested a loan of as much as 1.5 billion rubles from Russia, Bagapsh said in May. In March, Russia pledged 5.16 billion rubles of economic aid to Abkhazia and South Ossetia to help the regions balance their budgets and meet expenses, such as pensions and state salaries.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Sukhumi at lpronina@bloomberg.net; Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi at hbedwell@bloomberg.net

US-Russia stand-off looms as Moscow announces expansion of military bases

2009-08-12T14:21:00.000-07:00

Russian plans to construct a Black Sea naval base in Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia threaten heightened tension

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/12/us-russia-georgia-military-tension

Tom Parfitt in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 August 2009

The prospect of a US-Russian naval stand-off in the Black Sea loomed today after Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would spend nearly half a billion dollars next year beefing up military bases in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia.

Much of the money is expected to fund construction of a new naval base in the Abkhaz town of Ochamchira, within striking distance of Georgia's Poti and Batumi ports, which have been regularly visited by US warships since the war in Georgia last summer. An existing Russian airbase further north in Gudauta is also likely to be enlarged.

"We will allot a very large amount of money — 15-16bn roubles (£300,000) — for the development of our military base and strengthening of Abkhazia's state border, next year," the Russian prime minister told reporters at his summer residence in Sochi, ahead of a surprise visit to the Moscow-backed republic today. "This is an additional and serious guarantee of the security of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," he added.

Nato is increasingly nervous at Russia expanding its military reach beyond its borders and expressed "concern" earlier this year over reports that Russia planned to increase its military footprint in Abkhazia. Only Russia and Nicaragua have recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent and under international law the construction of bases on what is officially Georgian territory will be illegal. Tbilisi has said it will protest against the plans "at every international level".

However, both breakaway republics have been de facto independent for more than 15 years and the Kremlin has made it clear it will sign bilateral agreements with them as "partner states", as it sees fit. A deal on military and economic co-operation was signed with both regions, in November last year.

In a recent analysis of the situation, Ariel Cohen, an analyst with the US Heritage Foundation, wrote: "With additional warships, fighter aircraft, and military personnel near the Black Sea coast of Georgia, Russia is challenging the position of the United States, which has recently signed a strategic partnership charter with Tbilisi."

He added: "In the summer of 2008, American warships were still able to enter Georgian waters to deliver humanitarian aid for the war victims. The question is: What will happen in the future? Could there be a US-Russian naval stand-off in the Black Sea some day?"

About 1,000 Russian troops are currently based in Abkhazia. It was unclear whether Putin's announcement envisaged a significant troop build-up. Last year, Moscow said it would increase the number to 3,700 but later scaled that down.

It is thought that Russia may envisage Ochamchira as a future home for its Black Sea fleet, which is currently based on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine says it will not renew the lease after it ends in 2017.

How Russia Defines Genocide Down

2009-08-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/weekinreview/09levy.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

New York Times
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
Published: August 8, 2009

MOSCOW — After the conflict between Russia and Georgia broke out a year ago, each side accused the other of atrocities, but the Russians went farther. They spoke of marauding Georgian soldiers who systemically killed hundreds if not thousands of civilians in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia. Georgia was guilty not just of war crimes, they said.

IN RUINS A South Ossetian militiaman returned to his bombed apartment last August.

Dmitry Kostyukov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

It was genocide.

“Eyewitnesses say Georgian army units ran over women and children with their tanks, drove people into houses and burned them alive,” Vladimir V. Putin, the prime minister and former president declared. “What was it if not genocide?”

That word became a Russian rallying cry. But it also served to underscore how the Kremlin seemed to mishandle the campaign to shape public opinion worldwide — a pivotal arena as Russia and Georgia sought to cast blame over who started the fighting.

It was as if senior Russian officials pulled out a dog-eared Soviet propaganda playbook that called for hurling the most outlandish charge, without recognizing that in the modern global media climate, their credibility would quickly suffer if the facts proved otherwise.

In the old days, credibility might not have mattered. Language could be marshaled by the Kremlin in discomfiting ways to advance the ideals of Communism and the West just expected it. But now, Mr. Putin has presented himself and his country as democratic and forward-looking, and that same language is held to a different standard.

And so it was that reporters entered South Ossetia after the five-day war, and Russian and local officials could not explain where all the bodies were, even at one point suggesting that they had been hastily buried by family members in backyards.

It later became clear that the death toll was far lower. The Kremlin now acknowledges that 162 South Ossetian civilians died in the war, out of a population of roughly 70,000. The figure was higher on the Georgian side, with 228 civilians killed, the Georgian government said.

Last week, as Russia used the anniversary of the war to undertake a public relations effort to press its case that Georgia caused it, the genocide charge was largely absent. The Georgian conduct was instead labeled criminal.

(As is customary these days, given that both countries have hired Western public relations agencies, the Georgians issued their own dossier, maintaining that Russia was responsible for the war.)

Asked on Thursday about genocide, a deputy Russian foreign minister, Grigory B. Karasin, seemed to concede that in the turbulent days of last August, the Russian side may have overstepped.

Still, Mr. Karasin emphasized that the allegation had to be understood in the context of regional history, saying that South Ossetians had long believed that the Georgians wanted to exterminate their culture.

“Those people, I think, on an emotional line, not on a legal line, but on an emotional line, have their own right to refer to the policy of Tbilisi toward the minorities, and toward South Ossetians, as a type of genocide,” Mr. Karasin said.

Mr. Karasin did not mention it, but there was another factor. Last August, the Kremlin appeared to jump at the opportunity to turn the tables on the West over the issue of ethnic clashes and breakaway regions.

Russia had long been indignant over Western support for Kosovo, the enclave in Serbia that won recognition as independent last year. The NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, which was intended to prevent the Serbs from suppressing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, had especially angered people here.

With the South Ossetian conflict, the Kremlin saw hypocrisy, asking why it was proper for the West to deploy force to support Kosovo in the face of supposed Serbian violence against civilians, but not for Russia to do the same thing for South Ossetia.

The Russians, in other words, ventured that if the West can call the Serbian actions genocide, then the term fit the Georgians as well.

Questioned about the genocide claim five weeks after the war, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, replied with scorn.

“It is laughable when people suggest that we should first count the dead, implying that if there was such and such a number, it would be genocide, but 100 people less and it is not genocide,” Mr. Medvedev said. “Of course, only people who used their aircraft to bomb Yugoslav territory for 90 days could think this way.”

While the Russians have avoided mentioning the word recently, their South Ossetian allies have not entirely done so. Last week, they unveiled a series of exhibits dedicated to the war. They are housed at the Museum of Genocide.

Year After Georgian War, Rage Has Only Hardened

2009-08-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Sergey Ponomarev/Associated Press

Russian soldiers cleaned their rifles on Friday in Tskhinvali, a city in the breakaway region of South Ossetia where Georgian shelling last Aug. 7 began the fighting.

TSKHINVALI, Georgia — A year after war broke out in this tiny provincial city in the breakaway region of South Ossetia, the roads are still rutted with jaw-rattling potholes and downtown buildings are shells open to the sky.

But great effort has gone into commemorating last year’s war. Near midnight on Friday, precisely a year after Georgia began shelling Tskhinvali, thousands of people gathered in the city’s main square, where a Russian-made documentary was projected on a huge screen overhead. Images of Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and President George W. Bush were juxtaposed with footage of dead Ossetians, as a floodlit violinist played melancholy music.

Georgia, too, offered heavy symbolism. In Gori, which came under Russian bombing in the war, authorities erected a replica of the Berlin Wall, a pointed commentary on Russia’s foothold on Georgian land. Georgians observed a nationwide moment of silence in the afternoon, and 500 schoolchildren dressed in red and white formed a living replica of Georgia’s flag. A year after the war, the question of who is to blame is still being fought out in public life. On Friday, the presidents of both Russia and Georgia took pains to justify their decisions to send their armies into South Ossetia.

Both have faced pressure over the war; Russia set itself at odds with the West by sending its troops into Georgia and again, more permanently, when it recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Georgia’s other separatist enclave, Abkhazia. Mr. Saakashvili, meanwhile, is blamed by domestic critics for losing control over the territories.

Meanwhile, in this valley, the rage has not abated, not at all. As they prepared to mark the war’s anniversary, Ossetians here referred to Georgians as “swine” and “livestock,” and said they would never live in peace with them again. The commemorations seemed only to stoke those feelings.

“If at some point I see a young Georgian man, and I know that he served in the army, I will kill him,” said Seldik Tedeyev, a bus driver whose son and mother died trying to leave Tskhinvali last Aug. 8. “Years will pass, time will pass, but I will kill him anyway.”

An escalating conflict here erupted into full-fledged war when Georgian forces began shelling Tskhinvali on the night of Aug. 7. Russia responded by sending columns of armor into South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia routed the Georgian Army, and then recognized the regions as sovereign nations, pledging to protect their independence with its military.

Georgia has reported more than 400 deaths in the war; Russia’s prosecutor’s office has so far reported 162. Some 30,000 ethnic Georgians who were driven from their homes remain refugees, according to Amnesty International, and Ossetian militias razed their villages to the ground.

In a speech on Friday, Mr. Saakashvili made the case he has made since the beginning: that a Russian invasion was already under way on the night of Aug. 7, and that the attack on Tskhinvali was defensive.

“Our beloved nation was fighting for its very existence,” he said. “The heirs of the old K.G.B. decided to put an end to what they call the ‘Georgian project,’ our collective attempt to build a European state in a corner of Europe that had never before had one.”

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, in remarks to filmmakers in Moscow, described the decision to send in troops as the most difficult of his life.

“Each time I remember these events, I rewind the tape, as they say, and realize that on one hand, we had no other choice in that situation,” he said. “On the other hand, the events were unfolding under the worst-case scenario, probably, the most sorrowful scenario.”

Russia responded “harshly” to Georgia, he said, “saving hundreds and thousands of lives and restoring peace in the Caucasus that was at serious risk.”

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, South Ossetia has been cut off from Georgia politically and economically, and Tskhinvali came to feel less like a city than a village, with passing cars kicking up clouds of dust. Its prewar population was estimated at 70,000 — including Ossetians and many ethnic Georgians, who farmed on the lush strip of land north of the capital. Both groups, on Friday, were thinking about what they had lost.

Mr. Tedeyev, 47, sat in the shade of a tree in his courtyard, stone-faced. He has four memorial services to go to next week — among others, for his 22-year-old son, who was shot by advancing Georgian infantry when he tried to drive north to Russia. Mr. Tedeyev’s mother was killed moments before, when a shell hit the car.

Mr. Tedeyev grew up in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, and has many relatives in Georgia, but since his son’s death he has severed all contact with them. He has heard from only one of them — a favorite aunt — and when he heard her voice on the phone he hung up. He smokes two packs of cigarettes every night, he said, thinking obsessively about that drive out of the city.

“I don’t like to see people,” he said. “I sit quietly alone in a room.”

On the other side of the border, Nana Tsitsuashvili, 50, dissolved into tears as she stood in Gori’s central square before the Berlin Wall exhibit. A year ago, she fled Gori when it was under bombardment; nine of her neighbors were killed, she said, and she still has trouble conceiving that Russia would use bombs on civilians. But Nino Gabinashvili, 16, one of the students who gathered to form a Georgian flag, had no such difficulty.

“August showed us that Russia is our enemy,” said Ms. Gabinashvili, whose family fled Gori as Russian soldiers entered. “Ossetians are not enemies, they are just toys in the Russians’ hands, but eventually they will realize this.”

Olesya Vartanyan contributed reporting from Tbilisi, Georgia.

Georgia peace fragile one year after war

2009-08-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

Tue Aug 4, 2009 9:23am EDT

By Matt Robinson and Amie Ferris-Rotman -Analysis
FULL STORY:
http://www.reuters.com/article/joeBiden/idUSTRE5733LN20090804

TBILISI/TSKHINVALI, Georgia (Reuters) - A dangerous security vacuum in Georgia's rebel regions and an unfulfilled ceasefire pact threaten renewed hostilities a year after the Caucasus country's five-day war with Russia.

With the withdrawal of military observers from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, little has been done to confront the danger of skirmishes boiling over into full-blown hostilities, analysts warn. Unarmed European Union monitors are denied access.

Friday marks the anniversary of Georgia's assault on pro-Moscow South Ossetia, and Russia's crushing counter-strike.

A year on, Georgian police hold positions behind sandbags a few hundred meters from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, while Russian FSB security service officers in camouflage uniform control the borders of the rebel territory 50 km (30 miles) from Tbilisi at their nearest point.

"We came for a long time and we're ready to defend this republic," said Pavel Bozhov, a border patrol officer of the FSB, which is successor to the KGB.

Hansjoerg Haber, heading 240 EU monitors deployed after the war but patrolling only as far as the boundary, said they were succeeding in "refreezing the conflict."

"But if we don't introduce a dynamic element, like confidence building, it could at some stage re-erupt."

The lead-up to the anniversary has seen a spike in tensions.

South Ossetia and Georgia have traded accusations of mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades fired over the boundary.

Russia warned Saturday it would use "all available force" to defend South Ossetia, a statement Georgia said demonstrated Moscow's "dangerous designs."

"The biggest danger is probably less some pre-planned military campaign or intervention, but a situation which starts as a local conflagration and goes out of control," said Lawrence Sheets of the International Crisis Group thinktank.

Georgia launched an assault on South Ossetia on August 7 after days of skirmishes and months of tension between Moscow and Tbilisi over South Ossetia and the rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia, which both broke away in wars in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia responded with a devastating counter-strike that routed the Georgian military. Russian forces pushed into Georgia proper, shaking confidence in oil and gas routes running West through the former Soviet republic. An EU-brokered ceasefire called for forces to withdraw to pre-war positions.

Russia Accused of Altering Border

2009-08-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

New York Times
By ELLEN BARRY
Published: August 2, 2009
FULL STORY:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/europe/03georgia.html?emc=tnt&tntema

MOSCOW — Georgia accused Russia of attempting to take a small wedge of additional territory on Sunday on the boundary of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, amid mounting tension days before the anniversary of last year’s five-day war.

Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for Georgia’s Interior Ministry, said Russian reconnaissance teams entered the village of Kveshi in the disputed region in an attempt to move the boundary several hundred yards to a strategically better position. Though Russian border guards have been deployed on South Ossetia’s boundary with Georgia since April 30, he said, they have been reinforcing it gradually. Press officers for the separatist government of South Ossetia could not be reached for comment.

Steve Bird, a spokesman for the European Union Monitoring Mission, said patrols in Kveshi found no evidence of any action there. He said there were perennial arguments about the exact location of the boundary of South Ossetia, and that “the overall picture is more tense as the anniversary approaches.”

Biden Delivers 'Tough Love' Message to Georgian Leaders

2009-07-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/23/AR2009072301541.html

Vice President Says Conflict With Russia Won't Be Solved With Militarization, Encourages Nation to Pursue Democratic Reforms

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 23, 2009; 9:56 AM

TBILISI, Georgia, July 23 -- Vice President Biden put off a request from Georgia for new defensive weapons on Thursday and told the nation's leaders they would never be able to use military means to recover territories lost in last year's war with Russia, a senior administration official said.

Biden also urged Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to do more to deepen democratic reforms in this former Soviet republic. He later held a long meeting with
four opposition leaders who have condemned Saakashvili as a despot and argued that the Bush administration had coddled him.

As he prepared to address parliament at the end of a four-day trip to Ukraine and Georgia, Biden continued to deliver a mixed message of what an advisor called "tough love," emphasizing again that the United States would not sacrifice the two former Soviet republics as it seeks to improve relations with Russia, nor recognize the Kremlin's claim to a sphere of "privileged interests" in the region.

In a sign that Obama administration's balancing act was being scrutinized in Moscow, the Russian government issued a stern warning that it would not allow Georgia, which it says was the aggressor in last year's war, to re-arm itself.

"We will continue inhibiting rearmament of the Saakashvili regime and are taking concrete measures against this," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told the ITAR-Tass news agency.

"We have a deep worry regarding the activity of the Georgian leadership over remilitarizing its country, which several states are responding to in a surprisingly calm and positive way," he added, vowing that Russia would limit or suspend military and economic cooperation with countries that supply arms to Georgia.

Saakashvili had urged Biden to speed up delivery of antiaircraft and antitank weapons that Georgian officials have argued would help deter and slow a Russian attack. In an interview on Tuesday, Saakashvili said a U.S. decision not to provide the weaponry would be a sign of weakness that would encourage the Russians to invade.

"We are a country under attack, under partial occupation," he told Biden at the start of their meeting.

But a senior administration official, briefing reporters after the meeting on condition of anonymity, said Biden refused to commit to arms deliveries and instead argued that the Georgian military needed further training and non-material help.
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"A key for Georgia here is the modernization of its military, building its capacities, and at this stage, it's not so much a matter of weaponry or military hardware," he said. The Pentagon will continue working to train the Georgian military "to hypothetically use some of the weaponry they desire," the officials said.

Biden also postponed a decision on a Georgian suggestion that the United States join a European Union civilian monitoring mission along the border of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two breakaway regions that Russia recognized as independent from Georgia after the war.

In an interview with the BBC, Biden said the administration was open to the idea but had not received a request from the Europeans on the matter.

Getty Villa Presents Treasures from the Republic of Georgia, the Land of the Golden Fleece

2009-07-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=32060

LOS ANGELES, CA.- In a spectacular display of archaeological finds, The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani, on view from July 16–October 5, 2009, at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, presents more than 140 objects from one of the most celebrated archaeological sites in the Republic of Georgia, including four recently excavated bronze lamps, shown together for the first time.

Vani was an important settlement in the ancient kingdom of Colchis, a region best known as the destination of Jason and the Argonauts in their mythical quest for the Golden Fleece. Even in antiquity, Colchis was renowned as a region rich in gold, and excavations at Vani have confirmed this reputation. Prompted by reports of jewelry that came to the surface following heavy rainfall in the area, archaeologists in the late 1930s began to systematically explore Vani. Their excavations have uncovered a series of burials in which the deceased were laid to rest wearing a sumptuous array of ornaments, and have revealed that Vani was a major political and religious center.

The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani features an extraordinary array of objects, dating from the mid-fifth to mid-first centuries B.C. From an impressive variety of locally-made gold jewelry to imports from the Persian Empire and the Greek world, the ancient treasures in the exhibition reveal both the region’s rich material resources and a complex and fruitful network of interactions with neighboring peoples.

“This exhibition provides a wonderful opportunity to tell the story of this ancient temple city and give visitors a view into the complex interrelations of ancient cultures,” says Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “We are delighted to have these objects together here in Los Angeles for the very first time.”

David Lordkipanidze, director of the Georgian National Museum, adds, “We are delighted that these exquisite objects from one of Georgia’s most important archeological sites are serving as the cultural bridge between Georgian museums and American institutions such as the Getty Museum, the Smithsonian, and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. We are equally pleased to see the Getty Villa bejeweled by the magnificent Georgian treasures of Vani, providing audiences a glimpse into our country, its history, and rich culture. We hope this collaboration with the Getty Museum is only the beginning of a long lasting relationship between our institutions. ”

Although The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani, organized by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, has toured the United States and Europe, the Getty presentation includes four elaborate bronze lamps that were discovered during excavations at the site in 2007. Part of a hoard of precious bronzes, they may have been deposited during a time of crisis. The discovery of this well-preserved cache of ancient metalwork is significant for the light it sheds on the manufacture and use of bronze in ancient Colchis. Furthermore, the artistry of the lamps is difficult to parallel—for example, the careful rendering of the Indian elephant heads that serve as nozzles for an Incense Burner (250–100 B.C.), or the elaborate composition of the Lamp with Elephant Heads and Human Figures (250–100 B.C.). Two of the lamps—the Lamp with Zeus and Ganymede and Lamp with Erotes (250–100 B.C.)—have never been displayed before, and were brought to the Getty for cleaning and analysis as part of a collaborative project with Georgian archaeologists and conservators.

“This is the first time we’ve brought objects directly from an archaeological site to the Museum for treatment and conservation, which carries with it great responsibility. We have been extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and expertise with our Georgian colleagues and were delighted to have Dr. Nino Kalandadze, a visiting conservator morefrom the Georgian National Museum, at the Villa for several weeks working on the lamps with our conservation team,” says Jerry Podany, the Getty Museum’s senior conservator of antiquities.

The exhibition focuses on a treasure trove of objects from five of the 28 graves that have been excavated at the site so far. They date to 450–250 B.C, when Vani was at the height of its prosperity. Among them, Grave 11 is the earliest and perhaps the richest burial. Dating to the mid-fifth century B.C., it contains four bodies laid inside a wooden structure and, outside it, a horse. Although all four bodies wore jewelry, one—a woman—was much more elaborately adorned, indicating her elite status.

The Necklace with Turtle Pendants (about 450 B.C.), a stunning example of Colchian goldwork, is one of the five necklaces discovered in this grave. The shells of the turtles are intricately decorated with granulation—the application of numerous tiny gold spheres—and are indicative of the advanced skill of Colchian goldworkers.

Another burial, Grave 24, excavated in 2004, exemplifies the cultural contacts enjoyed by the local aristocracy, for alongside another assemblage of gold jewelry and adornments are vessels imported from—or inspired by—both the Greek world and the Persian Empire. Of particular interest is the Silver Belt (350–300 B.C.) that depicts a banqueter attended by servants, testifying to the cultural importance of feasting.

The other three burials featured in the exhibition include a grave of a woman (Grave 6), which contained a striking polychrome pendant, manufactured in the Persian Empire but imported and adapted for local use at Vani; the grave of a warrior (Grave 9), whose gold ring bears an inscription in Greek, Dedatos, which may be his name; and the grave of an infant girl (Grave 4), who was adorned with gold jewelry just like her elders.

“The archaeological finds not only demonstrate the highly refined craftsmanship of local goldworkers, but also testify to contacts with both the Greek world and the Persian Empire,” says Karol Wight, the Getty Museum’s senior curator of antiquities. “Through our presentation, we hope to introduce visitors to an ancient heritage that expands our knowledge of an important civilization in this region. Many of the objects unearthed at Vani are without parallel in the ancient Mediterranean world.”

After the mid-third century B.C., evidence of rich burials ceases at the site. Most of the structures—such as altars and cult buildings—seem to have a religious or ritual function and, according to some scholars, Vani served thereafter as a sanctuary-city. Among the treasures from this period is the Torso of a Youth (200–100 B.C.), a well-proportioned bronze in a style that recalls Greek sculptures dating to 490–460 B.C., but that seems to have been made locally. It was discovered in an archaeological context that indicates it was a victim of the military destruction sustained at Vani around 50 B.C., which brought activity at the site to an abrupt end.

J. Paul Getty Museum |

Georgia's Saakashvili Seeking U.S. Weapons to Deter Russia

2009-07-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072102521.html

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

TBILISI, Georgia, July 21 -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili urged the United States on Tuesday to supply his country with advanced defensive weapons, warning on the eve of a visit by Vice President Biden that a decision not to provide such arms would encourage a Russian invasion.

In a wide-ranging interview, Saakashvili said that discussions about a weapons deal remained at "very early stages" but that he planned to press Biden to speed up delivery of antiaircraft and antitank systems, saying such weaponry was "purely defensive" and "would make any hotheads think twice about further military adventures."

"I think the decision to help us is there," he added, noting recent meetings between Georgian and U.S. defense officials. "It's a matter of speeding up the process. . . . We want the country to still be around when those things start to arrive here. That's ultimately what's right now at stake."

The United States has been working to train and modernize the Georgian military for more than a decade, but Russia has warned strongly against new arms shipments to the former Soviet republic, which it routed in a brief war last year.

The Kremlin says that Georgia started the war by ordering an attack on the breakaway region of South Ossetia and that new weapons would encourage further aggression by Saakashvili. In January, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the cabinet to draw up economic sanctions against countries that supply arms to Georgia.

Saakashvili's request underscores the difficult choices facing the Obama administration as it seeks to "reset" and improve relations with Russia while continuing to support Georgia, Ukraine and other countries in the former Soviet sphere where the Kremlin says it has "privileged interests."

Georgia has also suggested that the United States and other countries join the European Union's civilian monitoring mission along its border with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway enclave recognized by Russia as an independent state. U.S. participation would amount to a "long-term security guarantee," and the idea has received "positive feedback" from European and U.S. officials, Saakashvili said, but talks have been delayed.

Briefing reporters last week ahead of Biden's visit, Antony Blinken, the vice president's national security adviser, was noncommittal when asked whether Washington would refrain from supplying arms to Georgia in an attempt to reduce tensions in the region. "We are working with Georgia with defense reform and defense modernization," he said. "Our focus is on doctrine, on education and on training, and preparing for Georgia's future deployments to Afghanistan."

In recent years, the Pentagon has tried to improve the Georgian army's command-and-control systems and trained Georgian troops for peacekeeping and police operations in Iraq. But Saakashvili said the focus of U.S.-Georgian military cooperation has now shifted to "homeland defense."
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He said he was "realistic" about the impact any new weapons would have on Georgia's ability to fend off Russia's much larger army for very long. But he argued that a stronger military deterrent would "strengthen our political hand" and help prevent a new conflict.

A decision by the United States and its NATO allies not to supply Georgia with defensive arms, on the other hand, would be seen as weakness, he said. "I think that would be the surest sign for the Russians: 'Go and get them,' " he said.

Saakashvili argued that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may be tempted to start another war because he faces "a pretty desperate situation," with the Russian economy in crisis, his domestic political standing in question and former Soviet republics increasingly ignoring Moscow's wishes. "There are hundreds of reasons to attack Georgia," Saakashvili said. "The only thing to stop him is a clear unequivocal message from the West that there's going to be very grave consequences."

Saakashvili said President Obama exceeded his expectations by forcefully defending Georgia's sovereignty during a recent visit to Moscow. He also said he has detected no "reluctance or hesitation" about providing Georgia with weapons.

Still, he said, "It's a much slower process than we would like it to be. It's just a matter of: Are we a regular country in a regular situation that can wait many years . . . or can we make it faster and more efficient?"

Saakashvili said the decision could affect the entire region, because other nations might give in to Russia's imperial ambitions if Georgia fell. "I think Biden gets it," he said, noting that Biden visited after the war and spoke about upgrading Georgia's defensive capabilities. "We hope he's still the old Biden."

Georgia Wants U.S. to Monitor Conflict

2009-07-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/world/europe/21georgia.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

KIEV, Ukraine — Georgian leaders hope the United States will join the European Union’s monitoring effort along the boundary with two breakaway Georgian enclaves, a step they believe could deter aggression from Russian or separatist forces, a senior Georgian official said Monday.

The European Union’s 246 monitors in Georgia are unarmed civilians and are not allowed into the enclaves, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russian forces wrested from Georgian control in a short war a year ago. Still, the official, Eka Tkeshelashvili, the secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, said broadening the monitoring mission to include the United States and other nonunion members would make it “politically very costly to Russia to do anything on the ground.”

“It has the potential for reaching a very tangible impact,” she said. “It’s always very hard to think what are the red lines that ultimately Russia might respect, because we saw last year that it passed most of the red lines that we could have imagined.”

The European Union’s members are having an “informal discussion” about whether to invite the United States to participate, a requirement for any such expansion, said Peter Semneby, the union’s special representative for the South Caucasus. He said the European Union has “taken note of the interest on the Georgian side,” but the decision is not yet formally on any agenda.

The question will almost certainly come up this week, when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to meet with leaders in Ukraine and Georgia. His visit, after President Obama’s meeting with the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, in Moscow, is aimed at reassuring the countries that American support will remain despite an improvement in Russian relations.

Mr. Biden’s reaction to the monitoring proposal will offer one clue to how far that support extends: Participating would assert Washington’s concern over Georgia’s breakaway territories. It would also challenge Russia, which wants the United States to scale back its involvement in post-Soviet republics.

Mr. Biden intends to make it clear on this trip that the United States will not abandon its allies in deference to Russia, said one of his senior advisers.

“We will continue to reject the notion of spheres of influence,” Antony J. Blinken, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, said in a conference call with reporters last week. “We will continue to stand by the principle that sovereign democracies have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own partnerships and alliances.”

At the same time, said one American official who was not authorized to speak publicly, “there will also be some tough love in both places.”

The official said Mr. Biden would press both countries to address their failings — mostly economic ones in Ukraine and political ones in Georgia — and also make clear to Georgian leaders that they should have no illusions about using force to reclaim South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Every note Mr. Biden strikes will be analyzed “very, very carefully” in Moscow, said Andronik Migranyan, an analyst in New York at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation, a Kremlin-backed research group. Leaders in the Kremlin were impressed by Mr. Obama but consider Mr. Biden’s visit to Kiev and Tbilisi, Georgia, a truer indicator of American intentions, he said.

Mr. Biden could send the message that “sovereignty is equal to anti-Russian policy and anti-Russian sentiment, which means nullifying the results of the Obama and Medvedev and Putin summit,” he said, referring to the Russian prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin. Alternately, he said, Mr. Biden could give a different message: “We ask you to be more responsible in your behavior, not to be hostile toward Russia.”

“In this case,” Mr. Migranyan said, “Moscow can really think that Obama took Russia’s concerns seriously.”

A decision about joining the monitoring mission leaves little room for compromise. For more than 16 years, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations operated missions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia; Americans participated in both. This year, both were shut down under pressure from Moscow, which argued that the organizations needed to either recognize the enclaves’ sovereignty or leave.

That leaves only the European Union’s mission — civilians who work out of field offices near the edges of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. America’s contribution could be personnel, upgraded equipment or technical assistance like access to satellite images, Ms. Tkeshelashvili said.

David J. Kramer, who was a senior diplomat in the administration of President George W. Bush, said American participation would reinforce powerfully the need for stability along the enclaves’ boundaries. Already, simply by visiting Ukraine and Georgia, he added, Mr. Biden is making it clear that the United States will still respond to post-Soviet countries reaching out.

“This is not a case of the United States forcing its way into regions where it’s not wanted — Georgia wants us there,” said Mr. Kramer, who is also a senior trans-Atlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, a nonpartisan policy group that studies the relationship between the United States and Europe. “We’re never going to compete with Russia in terms of proximity, and we shouldn’t even try. But these are countries that want closer relations with the United States.”

Obama Says State Sovereignty Must be Respected

2009-07-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=17253

In a keynote speech on the second day of his visit to Moscow, U.S. President Barack Obama, among other issues, also spoke about the state sovereignty as a “cornerstone of international order” and mentioned Georgia and Ukraine in this context.

“Just as all states should have the right to choose their leaders, states must have the right to borders that are secure, and to their own foreign policies. That is true for Russia, just as it is true for the United States. Any system that cedes those rights will lead to anarchy. That is why this principle must apply to all nations and that includes nations like Georgia and Ukraine,” the U.S. President said.

In his speech at Moscow’s New Economic School on July 7, he also said: “In 2009, the great power does not show strength by dominating or demonizing other countries. The days when empires could treat other sovereign states as pieces on a chess board are over.”

President Obama also touched NATO saying that the United States would “never impose a security arrangement on another country” and added that the Alliance should seek “collaboration with Russia, not confrontation.”

“For any country to become a member of NATO, a majority of its people must choose to; they must undertake reforms; and they must be able to contribute to the Alliance’s mission,” he said.

Georgian future depends on Russia and the U.S.

2009-07-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090707/155460808.html

07/07/2009

MOSCOW. (Gocha Dzasokhov, president of the Georgian Peoples Assembly, for RIA Novosti) - Georgia depends on Russian-U.S. relations more than any other country. In fact, it has become a hostage to these relations, and I pray to God that the leaders of Russia and the United States do not discard Georgia as surplus baggage when discussing their relations for the years ahead.

The great powers should find common language at long last, and turn the Caucasus into a peaceful region and an attractive example of a positive synthesis of multilateral interests.

At present, the situation in Georgia is distorted, with efforts directed at saving the bankrupt authorities rather than helping the people.

All ethnic groups in Georgia want above all certainty; they want someone to hear the voice they raised in protest four months ago. They want Georgia to have a definite future based on a peaceful policy and the country's integration as a modern society.

Both God and History have made the partnership of the great powers responsible for Georgia, and the long-suffering Georgian people expect them to justify their trust.

If I had a chance to ask the U.S. President a question, I would first remind Mr. Obama of the words of John F. Kennedy, to whom he is often compared, about "a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved."

Is it fair that Georgia's policy is determined without taking into account the opinion and interests of the people who live there?

When discussing the Georgian problem, the presidents of Russia and the U.S. are bound to touch upon the issue of Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence. We would like them to respect the opinion of the Georgian Peoples Assembly, which believes that the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has greatly raised the level of expectations for the Russian political elite.

It is highly important now to find an optimal balance between the security of the new Caucasian states and a political structure that would suit all those in the region.

Also, Russia will eventually have to address this challenging problem because Georgia will never resign itself to the loss of its territory, and will mount political, diplomatic, and possibly military pressure through third countries. We must be prepared for this.

Reconciliation will take years of hard work, because we will need to change the mentality of the people which will be a titanic task.

The program of reconciliation should be drafted by the people and public organizations of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Georgian Peoples Assembly is conducting and will continue to conduct conferences and consultations on this issue, after which we will need a referendum. Democracy is the authority of sovereign citizens. Power must be vested with the citizens, and not a group of politicians.

In the case of a positive outcome of a referendum, we would proceed to the next stage of reconciliation. It would provide for economic interaction, joint projects in different economic sectors such as energy, agriculture, trade, transportation, and tourism that would benefit all participants, and would also imply the creation of common customs and currency space.

The Georgian Peoples Assembly believes that the reconciliation process can start on two conditions: if the regime that launched the aggression and fratricide in August 2008 is replaced, and if Georgia's aggressive foreign policy is changed to a neutral attitude toward its neighbors based on the principles of friendship.

August war complicated Georgian relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia: opposition leader

2009-07-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

http://news-en.trend.az/important/exclusive/1500397.html

Georgia, Tbilisi, July 6/ Trend News N. Kirtzkhalia/

Unwise steps by the Georgian authorities, involving Georgia to war with Russia in August 2008, evolved new problems in the relations with other neighbors, the leader of the Alliance for Georgia Irakli Alasaniya told Trend News.

This war led to definite overestimations in region, Alasaniya stated.

Large-scale military operations broke out in the unrecognized Republic of South Ossetia in the night of Aug.8. Georgian troops entered Tzkhinvali. Later Russian troops entered the city and drove Georgian military back. At the end of August, Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In response, Georgia broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow and declared the unrecognized republics occupied territories.

Alasania said some problems also appeared in relations with Armenia, because Georgia is facing a danger of separatist movement by the densely populated large national communities.

"Of course, neither official Baku, nor Yerevan will favor separatist trends. But Russian special service organizations will work actively here and it is necessary to observe attentively these developments in regions, especially in Samtzkhe-Javakheti populated by Armenians."

Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: trend@trend.az

South Ossetians ask Obama to help find missing relatives

2009-07-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

07/07/2009
Multimedia

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090707/155460872.html

MOSCOW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - A group of South Ossetian women have sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama asking him to help find their children, who they say were abducted by Georgian agents, an official said on Tuesday.

Authorities in the former Georgian republic say 13 South Ossetians have been abducted by Georgian special services since August 8, 2008, when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in a bid to bring it back under central control.

"The letter was written ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow by 10 mothers and relatives of those who are currently being held illegally on Georgian territory," South Ossetia's human rights ombudsman, David Sanakoyev, told RIA Novosti.

He added that Georgia has officially declared seven of them missing.

"However, we have obtained a videotape that shows four of these seven being interrogated by Georgian special services," Sanakoyev said.

The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the letter

Two weeks after the end of a five-day war with Georgia over South Ossetia last August, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic, as independent states.

South Ossetia says over 1,500 people were killed during the Georgian assault, but the Investigation Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has confirmed the deaths of 162 South Ossetians and 48 Russian soldiers, including 10 peacekeepers who were stationed in the republic before Georgia's invasion.

Russian deserter Glukhov granted refugee status in Georgia

2009-07-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090630/155393461.html

TBILISI, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian soldier who deserted his unit in South Ossetia in late January and requested asylum in Georgia has been granted refugee status, the Georgian Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

At the end of April, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office filed an extradition request for Jr. Sgt. Alexander Glukhov. However, Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Shota Utiashvili said Tbilisi would not hand him over to Russia until his asylum request had been considered.

"Glukhov received the status of a refugee in Georgia a few days ago. Moreover, he has already started working," the ministry said.

Glukhov's relatives said a month ago he had received refugee status, but there had until now been no official confirmation.

The Russian Defense Ministry initially said Glukhov had been seized by Georgian special services and forcibly taken to Tbilisi. However, Glukhov denied the claims, saying he fled due to the intolerable conditions in his unit.

Georgia: Monitors of Truce With Russia Withdraw

2009-07-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Western observers pulled out of Georgia on Tuesday after
Russia blocked an extension of the mission to monitor the
cease-fire that ended last year's war.

Full Story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/world/europe/01briefs-Georgiabrf.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

ABKHAZIANS AND OSSETIANS IN GEORGIA

2009-06-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

HISTORY AND NOWADAYS
May 30, 2009

Speech of Iulon Gagoshidze, Dr. Art History, Georgian National Museum, State Minister on Diaspora Affairs, Georgia at symposium on

Georgia at the Crossroads of European and Asian Cultures
Culture as a tool for the mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue

The Harriman Institute at Columbia University
New York, NY
May 4, 2009

The actualization of the issue of Abkhazians and Ossetians towards Georgia is associated with the collapse process of the Soviet Union. Twenty years ago a few person could know that in some place in Caucasia, in one of the Republics of the Soviet union, called The Soviet Republic of Georgia, subsisted the territorial-administrative formations of ,,Abkhazia” and ,,The South Ossetia”, the first under the status of the Autonomous Republic and the second under the status of the Autonomous District.

Today the situation is changed. Today, after the Russian-Georgian war the world learnt that specified regions are occupied by Russian troops, that this occupation is being continued by the violation of all international standards and rules, despite of the fact that the ,,independence” of Abkhazia and the South Ossetia, declared by Russia, was recognized by no one except Hamas, maybe by Nicaragua.

Along with the military occupation of Georgia, in order to justify its aggression against Georgia, Russia has launched the informational war. Russia is trying to convince the world as if the regions occupied by it never consisted in Georgia, just like Saakashvili treacherously attacked Tskhinvali and if not the Russian tanks, peacefully Ossetians living there could not avoid the genocide from Georgian side. The Western media as well, unfortunately, quite frequently, in accordance with claim unchangeably repeats the Russian version of the Russian-Georgian war reason. It is hard to say how it can be explained, by the authors’ ignorance, indifference, or in the effect that Russia is generously financing its informational war.

But I am not going to unmask all those lies that are abundantly presented in the fabricated publications through the request of Russian officials. I’ll simply try to follow Abkhazians’ and Ossetians’ settlement and living history on the territory of Georgia along with you and to speak about how they occurred to be induced in a bloody conflict.

Let’s start with Ossetians. In the North Caucasia Ossetians are the only Iranian speaking nation, but anthropologically, by culture and according to the ethno-psychological signs, they are typical Caucasians. This ethnic ,,bifacial” nature is caused therewith that in their ethnogeny Iranian speaking nomads of the Eurasia steppes took part, as well as Caucasian autochthonic population. Ossetians’ direct Iranian speaking ancestors – Ass and Allans appeared in the steppes of the North Caucasia in 1st century A.D. and went into history as incomparable horsemen warriors, who were horrendous to all Near East in the 1st-4th centuries. From time to time their troops robbed Parthia, Armenia, Eastern provinces of Rome, even Egypt. But it is notable that they never robbed the kingdom of Kartli (Iberia). The point is that to get from the North Caucasia to the Near East was possible only through Dariali pass and Dariali pass was controlled by Georgians. So Allans, without making agreement with the authorities of Kartli kingdom could not arrange neither their robbery incursions, nor could manage the regular trading-economic contacts with the Anterior Asia, by which both sides were equally interested.

Ties between Georgia and Allans has not ceased hereafter, when in the 9th-10th centuries, in the west part of the North Caucasia, on the steppes Allans established a vast kingdom, which Byzantines mentioned as Allania and Georgians as Ovseti.

Christianity in Ovseti-Allania was spread by the king of Abkhazs Giorgi II, who ruled in the West Georgia (in Abkhazia) in 922-957. That’s why almost all terms associated with Christianity in Ossetian language is borrowed from Georgian (dzuar – jvari, morkho-markhva, Tarangelos-Mtavarangelozi, Mikalgabirta-Mikelgabrieli, Giorguba-Giorgoba, etc.). The most vivid reflection of the close relations between Allania-Ovseti and Georgia were ruling line weddings, especially in the 11th-12th centuries: Georgian kings Giorgi I (1014-1027), Bagrat IV (1027-1072), Giorgi III (1156-1184) took in marriage Ovsetian princeses, Queen Tamar’s (1184-1210) husband Davit Soslan was the heir of the throne of Ovsetian kingdom.

The state of Allania-Ovseti was destroyed first by Mongols in the 13th century and then, at the end of the 14th century smashed by Tamerlan. The main multitude of Allan-Ossetians was constrained to seek shelter in the mountainous gorges of the central Caucasus, while the plain of the ancient Allania at that time was occupied by reinforced Kabardinians.

Right in the mountainous part of the central Caucasus, as a result of confluence-mixing of Allan-Ossetians with the aboriginal Caucasian mountaineers, the present day Ossetian ethnos was formed in the 15th-17th centuries, which encloses two sub-ethnoses: Irs (Iron) and Digors. Digors substitute the west part of the Ossetians’ resettlement territory, where in the 17th-18th centuries, Islam was spread under the influence of Kabardinian seigniors, while Irs, whose name today became entirely the self-term of Ossetians (Iron) and Ossetia (Iriston), are the sole nation in North Caucasus, who represent the confessors of Christianity.

In the 17th century Iron-Ossetians started peaceful migration in the alpine gorges of the northern part of the central Georgia. This action was sanctioned by the central authorities of Georgia, as well as by Georgian feudals, concerned by the increasing of serf-peasants. Around the end of the 18th century, in the springs of the rivers Tergi, Ksani, Liakhvi, Aragvi, Jejora and Kvirila, the number of Ossetian new settlers made 4000 households. Ossetians movement into Georgia through the paved way was continued in the 19th-20th centuries too, when Georgia was already conquered by Russians and Ossetian settlements in internal territories of Georgia, in Trialeti, Borjomi-Bakuriani and Kakheti emerged as well. In 1989 the population of Ossetians in Georgia reached 164000 and among ethnic minorities living in Georgia, Ossetians, after Azerbaijanians, Russians and Armenians took the fourth place. The process of Ossetians lodging in Georgia was not always peaceful: indigent mountainy Ossetians, every time, when they had an opportunity, used to rob, startle, throw out from the villages and even kill unarmed Georgian peasants without any esteem.

In 1774-1781 North Caucasian Ossetians, together with Kabardinians became the guardians of Russia. Ossetians liberated from the Kabardinian feudals’ guardianship started to settle from the gorges of Caucasus in the lowlands of the river Tergi edges, from where Russians expelled Ingushians. Ossetians became reliable allies of Russian authorities in Caucasia and Ossetia – the foothold of Russian imperialistic ideas. The encouragement and usage of Ossetians for fighting first against Kabardinians and Ingushians and afterwards against Georgians, from the side of Russia was only divide ed impera policy fulfillment and nothing more, otherwise the fate of Ossetians and Ossetia, as well as the fate of Ingushians and other Caucasian ethnoses, among which some of them are even totally wiped out ,,by dint of” Russia did not disturb Russia.

In 1801 the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti turned out to be consisting in Russia and since then among Ossetians settled in Georgia and native Georgian population Russian administrators became the mediators, who, at every turn, in a conflict situations always supported Ossetians. At the very beginning of the 19th century Russians snap away from Tbilisi government the territory of historical Dvaleti which was at the upper loin of the river Ardon and which always constituted as the part of Georgia and today appears as a part of the Russian federation – North Ossetia. Yet in 20-ies of the 19th century, for marking Georgian territories inhabited with Ossetians, Russians established the term ,,South Ossetia”, where the insidious design of further dismember and disbandment of Georgia is enclosed. Here is implied the following: there exists Ossetia, divided into two parts – into the North and the South Ossetia, the unification of which is just the point of time. It’s worthwhile that in recent Russian language publications a new term - ,,Trialeti Ossetia” emerged as well and hereby professedly was expressed the appetite of all three ,,Ossetias” unification, which should devastate Georgia. It’s fitty to the point and we should say as well that Ossetians’ compact settlements in Trialeti are relatively new formations. These settlements were framed in reliance of Trialeti mountain pastures (summer pastures), belongings to Shida Kartli Georgian villages, which, under 1866 reform were passed to Ossetians, living there under the refugee (leaseholders) status fairly free of charge. Ossetians had to pay 3 rubles for desiatina (apr.12000sq.m), while the law forced Georgian peasants to buy one desiatina of his own land for 60 rubles.

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http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11939&Itemid=132

South Ossetians Elect Parliment

2009-06-01T07:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/world/europe/01ossetia.html?_r=1

MOSCOW — Voters in the breakaway territory of South Ossetia on Sunday elected a Parliament loyal to the Moscow-backed president, Eduard Kokoity, consolidating his control in the region that precipitated the war last August between Russia and Georgia.

South Ossetia’s new Parliament will be dominated by the Edinstvo, or Unity, Party, which won about 60 percent of the votes, based on an early count.

Critics complained that election officials had shut out Mr. Kokoity’s rivals, who blame him for the slow pace of reconstruction in the separatist capital.

On Sunday, officials reported a turnout of more than 56,000 voters.

South Ossetia’s prewar population was about 70,000.

Temuri Yakobashvili, Georgia’s minister of reintegration, called the results illegitimate.

“There are very few people left there,” he said. “Besides the fact that Georgians are not there, there are no ethnic Ossetians there. This is just an attempt to legitimize the Kokoity regime.”

The president’s opponents have suggested that he plans to change the Constitution so that he can run again after his second term ends, in 2011.

Georgia's Nato ambitions irk Russia

2009-05-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/05/200951011634523278.html

By Matthew Collin in Tbilisi, Georgia

The start of nearly a month of Nato military exercises in Georgia has provoked anger in Russia less than a year after Moscow and Tbilisi found themselves at war.

The former Soviet republic still covets membership of the military alliance which it sees as pivotal to its future security and independence.

Men in camouflage uniforms huddle around computers inside the command centre at Vaziani army base in eastern Georgia, getting ready for the start of the Nato military exercises.

While they work to install the communications systems, a commander at the base, Major Giorgi Kalandadze, welcomed Nato's presence as a show of support for Georgia after its defeat in the war with Russia in August last year.

But as he was speaking to Al Jazeera, a mutiny was allegedly being planned just a few kilometres away at another Georgian army base in Mukhrovani.

The day before troops arrived on May 6 to prepare for the exercises, senior officers at Mukhrovani tried to stage an uprising in order to disrupt the high-profile Nato exercises, the authorities say.

The mutiny also coincided with opposition protests in the capital, Tbilisi, raising fears of wider destabilisation.

The alleged plotters quickly surrendered without shots being fired after the authorities sent in tanks, armoured vehicles, helicopters and truckloads of soldiers.

Although the Nato exercises were not affected, President Mikheil Saakashvili admitted that the incident caused "damage" to his country's reputation.

The exercises are based around a fictitious crisis-response scenario, and involve around 1,000 soldiers from more than a dozen alliance countries and partner states.

Exercises 'dangerous'

They were planned more than a year ago, but neighbouring Russia has condemned them as "dangerous" and "provocative", despite the fact that Moscow was invited to participate.

Russia's envoy to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, said the Western military alliance would be better off holding the exercises in a "madhouse" than in a country where soldiers were "rioting against their own president".

Georgia is keen to win Nato membership, but the Kremlin does not want the alliance to extend its reach further into the former Soviet Union, which it sees as its own 'sphere of influence'.

Although the Russian leadership regards increased Nato presence on its borders as a threat, Saakashvili's government insists that Moscow cannot dictate Georgia's foreign policy.

"The era of 'spheres of influence' is over; it was over with the fall of the Iron Curtain," Giorgi Kandelaki, the deputy chairman of the Georgian parliament's foreign affairs committee, said.

Kandelaki pointed out that more than 70 per cent of Georgians who voted in a plebiscite last year said they wanted their country to join Nato.

"We have the right to choose our own destiny and our own political system but, unfortunately, Russia regards democracy on its border as a threat," he said.

Many Georgians see Nato membership as a guarantee of security amid the country's long-running disputes with its former Soviet masters in Moscow.

"From a strictly military point of view, Georgia would be much safer and its independence and sovereignty would be protected," Tamriko, an unemployed doctor in Tbilisi, said.

"I think what happened last August wouldn't have happened if Georgia was a member of Nato, because the principle of protecting member countries against invasion would have been used," said Keti, a student in the capital.

Peacekeeping missions

"...at one point in 2008, this small, impoverished state was the third-largest contributor of troops to the US-led mission in Iraq"

In an attempt to show that it is a reliable military partner, Georgia has sent soldiers to join peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo, and at one point in 2008, this small, impoverished state was the third-largest contributor of troops to the US-led mission in Iraq.

Many Georgians were disappointed when Nato decided not to grant their country a 'membership action plan' in April last year, although the alliance stated that Georgia would be allowed to join at some unspecified time in the future.

The country's ambitions were further damaged by the disastrous war, when the Russian army pushed deep into Georgia and destroyed a lot of its military infrastructure.

Just 70km from Vaziani, where the Nato exercises are taking place, Russian troops are still holding positions which they occupied during the conflict, and Moscow has called for a weapons embargo on Georgia to prevent the country from rebuilding its armed forces.

But according to Colonel Nugzar Tsintsadze, the exercises prove that the Georgian army is still functioning despite what he described as last year's "tragedy".

"I want to say to the people who think the Georgian army collapsed after the war: the Georgian army exists and will continue to exist, and can carry out its obligations," he declared.

Freeze on contacts

The five-day clash between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia put a freeze on contacts between Nato and Moscow.

The relationship had started to thaw recently, with Nato needing Moscow's assistance for the alliance's mission in Afghanistan, but it was strained yet again by the refusal to cancel the exercises in Georgia and the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Nato over espionage allegations.

Despite Moscow's objections, Nato has stressed that its "door remains open" to Georgia.

But Giorgi Khutsishvili, a political analyst at the International Centre on Conflict and Negotiation in Tbilisi, says that since the war, Georgian hopes of rapid accession to membership of the alliance have faded.

The fighting undermined hopes that a peaceful solution could be found to the bitter conflicts over the Russian-backed rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Moscow has recognised as independent states but Georgia regards as its sovereign territory.

"Georgia had to show that it was acting dynamically in the peace process and developing dialogue to make the situation more stable, but now this is unachievable," Khutsishvili said.

Russian bases

Thousands of Russian troops have been permanently stationed in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Moscow is also building military bases there, and recently deployed Russian border guards to police the ceasefire lines, meaning that any outbreak of shooting could lead to renewed military confrontation.

"Because Russia is building up its military presence in the conflict areas, it means the situation will remain unstable and even explosive for years, because Georgia will never accept this military presence which it regards as occupation," Khutsishvili suggested.

"It all makes for a situation where Georgian accession to Nato membership is a very distant prospect, unless the geo-political situation changes dramatically."
Source: Al Jazeera

Georgians Want Saakashvili to Stay in Power

2009-05-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

Georgians Want Saakashvili to Stay in Power
May 13, 2009

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/33426/georgians_want_saakashvili_to_stay_in_power

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in Georgia reject calls by some opposition politicians for president Mikhail Saakashvili to step down, according to a poll by the Institute of Polling and Marketing, Baltic Surveys, Gallup, and the International Republican Institute. Only 28 per cent of respondents agree with the notion that the president should resign.

Conversely, 51 per cent of respondents agree with Saakashvili’s calls for "unity and patience" to face serious challenges.

Georgia was the site of political instability in the last weeks of 2003, after the Georgian Supreme Court partially annulled the results of a parliamentary election. The ensuing crisis led to the resignation of Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze after opposition politicians requested his dismissal over electoral fraud. The country chose former justice minister Mikhail Saakashvili as the new head of state in January 2004.

In November 2007, thousands of people staged a protest in front of Georgia’s Parliament building to demand Saakashvili’s resignation and an early presidential election. After a harsh confrontation between riot police and demonstrators, Saakashvili declared a temporary national state of emergency. He later scheduled an early presidential ballot for January 2008, which he won with 53.47 per cent of all cast ballots.

According to international regulations, South Ossetia and Abkhazia belong to Georgia—a former Soviet republic. In the early 1990s, both pro-Russian regions became de facto independent but failed to be fully recognized as sovereign nations. Separatist factions operate in both regions.

In August 2008, a military conflict broke out between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where many Russian citizens live. On Aug. 8, Georgian forces entered South Ossetia to assert sovereignty over the region, and Russia responded with a full military operation that saw Russian soldiers take control of Georgian territory beyond South Ossetia. A ceasefire was later brokered by the European Union (EU). On Aug. 26, the Russian government officially recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Last month, opposition leaders organized a series of public protests asking Saakashvili to step down. They accused the president of mishandling the situation with Russia and governing in an increasingly autocratic way.

By the end of April, residents of the streets where the protests were being held were demanding the organizers to stop them due to constant disruptions to traffic and daily activities. On Apr. 24, opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze declared: "I want to tell local residents to show patience. It is much better to endure the problem of roadblocks than the problem of Saakashvili."

POLLING DATA

Which statement comes closer to your own point of view?

President Saakashvili: Georgia needs unity and patience to overcome serious challenges ahead

51%

Some opposition leaders: President Saakashvili should resign

28%

Both

7%

Neither

6%

Not sure

8%

Source: Institute of Polling and Marketing / Baltic Surveys/Gallup / International Republican Institute
Methodology: Interviews with 1,500 Georgian adults, conducted from Feb. 21 to Mar. 3, 2009. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

Military Parade In Doubt

2009-05-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Georgian Protests Putting Military Parade In Doubt -Officials

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200905131050dowjonesdjonline000696&title=georgian-protests-putting-military-parade-in-doubtofficials

TBILISI, Georgia (AFP)--Georgia will cancel its annual Independence Day military parade if it is liable to lead to clashes with opposition protesters, officials said Wednesday.

Opposition leaders said Tuesday they would march through central Tbilisi on May 26, when the former Soviet republic traditionally holds a parade featuring thousands of soldiers and military hardware.

Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava said the planned opposition march was a " provocation" aimed at trying to force the government to take action against protesters.

"Our response is calmness, patience, patience and more patience," he told journalists in remarks shown on Georgian television.

"If there are not the appropriate conditions, then obviously the parade and other celebrations will not be held."

Georgia's opposition has been protesting for more than a month to demand President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation. Talks Monday failed to resolve differences.

At the same time Saakashvili is under pressure from Western nations not to repeat a crackdown on opposition protests that occurred in November 2007.

Parliament speaker David Bakradze said the parade wasn't as important as maintaining calm.

"The main responsibility of the government is not to hold a parade but to keep civil calm and peace in the country," he told journalists.

"It is very unfortunate that part of the radical opposition is using May 26 as a chance for a provocation rather than the day that Georgia's independence should be celebrated by all Georgians regardless of political differences," he said.

The opposition accuses Saakashvili of mishandling the war with Russia and of becoming increasingly autocratic since he came to power after the peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution.

Putin Says NATO Exercises in Georgia Hinder U.S.-Russia Relations

2009-05-11T07:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/world/europe/11russia.html?ref=europe

By ELLEN BARRY
Published: May 10, 2009

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said Sunday that the planned “reset” in relations between Russia and the United States had been hampered by NATO exercises in Georgia, and that he hoped the United States would “step on the brake hard” to prevent the relationship from deteriorating.
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Grigory Dukor/Reuters

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin spoke about the planned “reset” in relations, saying it was a United States initiative.

In an interview with Japanese news services before a visit to Tokyo, Mr. Putin also said negotiations on strategic nuclear weapons should be linked to changes in the United States’ planned missile-defense system. Russia has long complained that proposed missile-defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic would pose a threat to Russia, and Mr. Putin said offensive and defensive capacities were “inseparably bound up.”

“I don’t think you have to be an expert to see that if one side wants to or has an umbrella against various threats, it can begin to suffer from the illusion that it is permissible to do whatever it likes, and then its actions will become many times more aggressive and the threat of a global confrontation will reach a danger level,” he said.

“Russia will, of course, link the issues of missile defense and everything related to it with strategic offensive weapons,” he said. He went on to say that Russia was encouraged by the United States’ disarmament agenda and was ready to begin talks about replacing the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, which expires in December.

Mr. Putin emphasized that the “reset,” a term used by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was a United States initiative rather than a Russian one. He said that Russia welcomed the overture, but that the military exercises in Georgia that began last week were “a signal in a different direction” and a show of support for President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia. He went on to characterize Mr. Saakashvili’s government as undemocratic, citing a clash between the police and protesters and a brief military mutiny in Georgia last week.

“We believe this is a step backward,” he said of the exercises, run by NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, which includes nations that are not members of the alliance. “But we understand that it takes time for brakes to take effect. We very much hope that the current U.S. leadership will step on the brake hard and slow down the negative trends in the development of links between our states.”

He also said he and President Dmitri A. Medvedev had not yet decided which posts they would seek when Mr. Medvedev’s term expires in 2012. Mr. Putin was constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive presidential term last year but could run again in 2012. He said the decision would center on their handling of the financial crisis.

“Both President Medvedev and I will decide what we will do — both he and I — depending on the results of our work,” he said. “As for him personally, you should ask him, but I repeat, I have known him for a long time and I know that he is a very decent man and he will look at his political future proceeding from the interest of the country and the results of our joint efforts. Time will tell.”

Georgia's political stalemate could end in violence

2009-05-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Georgia's political stalemate could end in violence
Mon May 11, 2009 1:59pm BST
http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc07/idUKTRE54A2GA20090511

By Matt Robinson -Analysis

TBILISI (Reuters) - The risk of violence is rising in Georgia after a month of political deadlock between a president determined to cling to power and an opposition which lacks the numbers and unity to unseat him.

President Mikheil Saakashvili, re-elected in January 2008 amid opposition allegations of fraud, has so far resisted demands to quit over his record on democracy and last year's disastrous war with Russia.

The United States and Russia, each for its own strategic reasons, are watching out for instability in the potentially volatile region. Georgia is a major conduit for the transit of Caspian gas and oil to Western markets.

Violence has already flared once at an evening protest in Tbilisi and analysts say Saakashvili must address opposition grievances if the political stalemate is to end peacefully, without mass unrest or a heavy police crackdown.

"The dilemma of this situation is that, on the one hand it is a continued and serious challenge that cannot be ignored," said Svante Cornell, research director at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.

"But on the other hand, it's not a challenge of the magnitude that would risk unseating the government, and therefore you have deadlock."

A brief, bloodless mutiny at a tank base last week also cast doubt over the loyalty of the military.

more...http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc07/idUKTRE54A2GA20090511

Dynamic Tbilisi, Surviving and Then Some

2009-05-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/travel/10next.html

By LIONEL BEEHNER
Published: May 10, 2009

IN a smoky, red-brick basement tucked beneath Tbilisi’s Old Town, a roomful of men in military fatigues sounded jubilant. Leaning over long tables of half-eaten sulguni cheese, they clinked their wineglasses and toasted to “Georgia!” and “Victory!”

The warbling voices of a band of Ossetian folk musicians in peasant-style black robes could be heard in an adjacent room, their songs striking a similarly triumphant theme.

To strangers, such a rah-rah mood might seem odd. This was, after all, Georgia, which just six months earlier had fought a costly war with Russia, losing two prized territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

But this speck of Caucasian turf has survived through centuries of invasions — by Mongols, Persians, Turks and Russians — while keeping its unique language, culture and cuisine intact, something that gives its four million citizens great pride. That may explain why Georgians greet one another with “Victory to you.”

And their capital stands as a monument to this nationwide braggadocio. Spectacularly frenetic and stylishly gritty, Tbilisi was left essentially untouched by the recent war, and it’s easy to see why. Built along the steep banks of the Kura River (also called the Mtkvari), the city is encircled by snowcapped mountains, and has narrow cobblestone streets barely wide enough for a Mini Cooper to squeeze through.

more...http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/travel/10next.html

Georgia Needs A Different Path To Democracy

2009-05-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.rferl.org/content/Georgia_Needs_A_Different_Path_To_Democracy/1623301.html

Commentary
Georgia Needs A Different Path To Democracy

The opposition was unable to maintain the initial numbers of demonstrators in Tbilisi after the first few days.
May 07, 2009
By Lincoln Mitchell, Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff
As bipartisan supporters of the Republic of Georgia's aspirations to become a fully functioning, Western-oriented democracy, we have followed with dismay the increasingly unproductive "dialogue" attendant to demonstrations against the current regime that began on April 9.

Both sides --- government and opposition --- bear responsibility for the resulting rhetorical and political stalemate, which if left unresolved could escalate into violence or instability. We urge an alternative course, one that requires both sides to offer something to the other and to acknowledge that neither side has all the answers.

The Georgian government must recognize that the demonstrations, regardless of their size, are a legitimate expression of a significant popular discontent. All is not well in Georgia. To assert otherwise or to continue using overheated rhetoric asserting that all those in the opposition are Russian operatives undermines the government's domestic and international credibility.

This is not to discount the real challenges Georgia's aggressive northern neighbor poses, but playing the Russia card at every turn has become a tired and ineffective diversion from the path of democratic dialogue and development.

The government must also resist the temptation to condescend toward the opposition. Elements of the opposition may be feckless and disorganized, but they deserve a measure of respect as representatives of alternative points of view. Using terms such as "reasonable opposition" to undermine the legitimacy of opposition groups conveys a not-so-subtle message that the government has taken upon itself the right to control or shape the opposition.

Similarly, the opposition must recognize that it made a serious error in focusing its entire efforts on securing President Mikheil Saakashvili's early resignation instead of confining its demands to more realistic, constructive, and credible goals. Saakashvili won his most recent popular mandate in a contested election that international observers agree generally reflected the popular will, despite significant flaws. Forcing an early resignation solely through demonstrations and civil disobedience is both extra-constitutional and undemocratic.

Moreover, we are concerned that this kind of all-or-nothing rhetoric is conditioning the Georgian electorate to believe that demonstrations and civil disobedience, rather than voting, are the only reliable means of securing political change. Stable democracies do not, and cannot, function in this way.

Instead, we propose the following:

First, the opposition must recognize that it has a right --- indeed, an obligation --- to oppose the government, but not to destroy the state and its leaders. It should withdraw its demands for Saakashvili's resignation and instead focus on specific, credible, and achievable demands for changes to Georgia's constitution and democratic processes.

These might include revising the composition of the Central Election Commission, direct election of big-city mayors, early parliamentary elections, replacing some members of the government, and reforms to reduce the government's use of "administrative resources" to hinder the opposition and support pro-government candidates in future elections. True, the opposition has been demanding such changes without success for the past two years, but in recent weeks the Georgian authorities have hinted they are now willing to address at least some of them.

Second, the government should be ready to discuss real changes to Georgia's constitution and democratic processes with the opposition and a broad array of stakeholders, including members of civil society, the Georgian Orthodox Church, and the business community. The government must make a significant gesture demonstrating its commitment to reform; at this moment, actions will speak much louder than words.

On a larger scale, the government must be willing to create and sustain a political environment in which opponents of the regime can function and organize. Ironically, the current government's leaders benefited from just such an environment under former President Eduard Shevardnadze.

Finally, for the sake of Georgia's continued political and social development, and its international reputation, both the government and the opposition need to commit themselves to the kind of normal political dialogue that characterizes a functioning, stable democracy. Losing a hard-fought election is not the end of the world, nor is it an excuse to abandon democratic processes and debate. Instead, losing should be a catalyst for reflection and a call to organization leading to victory in future elections.

In a real democracy, winners must be willing to lose, so they might be winners again. Similarly, winning an election doesn't mean that you have "won the argument" for all time. It means, rather, that the voters have given you the privilege of governing for a relatively short period of time before you must again seek a renewed mandate. Let us hope that Georgians as Georgians, not as members of either the opposition or government, will seize this moment in history to begin a new chapter in the political development of their country.

Lincoln A. Mitchell, an assistant professor of international politics at Columbia University, served as chief of party for the National Democratic Institute in Georgia in 2002-04 and is the author of "Uncertain Democracy: U.S. Foreign Policy and Georgia's Rose Revolution" (2009, University of Pennsylvania Press). Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, an investor and consultant, served as a short-term consultant in tax administration in Georgia. The views expressed in this commentary are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL

Donors pledge $4.5 billion for Georgia recovery

2008-10-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

www.reuters.com

By David Brunnstrom
…

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – International donors pledged a higher-than-expected $4.55 billion on Wednesday to help Georgia recover from its war with Russia, and Washington called it an extraordinary sign of solidarity at a time of financial turmoil.

The European Commission said the sum pledged at a one-day conference in Brussels included $3.7 billion in public loans and grants and $850 million from the private sector.

"Four and a half billion dollars far exceeds the expectations we had ... At a time like this to show such support is something that no Georgian will ever forget," Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told a news briefing.

Henrietta Fore, head of U.S. government aid agency USAID told Reuters: "The message economically and politically is very strong for Georgia ... At a time of financial turmoil, this is extraordinarily strong."

The United Nations and the World Bank had estimated that Georgia, an energy transit route, would need $3.25 billion over the next three years to help tens of thousands of people forced from their homes and repair and develop infrastructure.

Russia sent in troops in August after Georgia tried to retake the breakaway pro-Russian South Ossetia region. Moscow has since withdrawn soldiers from Georgia proper, but the West accused Moscow of a disproportionate use of force.

In Georgia, EU ceasefire monitors challenged South Ossetia to grant them access after the separatists complained of Georgian attacks. The monitors are denied access to the region, where Russia says thousands of its troops will provide security.

Also on Wednesday, South Ossetia approved a former Russian official as its prime minister, prompting Georgian charges that Moscow had annexed the region.

Russia's bombing raids in August hit mainly military targets in Georgia, but Tbilisi also reported damage to civilian infrastructure and risks to its economic growth and investment.

PLEDGES

The U.S. has offered at least $1 billion for rebuilding.

The European Commission, the European Union's executive, promised up to 500 million euros ($642.8 million) to 2010. It said pledges from the EU's 27 member states and the European Investment Bank brought the EU total to some 863 million euros.

Japan's Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasutoshi Nishimura said Japan would provide $200 million.

Tbilisi said last month international institutions had pledged a loan package of about $1 billion to help soften the impact of the conflict on the banking sector.

Georgia had to scale down foreign investment forecasts and last month the IMF approved a $750 million program aimed at rebuilding currency reserves and restoring investor confidence.

Representatives of the Georgian opposition sent an open letter to the Brussels meeting stressing the need to ensure the funds were not used to prop up the leadership, and demanded greater media freedom and judicial and electoral reform.

In Tbilisi, hardline opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze vowed to stage new protests from November 7, exactly a year after the government sent riot police to disperse protests against what demonstrators called President Mikheil Saakashvili's "autocratic" rule.

At the news briefing following the Brussels meeting, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Georgia must pursue reforms and ensure freedoms.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that although there was a moral imperative to help a neighbor in need, it was also in the European Union's interest.

"Any conflict on Europe's borders clearly has implications for European security and stability," he said. "This particular conflict also has potential costs for Europe in terms of our energy security and our diversification strategy."

Barroso noted that all of Georgia's main energy transit routes had been disrupted during the conflict.

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Russians remain in Akhalgori

2008-10-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

www.geotimes.ge

The Russian occupants have no intention to leave the Akhalgori Region. Georgian government will accuse Russia of breaching the Sarkozy-Medvedev ceasefire agreement unless Russian troops are withdrawn from Akhalgori.

Meanwhile, the occupants are registering local population in Akhalgori and trying to change everything Georgian with everything Russian - For example - to remove Georgian language from local schools and substitute it with Russian. Locals are objecting to this and ask for assistance.

Occupants are still firm on their positions in Sachkhere region. Their checkpoint in the village Perevi is still operating.

News Media Feel Limits to Georgia’s Democracy

2008-10-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

www.nyt.com

By DAN BILEFSKY and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: October 6, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia — The cameras at Georgia’s main opposition broadcaster, Imedi, kept rolling Nov. 7, when masked riot police officers with machine guns burst into the studio. They smashed equipment, ordered employees and television guests to lie on the floor and confiscated their cellphones. A news anchor remained on-screen throughout, describing the mayhem. Then all went black.

The pretext for the raid — which silenced the channel — was a government claim that Imedi was fomenting unrest when it broadcast a statement by one of its founders, Badri Patarkatsishvili, promising to topple the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Earlier that day, riot police officers lashed out with clubs and fired rubber bullets at unarmed antigovernment protesters. A nine-day state of emergency followed.

Now, 11 months later, Georgia’s democratic credentials are again being questioned, and tested, as the country finds itself on the front line of a confrontation between Russia and the West.

Georgia and its American backers, including the Republican and Democratic United States presidential contenders, have presented Georgia as a plucky little democracy in an unstable region, a country deserving of generous aid and NATO membership. But a growing number of critics inside and outside the country argue that it falls well short of Western democratic standards and cite a lack of press freedom as a glaring example.

Mr. Saakashvili, a telegenic New York-trained lawyer, came to power in 2004 after a wave of protests known as the Rose Revolution, promising to shed the authoritarianism of the past. But Lincoln A. Mitchell, a Georgia expert at Columbia University, contended that Mr. Saakashvili now presided over a “semiauthoritarian” state, while saying that it was the most democratic of the former Soviet states in the region.

“The reality is that the Saakashvili government is the fourth one-party state that Georgia has had during the last 20 years, going back to the Soviet period,” he said. “And nowhere has this been more apparent than in the restrictions on media freedom.”

In its most recent report, Freedom House, a human rights research group based in New York, ranked Georgia, in terms of press freedom, on a level with Colombia and behind Nigeria, Malawi, Indonesia and Ukraine — the last a NATO aspirant, like Georgia.

A 2008 State Department report on Georgia’s democratic progress said that respect for freedom of speech, the press and assembly worsened during the 2007 crisis and that there continued to be reports of “law enforcement officers acting with impunity” and “government pressure on the judiciary.”

Sozar Subari, Georgia’s ombudsman for human rights, an independent watchdog appointed by Parliament, accused the government of stifling press freedom by ensuring that sympathetic managers were installed as directors at national broadcasters.

“That Georgia is on the road to democracy and has a free press is the main myth created by Georgia that the West has believed in,” Mr. Subari said. “We have some of the best freedom-of-expression laws in the world, but in practice, the government is so afraid of criticism that it has felt compelled to raid media offices and to intimidate journalists and bash their equipment.”

Nino Zuriashvili, a Georgian investigative journalist who said she broadcast on the Internet to bypass censorship, said that under Mr. Saakashvili, nearly a dozen broadcasting outlets had been winnowed to a handful, and several political talk shows had been shut down. “The paradox is that there was more media freedom before the Rose Revolution,” she said.

Mr. Saakashvili himself, asked about press freedom on a recent visit to New York, conceded at an Atlantic Council luncheon that “we need to have more debate and more transparency.” But he insisted, “There are no taboos.”

Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze, a close ally of Mr. Saakashvili, retorted that market forces were driving the consolidation of media. Annual spending on television and newspaper advertising in Georgia is about $50 million, he said, not enough to support a dozen broadcasters. The raid on Imedi was not Georgia’s “finest hour,” he said in an interview, but he insisted that opposition voices were represented across Georgian media.

“All this talk of media censorship is a tired cliché,” he said, noting that opposition candidates in recent presidential and parliamentary elections had at least equal time on the main television stations.

Some critics said the culture of censorship was particularly pronounced during the brief war with Russia in August. They accused the government of obfuscating reality to portray Georgia as both victim and victor.

Nino Jangirashvili is the director of the Tbilisi broadcaster Kavkasia, which is independently owned and run. She said that on Aug. 10, when Mr. Saakashvili called for a cease-fire, government officials were briefing broadcasters that Georgian troops controlled Tskhinvali, the capital of breakaway South Ossetia, even as Georgian soldiers there were frantically calling Kavkasia to say they had been overrun by the Russians and were hiding in trees.

She said the station refrained from reporting the extent of what it knew, for fear of being shut down or labeled as Russian agents. “We engaged in self-censorship because of the political environment of fear and intimidation,” she said.

Giga Bokeria, the deputy foreign minister, who is a member of the governing party, National Movement, and is a close ally of Mr. Saakashvili, said that during the war, the government asked broadcasters in some cases not to make reports that could incite panic or be used by Russia as propaganda. But he was emphatic that it had provided journalists with accurate information; the Georgian retreat from Tskhinvali on Aug. 10 was acknowledged publicly, he said. Indeed, by noon that day, the Georgian news media reported Russian control.

The government’s control of the news media, critics say, is best seen at Rustavi 2, the most popular television channel. Once he came to power, Mr. Saakashvili moved to cement his hold over it, said Kibar Khalvashi, Rustavi 2’s former owner, who has become a critic of the government.

Mr. Khalvashi said in an interview that in 2004, a close friend who was then Georgia’s minister of defense, Irakli Okruashvili, asked him to buy a majority stake in Rustavi 2, and he agreed. Two years later, when Mr. Okruashvili joined the opposition, Mr. Khalvashi said Mr. Saakashvili personally pressed him to sell his 78 percent stake in the channel to a person proposed by the government whose identity was not disclosed to him. “He told me to release these shares if I wanted to have a good life in Georgia,” he said.

Once he parted with his shares, Mr. Khalvashi said, the government began a campaign of intimidation and interference in his construction and consumer goods businesses; he said he was fined about $37 million by financial regulators and pushed into bankruptcy. He has since moved to Germany, where he is seeking political asylum.

Mr. Bokeria, the deputy foreign minister, denied Mr. Khalvashi’s allegations, calling them politically motivated; his businesses had been fined, Mr. Bokeria said, because he had broken the law.

According to Rustavi 2’s licensing documents, dated December 2007 and on file at Georgia’s national broadcast regulator, the channel’s current majority owner is Geomedia Group, registered in the Marshall Islands, whose controlling director is not publicly known. Its minority shareholder is the Georgian Industrial Group, controlled by two brothers, David Bezhuashvili, a member of the governing party, and Gela Bezhuashvili, director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Georgia.

Irakli Chikovani, Rustavi 2’s general director for 10 months, said that as far as he knew, there had been no instances of officials trying to put pressure on the station’s journalists.

“I think it inconceivable for someone to call a journalist, say not to do something, and for the journalist to stay quiet,” he said.

Eka Khoperia, a former news director at Rustavi 2, said that at times her phone had rung constantly with government officials seeking to influence reporting. The pressure was so strong, she said, that she finally resigned on the air in July 2006 to protest government attempts to influence her handling of a story on the murder of a bank official in which employees of the Interior Ministry were implicated.

In August of that year, other Rustavi 2 staff members staged a strike to protest the dismissal of the station’s general director and his replacement with a government ally.

Ms. Khoperia said Georgian journalists deserved some blame for not holding the government to account. She said that in Georgia’s young developing democracy, journalists and those who went on to become politicians worked together in the prelude to the Rose Revolution, and the lines between them became blurred afterward. “They were our friends and we were together in one group,” she said. “It took us journalists too long to adapt to the new reality. Often we behaved like politicians. We should have taken a step back.”

As for Imedi, it reopened in early September, and is now owned by Josef Kei, a pro-government businessman and a cousin of Mr. Patarkatsishvili, the Imedi founder. (Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which held power of attorney over Imedi, no longer has a stake in the company.) Mr. Patarkatsishvili became a candidate for the Georgian presidency after the raid on Imedi and was accused of taking part in a coup against the government. He lost the election and died of a heart attack at his home near London this year.

Nona Kandiashvili, a spokeswoman for the Patarkatsishvili family, said the family was contesting Mr. Kei’s ownership. Imedi, meanwhile, has been nicknamed Rustavi 3 by Georgian journalists because of its new pro-government line.

Olesya Vartanyan contributed reporting.

Russia steps up preparations for Georgia pullout

2008-10-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

www.ap.org

By MATT SIEGEL

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Russian forces stepped up preparations Monday to withdraw from bases and checkpoints surrounding two separatist regions in Georgia, four days ahead of a deadline closely watched by the West.

Moscow must pull back thousands of troops from buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Friday under a deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Russia left troops in the areas after routing Georgia in an August war.

Heavy activity was observed at installations across Georgia — from around the central city of Gori, near South Ossetia, to Zugdidiin in the west, near Abkhazia on the Black Sea.

At a checkpoint in Kvenatkotsa, northwest of Gori, an Associated Press reporter saw Russian soldiers destroying nonessential equipment before lowering the Russian flag at an adjacent hillside base. Soldiers milled around near seven military transport vehicles brought in to haul out personnel and equipment.

Georgia's Interior Ministry confirmed that Russian forces were making preparations to pull out of at least eight posts across the country.

Maj. Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of the Russian peacekeepers in the Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone, told Russian news organizations that the six military posts to the south of South Ossetia would be removed within a day of the start of the withdrawal there.

"No problems are hindering the withdrawal of the observation posts from the southern limits of the security zone. The removal of material and of defense installations are proceeding simultaneously at all six observation posts," Kulakhmetov said, Interfax reported.

Kulakhmetov asked the European Union to ensure the presence of two EU military observers at each post at the time of withdrawal, Russian news agencies reported.

A spokesman for the EU monitoring mission declined comment, citing confidentiality rules related to the talks.

The cease-fire also calls for both sides to return troops to the positions they held before the fighting broke out — but Russia's announced plan to keep some 8,000 troops in the regions well exceeds the number reportedly there before the fighting began.

Russia recognized the independence of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia after the fighting.

Business booming in Georgia for Stalin look-alike

2008-10-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

www.nyt.com
www.sfgate.com

Dan Bilefsky, New York Times

(10-05) Gori, Georgia -- With his signature mustache,
medal-encrusted Soviet marshal's uniform and determination to be addressed
as "Comrade," the Stalin impersonator Jamil Ziyadaliev should perhaps be
out of work in Georgia, a country still reeling from a war with Russia.
But Ziyadaliev, 64, an avuncular father of two who dresses as Stalin even
on days off, insists that business has seldom been better. He is a
frequent hired guest at weddings, where he dances to Soviet Katyusha music
from World War II.
The benefits of looking eerily like the former dictator, he boasts,
include free meals, free car repairs - and free passage through Russian
checkpoints. Looks come with perks
"Looking like Stalin is like having a visa in Georgia," said Ziyadaliev, a
Muslim originally from Azerbaijan, who drove a taxi, peddled vegetables
and worked as an accountant before deciding on a career as a modern
incarnation of the brutal, diabolically brilliant Soviet tyrant.
"All Georgians respect Stalin, because he was a great leader who created a
great empire - and, of course, he was the most famous Georgian who ever
lived," Ziyadaliev said.
Not everyone agrees. Nika Jabanashvili, a Georgian construction worker
whose grandparents were deported by Stalin from Tbilisi to Central Asia as
part of his repression of ethnic minorities, views Stalin as little more
than a murderer.
"Stalin was a Satan," he said. "He killed more people than Pharaoh. I
don't care if he was Georgian. He was a bad man."
Whatever the range of opini
ons, an enduring cult of Stalin persists in
this small but proud nation of 4.6 million, where the
Georgian-cobbler's-son-turned-20th-century-titan remains a towering if
contentious figure. A recent survey on Tbilisi Forum, a popular political
Web site, asked whether people were proud that Stalin was Georgian; a
vocal minority of 37 percent of the several hundred respondents said yes,
while 52 percent said no and 11 percent said they did not care.
Vakhtang Guruli, a historian of Georgia who works in the KGB archives in
Tbilisi, said that most Georgians regarded Stalin as "higher than man,
more than human and less than God."
He said contemporary Georgian history books still lauded Stalin for
vanquishing Hitler's fascism and transforming the Soviet Union into an
industrial superpower, even as they criticized him for engineering the Red
Army invasion that ended Georgia's short-lived independence in 1921.
Stalin's lust for power, Guruli added, was a decidedly Georgian
characteristic, the outgrowth of having an outsize ego in a tiny, macho
country long consumed by banditry.
"Russians tend to forget that Stalin had a Georgian last name,
Dzhugashvili, which was overshadowed when he adopted the nom de guerre of
Stalin, meaning man of steel, when he was in his 30s," Guruli said. "But
every Georgian knows Stalin came from here. He may have given his
execution orders in Russian, but he did so with a heavy Georgian accent" -
a lineage, Guruli said, that Nikita Khrushchev seized upon after he
denounced Stalin's rule in 1956, mocking him and his henchmen as uncouth
Georgian peasants.
Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of "Young Stalin," which chronicles
Stalin's violent upbringing as an aspiring priest who became a Marxist
revolutionary in Tbilisi, said that even when Stalin became the supreme
Soviet leader, he retained a deep attachment to Georgia.
He wrote frequently to his mother here, vacationed in Abkhazian sea
resorts and retained an abiding love of Georgian wine, food, poetry and
folk music.
"There are
two Stalins: the Russian Stalin and the Georgian Stalin," Sebag
Montefiore said. "In the Georgian version, Stalin is still the street
Marxist, the Georgian boy from Gori. In the Russian version, Stalin is the
most important leader of the 20th century and his Georgian identity has
been laundered and Russified." Stalin sculpture in backyard
Liana Imanidze, 71, whose grand home in Tbilisi has a sculpture of Stalin
in the backyard and is decorated inside with a replica of his death mask
perched on a pedestal, lamented that younger Georgians were ignorant about
Stalin, including her own grandchildren, who she complained were more
interested in Paris Hilton than in World War II.
She regretted that her Stalin-worshiping husband was "more in love with
Stalin than with me," but she nevertheless lauded Stalin as a flawed
genius.
Sociologists here said the residual appeal resulted from the lack of
historical reckoning about Stalin's darker deeds after Georgia gained
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
In Gori, Stalin's birthplace, a dusty provincial town where a marble
Stalin statue dominates the central square, toasts to "our great comrade"
remain commonplace at births and weddings. Embarrassed Georgians in the
Ministry of Interior said privately that they were disappointed a Russian
bomb had not landed on the statue during the August war.
On a recent day at the Stalin Museum here, young Georgian staff members
wearing Soviet military uniforms sold Stalin T-shirts, Stalin poetry books
and Stalin-embossed bottles of red wine, even as cleaners removed mortar
left over from the recent Russian shelling.
Olga Topchishvili, the museum's senior tour guide, said she had been
extolling Stalin's accomplishments for nearly 30 years, until three months
ago, when the museum added a new "gulag section." The section consists of
a laminated, letter-size piece of paper quoting three sentences from a
1997 issue of Pravda, the Russian newspaper: "About 3.8 million people
were prosecuted between 1921 and 1954," the p
aper says. "About 643,000
people were sentenced to death. And this happened in a country that
experienced three revolutions, two world wars, one civil war and several
local wars."
Exact figures are unknown, but historians say the reality was far more
murderous: that as many as 18 million people were sentenced to the gulag
under Stalin, while up to 10 million peasants died or were killed in the
collectivization of the early 1930s, and nearly 1 million people were
executed in the purges of 1937-38.
But Topchishvili said the new exhibit was progress. "Until three months
ago, no one wanted to talk about this part of history," she said.
Jacob Jugashvili, the dictator's 36-year-old great-grandson, an artist in
Tbilisi, said that if Georgians were nostalgic for Stalin, it was because
he made a small country part of a great superpower.
Jugashvili, who grew up in Moscow, said that when Georgians hear his
famous surname, they almost always respond: "Stalin was Georgian; that is
why he was great!"
Jugashvili, who favors the Westernized spelling of his name, said that
growing up as Stalin's great-grandson in 1980s Russia had been emotionally
difficult, as Stalin's leadership was attacked during the period of
Mikhail Gorbachev. At that time, he said, Georgians were far more
respectful of his legacy - though in Vladimir Putin's Russia, Jugashvili
said, Stalin's stature has again risen.
In 1989 he was in high school, "and perestroika had reached its boiling
point," he said, adding: "Moscow newspapers were publishing stories with
the headline 'Dzhugashvili Is a Killer!' I was 16 years old and I was very
upset. I didn't know how to defend myself." Tattoos of Stalin
These days, respect for Stalin can unite Georgians and Russians.
Nodari Baliashvili, 72, a Gori native who has a large tattoo of Stalin on
his back and another of Stalin and Lenin on his chest, recalled that after
war broke out in early August, he was working as a security guard at a bus
depot when a Russian colonel burst in and pointed a pisto
l at him.
Baliashvili recalled that he took off his shirt and the colonel "put his
gun down, kissed me on the cheek, gave me a bottle of vodka and
chocolates, and said, 'Grandpa, go home.' "
Baliashvili, who got the tattoos as a young soldier in the Soviet army,
said his own grandfather, a poor orphan from Gori, had been adopted by
Stalin's father, who made him an apprentice cobbler.
"I'm proud that Stalin comes from Gori," Baliashvili said. "He built the
U.S.S.R. He brought order where there was chaos. Today, everything is for
sale."

EU Georgia monitors see sign of Russian pullback

2008-10-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

www.reuters.com

By Matt Robinson

TBILISI (Reuters) - EU ceasefire monitors in Georgia reported the dismantling of a Russian checkpoint near breakaway South Ossetia on Sunday, saying it was the "first open sign" of a promised Russian troop pullback by October 10.

A spokesman with the European Union monitoring mission said the checkpoint was in the Ali region of Georgia, northwest of the town of Gori.

"Monitors have been observing the dismantling of the checkpoint," the spokesman told Reuters. "This is the first open sign," he said, in a reference to the expected Russian troop withdrawal following a five-day war between Russia and Georgia in August.

The regional police chief told Reuters the checkpoint was in the village of Nabakhtevi.

Russia sent forces into Georgia to repel an offensive by Tbilisi to retake South Ossetia from pro-Moscow separatists. Moscow said it would pull back troops by October 10 from "security zones" it established on Georgian territory adjoining South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

The October 10 deadline was set under a French-brokered ceasefire. The EU deployed an observer mission of more than 200 unarmed monitors on October 1, with the initial task of monitoring the Russian pullback.

The Nabakhtevi checkpoint is west of the main conflict zone, in a region that did not see the displacement of villagers witnessed in the area running directly north of Gori up to the de facto border, where human rights groups say militias and paramilitaries looted and burned Georgian homes.

"POSITIVE STEP"

In a previous withdrawal from the Black Sea area of Poti last month, Russian troops spent days dismantling checkpoints and moving supplies and equipment before finally pulling out.

Germany was quick to welcome the sign of withdrawal.

"It's a positive first step which must be followed by others," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement published by his office on Sunday.

"It's important for the stabilization of the Caucasus and for the forthcoming talks in Geneva that the Russian pullback from the security zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia is completed quickly and according to the agreed timetable."

Internationally mediated talks are due in Geneva on October 15 to discuss security in the region and the return of refugees.

Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in August when Georgia sent troops and tanks to retake South Ossetia, a rebel Georgian province which threw off Tbilisi's rule in the early 1990s.

Russian forces subsequently drove Georgian government troops out of South Ossetia. Moscow's troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent more Georgian attacks.

The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and demanded Moscow pull back its troops from Georgian territory outside the conflict zones.

Despite international censure, Moscow has also recognized both rebel regions as independent states and plans to station some 7,600 soldiers there. It says the EU monitors will not be allowed to operate in either South Ossetia or Abkhazia.

(Additional reporting by Margarita Antidze; editing by Myra MacDonald)

Senior Russia peacekeeper died in S.Ossetia blast

2008-10-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

www.reuters.com

Sat Oct 4, 2008

MOSCOW, Oct 4 (Reuters) - A senior Russian peacekeeping officer was among seven soldiers killed on Friday in an explosion in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Russian media reported on Saturday.

On Friday, seven Russian peacekeepers died and another seven were wounded when a car filled with explosives blew up near their base in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, news agencies reported.

RIA Novosti on Saturday quoted a representative of Russia's Ground Force as saying Colonel Ivan Petrik, the Russian peacekeepers' chief of staff, was killed in that blast. He was in his office when the explosion went off near the building.

"Petrik was severely wounded by the blast wave and died at the explosion site," RIA quoted the official as saying.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity on Friday blamed Georgian security services for the blast. The Georgian Interior Ministry denied the charges.

Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in August when Georgia sent troops and tanks to retake the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia, which threw off Georgian rule in the early 1990s.

Russian forces subsequently drove Georgian government troops out of South Ossetia. Moscow's troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.

The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and demanded that Moscow pull back its troops from Georgian territory outside the conflict zones.

Under a plan mediated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, EU monitors have now entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia to begin a peacekeeping operation.

On Friday, Russia's Defence Ministry said it viewed the explosion as "a deliberately planned terrorist act aimed at preventing the sides from carrying out the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan," but did not specify who exactly was behind the blast.

EU ceasefire monitors were continuing operations despite security concerns after the blast.

A spokesman for the mission said unarmed monitors had been patrolling as normal on Saturday, including within the Russian-controlled buffer zone adjacent to South Ossetia. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Additional reporting by Matt Robinson; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Russia blames Georgia for S.Ossetia blast

2008-10-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

www.reuters.com

Sat Oct 4, 2008

MOSCOW, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Russia blamed Georgia on Saturday for an explosion that killed Russian soldiers in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.

A senior Russian peacekeeping officer was among seven soldiers killed on Friday when a car blew up at the Russian peacekeepers' base in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, the Russian military said. Russia's Interfax news agency quoted South Ossetia's Interior Ministry as saying a total of 11 people had been killed, including civilians. The RIA agency quoted a military spokesman as saying Colonel Ivan Petrik, the Russian peacekeepers' chief of staff, had been killed in his office.

Georgia sent troops and tanks in August to assert control of the pro-Russian separatist region, but was routed by Russian forces, which went on to occupy parts of the Georgian heartland.

Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, told Itar-Tass news agency that the office had "all grounds to believe that the explosion in Tskhinvali was arranged by the secret services of Georgia and is aimed at Russian peacekeepers to destabilise the situation".

Russia's RIA news agency quoted the commander of Russia's forces in Georgia, Major-General Marat Kulakhmetov, as saying they had stopped two cars on Friday in the village of Ditsa, in a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia, and escorted them to Tskhinvali.

As they were being searched, a bomb went off.

Georgia denied the charges, saying it would have had to find Ossetians to take the car into the area under Russian control.

"I don't understand the logic. How could the Georgian secret service plan that the Ossetians would steal the car and that the Russians would take it to their base. Are we geniuses or what?" Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

"The Georgians did not take any car to Ossetian territory or drive it to the Russian base."

Utiashvili suggested the Russians were trying to delay their withdrawal from the buffer zone, due to be complete by Oct. 10 under a French-mediated ceasefire agreement.

Unarmed EU monitors have entered the buffer zone to monitor the agreement. A spokesman for the mission said they were patrolling as normal on Saturday. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Matt Robinson; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Seven Russian soldiers killed in S.Ossetia blast

2008-10-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

www.reuters.com

By Oleg Shchedrov

MOSCOW, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Seven Russian peacekeepers were killed and seven others wounded when a car filled with explosives blew up near their base in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia on Friday, Russian news agencies reported.

Russia's Defence Ministry described the blast as a "terrorist act" aimed at undermining international efforts to restore peace in the region, scene of a five-day war between Tbilisi and Moscow in August.

The South Ossetian leader pointed the finger at Tbilisi. But Georgia denied responsibility.

"Seven servicemen died, another seven were wounded," Interfax news agency quoted the peacekeepers' commander, Major-General Marat Kulakhmetov, as saying.

RIA news agency quoted Kulakhmetov as saying that the peacekeepers, which control the region and a swathe of Georgian territory outside it, had detained two cars in the Georgian village of Ditsa.

"There were four people, apparently ethnic Georgians, in the car. Light firearms and two grenades were also found," Kukakhmetov said.

"The cars and the detained people were escorted to (South Ossetian capital) Tskhinvali," he added. "During the search of one of the cars, an explosive device equivalent to some 20 kg (50 lb) of TNT went off."

Thick black smoke plumed into the air after the explosion. Police cars and ambulances rushed to the scene.

"Russia's Defence Ministry views the incident as a deliberately planned terrorist act aimed at preventing the sides from carrying out the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan," the ministry said in a statement.

BLAMES

Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in August when Georgia sent troops and tanks to retake the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in the early 1990s.

Russian forces subsequently drove Georgian government troops out of South Ossetia. Moscow's troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.

The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and demanded that Moscow pull back its troops from Georgian territory outside the conflict zones.

Under a plan mediated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, EU monitors have now entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia to begin a peacekeeping operation.

Russia says confiscating illegal weapons and explosives was part of the work carried out by its troops.

The Defence Ministry statement did not specify who exactly was behind the blast. But South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity blamed Georgian security services.

"This was a deliberate act by the Georgian security services," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying. "The (Russian) military and people who bought the car in Georgia and delivered it to Tskhinvali for checks, died in the blast."

The Georgian Interior Ministry denied the charges.

"If provocations and tensions are in the interest of anyone, it's the Russians," ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told Reuters. "They are doing everything not to pull out troops within the set term." (Additional reporting by Tatyana Ustinova in Moscow and Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi; Writing by Oleg Shchedrov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Monitors in Georgia Enter South Ossetia Buffer Zone

2008-10-02T07:57:00.000-07:00

www.nyt.com

MOSCOW — European civilian monitors entered the Georgian buffer zone outside the separatist enclave of South Ossetia on Wednesday, despite a warning from a Russian military official a day earlier that the monitors would not be allowed access to the buffer zone.

European Union observers visited Mukhrani, a Georgian village, while monitoring a cease-fire.

At the same time, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said that Russia would fulfill its commitment to withdraw its troops to the boundaries of South Ossetia and the other breakaway enclave, Abkhazia, by Oct. 10.

“We will do everything on time,” he said at a news conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he traveled for talks with Spain’s prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Mr. Medvedev also said that there was no ideological basis for hostility between Russia and the West, and that he hoped to resume cooperative partnerships with NATO that were suspended in the aftermath of the war in Georgia. “Today, we don’t have the kinds of ideological differences which could spark off a cold war or, for that matter, any other war,” he said, noting that whoever won the United States presidential elections in November would probably have to focus on the financial crisis.

“It requires a lot of attention,” he said. “It’s much simpler to analyze international questions than to make the necessary economic decisions on time.”

Of NATO, he said that “the cooperation is no less important for them than for us.”

“Ultimately,” he said, “everything will be restored in full.”

Russian frustration with NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe, which includes discussing possible membership for Georgia and Ukraine, has contributed to soured relations with the West.

In an interview published Thursday in the newspaper Izvestia, Nikolai Patrushev, the chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said he believed that NATO might deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Georgia and Ukraine if they were admitted to the alliance. From those positions, strikes could be aimed at targets in “the European part of Russia, including elements of government and military control.”

“That kind of American action could lead to the strengthening of mutual distrust and a buildup of an arms race, which we, I would note, do not seek,” Mr. Patrushev said, according to text on the newspaper’s Web site. “We are interested in sustaining normal neighborly relationships.”

The patrols in Georgia were a provision of the cease-fire agreement brokered by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and agreed to by Russia on Sept. 8. By midafternoon Wednesday, 14 patrols had been deployed, including some that crossed into the buffer zone near South Ossetia at three Russian checkpoints, according to Hansjörg Haber, the European Union’s mission director in Georgia. A patrol also made contact with Russian troops at a checkpoint on the boundary of Abkhazia, but did not cross in, he said.

Fighting broke out between Georgia and Russia in early August, after Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ordered an attack on Russian positions in the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Russian troops poured across the border in response and drove deep into Georgian territory.

On Aug. 26, Moscow recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign nations. Russia plans to keep troops there as its military withdraws from the rest of Georgia.

Stephen Castle contributed reporting from Brussels, Olesya Vartanyan from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Alan Cowell from London.

EU cease-fire monitors begin patrols in Georgia

2008-10-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

www.ap.com

By MATT SIEGEL

KARALETI, Georgia (AP) — European Union monitors began patrolling Georgian territory Wednesday and Russian troops allowed some of them into a buffer zone around the breakaway region of South Ossetia despite earlier warnings from Moscow they would be blocked.

Russian peacekeepers had said Tuesday that none of the 300 observers would be immediately permitted to be in the buffer zone, raising concerns that Moscow was stalling on withdrawing its troops from Georgia as it promised to do after its war with Georgia in August.

But EU monitors were quickly allowed to pass through Russian checkpoints Wednesday near two Georgian villages on the perimeter of Moscow's so-called "security zone."

"The situation is very calm," said Ivan Kukushkin, a smiling Russian officer in charge of the checkpoint near Kvenatkotsa.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's spokeswoman confirmed the deployment of the monitors was going smoothly and that they have been able to go "wherever they planned to go."

Russia and Georgia agreed to the EU observer mission as part of an updated cease-fire plan following the war, which ended with Russian and separatist forces in control of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russians also dug in on other territory in Georgia.

Terrified residents in the village of Karaleti, which was devastated by weeks of looting by South Ossetian militia, said EU monitors had come too late. Vitaly Shavishishvili, 24, and his relatives are now living in a cowshed after looters burned down their two-story house and stole two of their vehicles.

"We only count on ourselves," Shavishishvili said.

Zaira Mamagulashvili, 62, said that the looters burned more than 30 houses in the village and looted the local store and then blew it up with hand grenades.

"No one is in control. We are afraid of everyone," said Misha Sukhitashvili, another Karaleti resident. "A Russian soldier is the kind of guy who after he has a drink is capable of anything."

As part of the French-brokered cease-fire deal, Moscow agreed to withdraw its forces completely from areas outside of South Ossetia and Abkhazia within 10 days of the EU monitors' deployment — including from a roughly 4-mile buffer zone they have created southward from South Ossetia.

"The Russians gave us plans for dismantling their (check)points but didn't say when," EU mission director Hansjoerg Haber told reporters.

At the Russian checkpoint near the Georgian village of Kvenatkotsa, an armored personnel carrier was parked up the hill near camouflaged tents and there was no sign of any preparations for a Russian troop pullback.

Russia still plans to keep around 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and has refused to allow EU monitors inside the regions themselves.

"Show the flag, be friendly, show confidence," Haber told monitors in Basaleti, about 12 miles north of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

The EU observers will be based in four semi-permanent locations, including the central city of Gori near South Ossetia and the Black Sea port of Poti, key targets of Russian forces.

Solana, who visited Georgia on Tuesday, expressed optimism that Moscow would pull its troops back in the promised time frame.

The war began Aug. 7 when Georgian troops launched an offensive to regain control of South Ossetia. Russia sent troops, which quickly routed the Georgian military and pushed deep into Georgia.

Russia's continued occupation of Georgian territory and its subsequent recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has drawn strong condemnation from the West, which urged Moscow to respect Georgia's sovereignty.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev insisted Wednesday that the military action was necessary to repel the Georgian aggression and protect Russian citizens and peacekeepers in the region.

"We have done a right thing," Medvedev said in the Kremlin after giving medals to soldiers who fought in the war. "We have shown that Russia can protect its citizens, that all other nations must reckon with it."

Associated Press writers Mansur Mirovalev and Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili in Bazaleti and Odisi, Georgia, contributed to this report.

First EU monitors enter Georgian buffer zones

2008-10-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.reuters.com/Wed Oct 1, 2008 10:49am EDT

By Margarita Antidze

NABAKHTEVI, Georgia (Reuters) - EU monitors entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia for the first time on Wednesday in what they said was a smooth start to their peacekeeping operation.

The 200-plus EU monitors began deploying under a French-brokered ceasefire deal that should see Moscow pull troops back within 10 days from two buffer zones inside Georgia, occupied during a war between the two countries in August.

The Russian military and EU officials had said earlier there was still no agreement on full access to the zones. But on Wednesday at least two EU patrols entered the South Ossetia buffer zone at separate locations, passing Russian checkpoints.

A Reuters reporter traveling with one of the patrols, led by French civilian monitors, entered the zone in the village of Nabakhtevi, west of the town of Gori. "We're in the buffer zone," one of the monitors confirmed.

A smooth deployment is critical to the success of the peace deal and will test Russia's willingness to stick to its terms. The crisis over Georgia, an aspiring NATO member and key transit state for exports of Caspian Sea oil and gas, has gravely damaged Moscow's relations with Europe and the United States.

After lengthy discussions with Russian commanders, a second patrol entered at Karaleti, in an area where human rights groups say paramilitaries have been looting and attacking ethnic Georgian villages since the war, forcing thousands to flee.

"Patrols made first contact with authorities and (the local) population," an EU spokesman said. "They also passed different Russian checkpoints and entered the so-called adjacent areas."

A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said: "They have been able to go wherever they planned to go."

The EU mission said it hoped to coordinate a "step-by-step" withdrawal of Russian forces and simultaneous return of Georgian police to the buffer zones to avoid a security vacuum that could be exploited by roaming militias.

Georgia welcomed the EU's entry to the buffer zones.

"It is once more confirmation that when the international community is unified and resolute, the Russians are compelled to comply," said National Security Council Secretary Kakha Lomaia.

NO ACCESS TO REBEL REGIONS

Russia has said the EU monitors will not be allowed inside South Ossetia or a second breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, both of which it has recognized since the conflict as independent states. Moscow says it can guarantee security in the rebel regions, where it plans to post more than 7,000 troops.

As the monitors set off, access remained an issue, with EU mission head Hansjoerg Haber telling reporters that assurances offered by Russia at the political level were "understood differently" by the military on the ground.

He said Russian forces had given "all sorts of reasons" for denying access, including security concerns. In western Georgia, a Reuters TV reporter saw an EU patrol approach a Russian post near the de facto border with Abkhazia but turn back.

Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in August when Georgia's army tried to retake Moscow-backed South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in 1991-92. Russia responded with a powerful counter-strike that drove the Georgian army out of South Ossetia. Its forces then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.

The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and has repeatedly demanded that Moscow pull its troops out of the buffer zones inside Georgia.

In Tbilisi, the Georgian police displayed what they said was a Russian unmanned reconnaissance drone that fell out of the sky on Tuesday just outside South Ossetia. "This is our territory, we control it," said spokesman Shota Utiashvili.

A spokesman for Russian forces in South Ossetia, Lt-Col Vitaly Manushko, said he could not confirm the Georgian claim, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

(Additional reporting by Matt Robinson in Bazaleti, Georgia; Writing by Conor Sweeney and Matt Robinson; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Grateful Abkhazia Thanks Russia on Its National Day

2008-10-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.reuters.com/
Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Mikhail Voskresensky / Reuters

SUKHUMI, Georgia — Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia proclaimed President Dmitry Medvedev a hero Tuesday as the region celebrated its first national day since Moscow recognized it as an independent state.

Russian and Abkhaz flags fluttered over the capital Sukhumi to mark the 15th anniversary of the Black Sea region's victory over Georgian forces in a separatist war.

Among the smiling crowds milling around war memorials on Tuesday, a few individuals sadly hunted out the names of sons or husbands killed in the 1992-1993 war that drove Tbilisi's forces from Abkhaz territory.

"We celebrate and we cry all together," said Feniya Leiba-Khagush, 62, as she stroked the engraved name of her only son Robert, who died in the battle to retake Sukhumi.

Her sister, Galina, comforted her as they walked around to show the names of two cousins whose names are also among the 1,667 engraved on the memorial in the town center.

"The pain will never leave us, but we are grateful that we are understood now. Thanks to Medvedev, we are safe. He saved us; he is a true hero of Abkhazia," she said.

Abkhaz had rushed to clean up Sukhumi for the occasion, repairing pavement and resurfacing roads.

The Hotel Abkhazia, once the town's centerpiece but now a gutted shell, has been shrouded in hoardings to hide the worst of the damage.

Abkhaz officials said they would forever remain vigilant in case Tbilisi again tried to take back the territory.

"Georgia remains an aggressive neighbor. … I do not know when it will start down a civilized path, but I am convinced of one thing: It will long employ terrorism as the main instrument in its policies toward Abkhazia and South Ossetia," separatist leader Sergei Bagapsh said at a meeting of war veterans and visiting delegations on the eve of the holiday.

President unveils democratic reform

2008-09-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

www.chicagotribune.com

September 24, 2008

Georgia's president announced a major government overhaul Tuesday, calling it a "Second Rose Revolution" to guard against Russian encroachment after last month's war between the two countries.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said expanded democratic initiatives will include stronger checks and balances in government, more independence for Parliament and the judiciary, and increased funding for opposition parties.

Moscow denies Russian drone shot down in Georgia

2008-09-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

www.rbcnews.com

RBC, 23.09.2008, Moscow 15:36:01.Russia's Defense Ministry denies that its unmanned reconnaissance aircraft has reportedly been shot down over Georgia, Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, head of the ministry's press office told RBC today. This is a new provocation by Georgia aiming to destabilize the situation in the region, he asserted, adding that no Russian aircraft was even flying in the security zone in the given period.

Shota Utiashvili, Georgia's spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told journalists in Tbilisi earlier that a Russian unmanned plane was shot down near the village of Tsitelubani. Utiashvili maintained that the aircraft had been on a reconnaissance flight in the area of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Georgia claims downing of Russian drone

2008-09-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

www.afp.com

TBILISI (AFP) — Georgia on Tuesday claimed to have shot down a Russian drone near one of its rebel regions and a key oil pipeline, as US President George W. Bush underlined support for Georgia at the United Nations.

Moscow denied the Georgian claim, describing it as a "provocation."

Georgian interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said police had shot down the reconnaissance drone on Monday near a buffer zone around South Ossetia patrolled by Russian forces since last month's conflict over the rebel region.

"Yesterday morning a Georgian police unit patrolling near the Baku-Supsa pipeline saw a small Russian unmanned plane, which was immediately downed.

"The drone, which was flying at an altitude of 50 metres (160 feet), was shot down by our policemen with automatic weapons. It was equipped with photographic camera and a global positioning system (GPS)," Utiashvili told AFP.

He defended the shooting down of the drone, saying a European Union-brokered peace deal did not provide for the use of drones.

"It was beyond the so-called buffer zone. Even in the buffer zone there's nothing that allows Russia to use drones," he said.

He added that the drone was downed a "few dozen metres" from the BP-operated Baku-Supsa pipeline, a key route for oil deliveries from the Caspian Sea region to the West that has been closed since the conflict.

In Moscow, Russian army spokesman Vitaly Manushko denied any such incident had occurred.

Defence ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky told Interfax: "This is the latest informational provocation from the Georgian side with the aim of destabilising the situation."

At the UN General Assembly in New York, US President George W. Bush reiterated his support for Georgia, a US ally that contributed troops to Iraq until abruptly bringing them home during last month's conflict.

"We must stand united in our support of the people of Georgia. The United Nations charter sets forth the equal rights of nations large and small. Russia's invasion of Georgia was a violation of those words," Bush said.

Later Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was expected to appeal at the General Assembly for international support in the face of Russia's military offensive and recognition of Georgia's two rebel regions as independent.

Moscow says it intervened to defend Russian citizens living in South Ossetia.

In a sign of the continuing stand-off, the Moscow-backed head of Georgia's Abkhazia region said Russian troops would remain posted in the Kodori Gorge, a strategic position controlled by Tbilisi until last month's conflict.

"A unit of Russian troops will be located in the upper part of the Kodori Gorge," Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Bagapsh as saying.

Meanwhile the first part of a 300-strong EU observer mission, a group of Italian monitors, arrived in Tbilisi together with armoured cars.

The mission is due for deployment on the ground by October 1 under the EU-brokered peace deal, which also calls for Russian forces to pull back from the buffer zones to positions they held before the conflict by October 10.

While Georgia's military is obliged by the deal to remain in its bases, Georgian police continue to operate around South Ossetia.

France says 300 EU observers and support personnel being sent to Georgia

2008-09-24T07:45:00.001-07:00

Copyright © 2008 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

PARIS — France says an EU mission to Georgia will involve up to 300 observers as well as support workers.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux said Wednesday the move complies with a decision at a EU meeting Sept. 15. The European bloc has agreed to send at least 200 observers to Georgia as Russian forces withdraw from buffer zones along the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The EU mission is to deploy by Oct. 1.

Russian forces drove into Georgia last month after repelling an attempt by Georgia to retake South Ossetia by force.

Moscow has since recognized the independence of the two areas and is keeping nearly 8,000 troops inside them.

Russia, France put aside Georgia war differences

2008-09-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

www.reuters.com

By Oleg Shchedrov

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russia and France put aside disagreements over the August war in Georgia in a move to promote bi-lateral relations, especially in key energy projects.

"We will conduct with Russia a direct and tight dialogue of true partners," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said, opening a regular meeting of an inter-government commission in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The final document of the meeting said the two countries will focus on developing relations in high tech, energy and space sectors, including cooperation in developing the Shtokman gas field and a joint project to launch Soyuz space crafts from a French launching pad.

"Differences happen, indeed, but they should be resolved through a dialogue," he told the gathering of government officials and businessmen co-chaired by powerful Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Fillon flew to Sochi at a time when the European Union is reviewing ties with Russia. The EU condemned Moscow's intervention in Georgia, launched last month to crush Tbilisi's attempt to retake two pro-Moscow regions.

EU members are split over how to handle relations with its biggest energy supplier and a major trading partner. They stopped short of imposing sanctions against Russia, but suspended talks on a new treaty regulating their relations.

"We wanted this meeting to take place at the original time because it's very important to strengthen the partnership between the European Union and Russia, and France and Russia," Fillon told Putin at their first meeting late on Friday.

EU DIFFERENCES

Fillon's remarks highlighted the differences within the EU -- some members like France, Germany and Italy, urge caution in handling Russia, while others, mainly former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe, want tougher action.

Analysts say the new rift with the West over Georgia have scared investors, adding to Moscow's financial woes in the face of recent global stock market turmoil.

Putin said relations with France were not affected by the Georgian crisis.

"I believe the events in the Caucasus did not affect our cooperation in any way," he said.

Not a single project has been put off or suspended between France and Russia in the wake of the Georgia conflict.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency in the European Union, mediated the deal which ended the war in Georgia.

Under it, Russia agreed to withdraw troops from undisputed Georgian territories in October after 200 EU monitors -- more than 40 of them from France -- arrive in the Caucasus country.

Russia, which has recognized the independence of Georgia's breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, said it will set up military bases there and told the West to negotiate the presence of international monitors with their leaders.

Fillon told Putin at their meeting on Friday that Sarkozy was satisfied the provisions of the agreement were being carried out. He said this was a clue to restarting the talks on a new EU-Russia deal.

"The EU position is clear: we hope the talks will resume as soon as provisions of the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan are carried out," he said. "There are no reasons not to resume talks early next month."

De-blocking talks with EU is important in Russia's attempts to resist calls by the United States, Georgia's main backer, to form a united front with the EU to put joint pressure on Moscow.

Opinion - Women and Children Last

2008-09-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

guardian.co.uk

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2008.

SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2008

by: Angelika Arutyunova, The Guardian UK

The true asymmetry of the Georgian conflict is that suffering was shared unequally, with women and children worst off.

For the past month, women in Georgia who were displaced from Abkhazia during the 1993 conflict have witnessed history moving backwards; everything they lived through 15 years ago is repeating itself. These women are now hosting a new flood of displaced civilians from Abkhazia and South Ossetia after Russia's aggression in those regions, as well as within the Georgian territories that Russian forces have occupied since the invasion. In Tbilisi alone, there are more than 500 camps for internally displaced people, many of them women and children living with shortages of food and medical supplies.

Georgians today hardly feel supportive of their president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who, in a foolish attempt to regain control over South Ossetia, turn its full military might Russia to drop its peacekeeping mission in the region and to pushing Georgian troops out of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and then to occupying much of Georgia. The Russians bombed numerous strategic and civilian targets in Georgia, destroying infrastructure resulting in shortages of food, fuel, and medicine.

People are in despair; they are angry at Russia for its aggression and at their own government for provoking this uneven conflict. People of different nationalities and ethnicities have been living in this region side by side for centuries, sharing customs, traditions, bread and wine, and mutual respect for each another's cultures and languages. But, going back to the Russian, British, and Ottoman Empires that once battled here, they have been continually exploited by politicians and generals.

Women and children suffer the most in times of conflict. Add to this centuries-old patriarchal traditions, 15-year-old post-war traumas, a 20-year economic crisis, and current Russian aggression, and you may begin to grasp what women in South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Georgia are enduring these days.

Besides the general devastation that modern warfare brings, impoverished and angry Russian soldiers were wreaking havoc on civilians by stealing belongings left behind and raping women. In addition, lawlessness was enticing bandits to cross the border and vandalise and rob properties left by fleeing refugees. News reports and "analysis" by state-controlled channels in both Russia and Georgia that promote negative images of "the enemy" serve only to widen the gap between ethnic groups.

Over the past month, concerned citizens in both Russia and Georgia have started to make attempts to build alliances and reach out to each other outside of the government-controlled media and structures. There have been action calls and statements circulated on the web calling on the people of the region to unite and not allow governments to build bigger walls between them.

Despite government propaganda, the region's people must remember that Russians are not superior to Georgians, Georgians to Ossetians or Abkhazians, and so on. We need to stop these territorial battles based on national pride and desire to control and rule. Saakashvili must be pressured to abandon his effort to wield full control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia. At the same time, the Russian government must be pressured to pull out of the Caucasus and let people there decide their future for themselves.

Now is the time for Georgian, Russian, Abkazian, and Ossetian civilians who are bearing the brunt of the conflict to come together to stop imperial chess games that kill thousands of people and leave thousands more displaced and emotionally wounded. It is time to help civil society in this area build a world where peace, not warfare, is the rule.

Women's rights activists in the region should not fall into a brainwashing trap of nationalism and territorial disputes, becoming another tool in the hands of politicians. They should demonstrate to their governments that they will not succumb to divisive ideology.

-------

Angelika Arutyunova is programme officer for Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at the Global Fund for Women.

Opinion - Russia and NATO's identity question

2008-09-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

www.csmonitor.com

Thursday September 18, 4:00 AM ET

Ever since the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse, when NATO lost its enemy and its prime reason for being, the West's military alliance has been in existential limbo. Is its purpose to fight terrorism beyond Europe? Is its identity tied to adding new European countries? Now, with Russia's August invasion of Georgia, NATO's angst is escalating.

Until now, much of the internal wrangling in the alliance had been about "out-of-area" deployments. NATO belatedly intervened to stop atrocities as neighboring Yugoslavia disintegrated in the 1990s. It meanwhile ventured into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda – but halfheartedly and ill-equipped.

Whether NATO is meant for a more global mission, and if so, whether it can gear up for it are basic questions expected to be the focus of the alliance's 60th anniversary summit next year.

But newer NATO members, such as the Baltic countries, are urging a renewed focus on the alliance's traditional mission: territorial defense.

Moscow's reversion to "sphere of influence" talk and action has awakened these countries' memories of suffocation in that sphere. They feel vulnerable sitting out there on Russia's western edge. They never were militarily fortified when they joined NATO; there was no imminent enemy.

At the same time, Russia's muscularity has deepened the divisions in NATO about taking on new members, specifically, putting Georgia and Ukraine on the path to membership – a subject that the members will take up for the second time in December.

Is the alliance, already overstretched and underappreciated, really prepared to risk war with nuclear-armed Russia to eventually defend these outposts – as its mu-tual defense clause guarantees? That question hardly applied to NATO aspirants during Russia's weak years, but it's a sobering one now.

NATO's ambivalence about responding to the new strong Russia can be seen in its mixed messages.

In a show of solidarity, its ambassadors met this week in Georgia, where the NATO secretary-general proclaimed that "the road to NATO is still wide open." The US ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, said Russia should not be allowed to "veto" Georgia's future. Nor should its conflicts serve as an excuse to keep Georgia out of the alliance.

Yet even Mr. Volker, perhaps NATO's strongest backer of Georgia, was cautious about the timing, as was NATO's secretary-general. Indeed, NATO doesn't allow for taking on members involved in territorial conflicts.

And debate continues on whether Russia's needed cooperation on important global issues, such as Iran and energy, should be the more powerful driver in NATO's relations with Moscow. Perhaps the best way to keep it in check for now is through an economic and diplomatic squeeze. Russia's financial markets are already hurting.

NATO can start addressing its identity question by reaching a consensus on the nature of the Russia threat. Is Georgia a one-off event to be contained? Or does NATO expect other Russian provocations in Europe, perhaps even against its own members?

Not until NATO understands the new Russia can it figure out what to do about it.

To end a war

2008-09-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

Sep 11th 2008 | TBILISI
From The Economist print edition

www.econmist.com

Russian troops pull back under another ceasefire deal, but new ambiguities arise over deploying European monitors

THE French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, smiled happily. His Georgian counterpart, Mikheil Saakashvili, looked an unhealthy shade of grey. Yet his troops were routed in the August war with Russia, so he was in no position to bargain for better terms than Mr Sarkozy had brought from Moscow. At a joint press conference in the early hours of September 9th he thanked Mr Sarkozy fulsomely. Under the circumstances, with Russian forces soon to pull out of parts of Georgia where they had earlier dug in, the deal was not a bad one.

Soon after the conflict moved from tit-for-tat firing into full-blown war on August 7th, and Russian troops crushed the Georgians in the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia and appeared to menace Tbilisi itself, Mr Sarkozy flew to Moscow and secured a ceasefire. It was full of ambiguities that Russia exploited to allow its forces to create a buffer zone around South Ossetia and to remain in Senaki and the port of Poti. Under the new deal, these troops will all go.

“They should get the hell out,” declared Mr Saakashvili. Mr Sarkozy said everything had to be done “step by step”. In truth the new deal is ambiguous and tension remains high (a Georgian policeman was shot dead on September 10th). The deal says that some 200 EU monitors will replace Russians in the buffer zone, and also talks of a separate EU mission whose observers will, says Mr Sarkozy, be able to go wherever they want, including in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, the other breakaway enclave. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, angrily disputes this, saying that the observers cannot enter the enclaves. The agreement adds that Russian troops should withdraw to positions they held before the war, and Georgian troops should return to barracks.

This is where what seem like holes might be construed instead as constructive ambiguities. One-third of South Ossetia and the Kodori gorge in Abkhazia were held by Georgian forces before the war. It is inconceivable that the 500 Georgian soldiers who were in South Ossetia, not to mention policemen and refugees, will go back—for now. But so long as Mr Lavrov’s interpretation is rejected, Georgia may in future insist on a right to return. In the meantime, despite the terms of the deal, Russia is sending 7,600 more soldiers to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and plans to keep military bases in both.

It is plain where the biggest problems will arise. The EU’s monitors may be welcomed in the buffer zone around South Ossetia, but they will have trouble getting into the two enclaves. Mr Lavrov has argued that, since Russia has recognised the governments of both, the Europeans should deal with them directly, something they will be reluctant to do.

Georgian minds are now turning to the economy. David Bakradze, speaker of Georgia’s parliament, believes that Russia balked at taking Tbilisi mainly because the morale of Georgians did not collapse in the face of their threat. Their tanks might have run into hundreds of thousands of protesters. Yet it is crucial to sustain the economy’s strong growth, because an economic collapse could, he suggests, be followed by political collapse—in which case Georgia could relapse into Russia’s orbit.

So far Georgia’s economy seems to be holding up, but it will be essential to maintain the flow of foreign direct investment. David Lee, who heads MagtiCom, Georgia’s biggest telecoms company (and the biggest American investment in the country), says that present investors have not been deterred, but that those looking for new opportunities might have been. Changing their minds, he says, “is now the battle that must be faced.” That is why the $1 billion in aid promised by the Americans, together with the $750m agreed in principle by the IMF, are so important, says Vladimer Papava, an economist. No doubt it is vital to repair war damage and replace lost foreign investment, but equally important is the symbolic value of this help, reassuring potential investors that Georgia is not being abandoned to Russia.

To endow this idea with more political weight, some diplomats think that Georgia might be given the equivalent of the European road maps being followed by Balkan countries, though without (for now) a promise of membership at the end. The Balkan comparison does not stop there. “The long-term implication of the Sarkozy deal,” says one diplomat, citing the pro-Western Serbian president, “is that Georgia has begun to adopt the [Boris] Tadic line.” That means pledging not to use force to regain lost lands, and focusing instead on EU integration and rebuilding the economy.

Georgia: Intercepted calls prove self-defense

2008-09-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

www.nytimes.com

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer

TBILISI, Georgia - In a bid to portray Russia as the aggressor in last month's war, Georgia has released recordings of what it says are two intercepted cell phone calls purporting to show that Moscow invaded before Georgia's offensive against South Ossetia.

The recordings released Tuesday, if authentic, will not cut through the fog of the final hours when escalating tensions burst into war. But President Mikhail Saakashvili hopes they will help dispel a dominant narrative that says his country was on the attack. He said they prove Russian tanks and troops entered South Ossetia many hours before Georgia began its offensive against separatist forces.

"Evidence in the form of telephone intercepts and information that we have from numerous eyewitnesses conclusively prove that Russian tanks and armored columns invaded our territory before the conflict began," Saakashvili told reporters.

Together, the two purported intercepts last less than two minutes. But so far, they are Saakashvili's best argument in his bid to turn the tables against Russia.

Since the war that killed hundreds of people and drove nearly 200,000 from their homes, Moscow has relentlessly cast Saakashvili as an unstable leader who struck first, forcing a response.

Saakashvili says he tried to ease tensions with a unilateral cease-fire, but that Russia's leaders had made up their minds.

"It looks like the decision had been made in Moscow prior to that, and nothing was going to change it on the ground," Saakashvili told The Associated Press.

Russia has always cast Georgia as the aggressor, saying it only responded militarily to defend Russian citizens and peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia from a Georgian offensive that began late on Aug. 7.

Georgia says the intercepted phone calls show Russian forces entered South Ossetia before dawn that day.

The calls are between a South Ossetian border guard at the southern mouth of the Roki tunnel, which leads across the mountainous border from Russia into the separatist Georgian province, and another guard at headquarters in the regional capital, Georgia says.

The recordings were first released to The New York Times, which reported their contents Tuesday. A Georgian Interior Ministry official, Shota Utiashvili, played two of the recordings for the AP and provided printed English translations from the original Ossetian.

In the first call, which purportedly began at 3:41 a.m. on Aug. 7, the South Ossetian guard at the tunnel says "they have moved armored personnel carriers out and the tunnel is full."

In the next call, about 10 minutes later, the guard says that "armor and people" had emerged from the tunnel about 20 minutes earlier. Asked whether there was a lot of armor, the guard says, "Well, tanks, BMPs and those things."

BMPs are armored personnel carriers. The tunnel is more than two miles long.

The authenticity of the recordings could not immediately be verified.

Utiashvili said Georgia began monitoring the phones of South Ossetian militia in 2004 and had "hundreds of telephones under surveillance."

The Times said it had done its own translation of the audio files. The newspaper's translation was similar to the translation provided by Georgia, with slight differences that did not appear to change the meaning.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko dismissed the Georgian claim as "not serious." He said any major troop movements would have been easily tracked by satellites used by NATO nations.

"I would be grateful if they provide such satellite data to us and the entire global community, provide specific data," Nesterenko said sarcastically. "Allegations that they have eavesdropped on someone and heard something are simply not serious."

Saakashvili, a U.S. ally who is seeking NATO membership for Georgia, said his government has asked NATO nations to examine satellite imagery.

Asked why Georgia had not released the purported intercepts earlier, he said they were initially believed to have been lost "during the heat of the war" but were later found.

Georgia has provided the West with the intercepts and other information, he said, and would welcome an investigation.

In Washington, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman did not respond directly to the question of which side was in South Ossetia first.

"I don't think anything changes — this was a hostile" move by Russia, he said. "The operative point is that Russia invaded territory of Georgia."

Saakashvili also stressed that point.

"This is our country, we didn't go to Vladikavkaz, we didn't go to Moscow, we didn't go to Siberia," he said. "They came here."

Russia had 500 peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia before the war, so the mere presence of Russian forces in the region is not damning. But Saakashvili angrily rejected Russian suggestions that the forces in the tunnel were part of a peacekeeping rotation.

"You don't send in peacekeepers late at night with tanks," he told the AP. "Tanks are not peacekeeping vehicles. You warn about peacekeepers beforehand and we had official notification from the Russians that next peacekeeping (rotation) was going to happen end of September."

The U.S., European Union and NATO have accused Russia of using disproportionate force and are demanding it withdraw its forces to pre-conflict positions in accordance with the cease-fire.

Western government acknowledge Georgia launched an offensive against the city of Tskhinvali. But they stress that Georgia was under increasing pressure amid growing Russian support for the separatist governments of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

Rather than the final hours before war, "More important is to focus on what was happening over a couple of years," said the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, who was in Georgia with a NATO delegation.

He referred to economic and diplomatic moves targeting Georgia in addition to "the massing of forces in the North Caucasus" — in Russia near the Georgian border.

"No matter how we end up parsing out those few hours in the early morning of Aug. 7, Georgia was responding to a long period of Russian pressure, including violence that was going on, with shelling from South Ossetians," Volker said. "(Georgia) made the decision to go into Tskhinvali, which was the trigger the Russians were looking for to launch this pre-planned invasion."

Russia signs treaty to defend Georgia separatists

2008-09-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

www.reuters.com

By Denis Dyomkin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed treaties with Georgia's South Ossetia and Abkhazia on Wednesday that committed Moscow to defend the breakaway regions from any Georgian attack.

The treaties formalize military, diplomatic and economic co-operation between Moscow and the separatist regions, which Russia recognized as independent states after its brief war with Georgia last month.

In Tbilisi, a senior Georgian diplomat said the treaties were a "masquerade" and that Russia had annexed sovereign Georgian territory.

Russia drew international condemnation after it sent its troops into Georgia last month and then recognized the regions, but it said it had a moral duty to act to defend them from what it called a genocide by Georgia's military in South Ossetia.

"The documents we have signed envisage that our countries will jointly undertake the necessary measures for counteracting threats to peace ... and opposing acts of aggression," Medvedev said after a lavish signing ceremony in the Kremlin.

"We will show each other all necessary support, including military support," Medvedev said.

"A repeat of the Georgian aggression ... would lead to a catastrophe on a regional scale, so no one should be in doubt that we will not allow new military adventures."

Western states have angered Russia by backing Georgia over the conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday accused NATO of Cold War thinking after the alliance held high-level talks in Tbilisi this week.

"We cannot view steps to intensify relations between the alliance and Georgia any other way than as encouragement for new adventures," the ministry said in a statement. Georgia is seeking to join NATO, an ambition Russia opposes.

Medvedev signed the treaties with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity and Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh. Afterwards, they shook hands and toasted each other with champagne.

The two separatist leaders were given all the trappings accorded to sovereign heads of state, with their regions' flags displayed in the Kremlin and an announcer introducing them to guests in their national languages.

Only Nicaragua has followed Moscow's lead and recognized the enclaves as independent, despite a diplomatic drive by Russia to persuade its allies to grant them recognition.

"As we were saying before, this is an unconcealed annexation of these territories by Russia. The rest is just a masquerade," Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria told Reuters when asked to comment on the treaties.

"It's a violation of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.

Moscow plans to base about 7,600 troops in the two regions, and the separatists already receive substantial economic support from the Russian government.

The treaties underlined the closeness of the relationship. The documents stated that Russia will take measures to support the functioning of the regions' financial and banking systems since the Russian rouble is their main currency.

(Additional reporting by Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi; Writing by Christian Lowe and Conor Sweeney; Editing by Dominic Evans)

e-mail messages from Tbilisi, Georgia

2008-09-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

These two e-mail messages were received this morning from two friends in Tbilisi

___________________________________________

Hi Jim,

You know all the feeling of a man who has watched the war in the eyes. We try to be better and forget that fear that was in our soles for such a long time. It’s very dangerous and shocking to analyze what has happened in the 21st century with peaceful population. Why I often ask myself. Even I am so tired that I don’t want to watch TV any more not to hear horrors of the war and results.

Thank you for everything Jim

With love and peace

___________________________________________

Thank you Jim,

Now we feel better in spite of the fact that we don’t know what will happen in future. We are stressed. I feel PTSD syndrome too. Week but still I have. There are very many young soldiers and peaceful population killed. When my children and I hear the sound of the aircraft flying in the sky the first feeling is fear. In the 21st century – can you imagine?

The politicians play dirty games and make decisions and population suffers. This is all what I can tell you shortly.

Best wishes

War in Georgia: The Israeli Connection

2008-09-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

www.ynetnews.com

Zvi Zinger and Hanan Greenberg contributed to this report, which first appeared on , Aug. 10, 2008. Copyright © Yedioth Internet. All rights reserved.

By Arie Egozi

For The past seven years, Israeli companies have been helping the Georgian army to prepare for war against Russia through arms deals, training of infantry units and security Advice.

The fighting which broke out over the weekend between Russia and Georgia has brought Israel’s intensive involvement in the region into the limelight.

This involvement includes the sale of advanced weapons to Georgia and the training of the Georgian army’s infantry forces.

The Defense Ministry held a special meeting Sunday to discuss the various arms deals held by Israelis in Georgia, but no change in policy has been announced as of yet.

“The subject is closely monitored,” said sources in the Defense Ministry. “We are not operating in any way which may counter Israeli interests. We have turned down many requests involving arms sales to Georgia; and the ones which have been approved have been duly scrutinized. So far, we have placed no limitations on the sale of protective measures.”

Israel began selling arms to Georgia about seven years ago following an initiative by Georgian citizens who immigrated to Israel and became businesspeople.

“They contacted defense industry officials and arms dealers and told them that Georgia had relatively large budgets and could be interested in purchasing Israeli weapons,” says a source involved in exports.

The military cooperation between the countries developed swiftly. The fact that Georgia’s defense minister, Davit Kezerashvili, is a former Israeli who is fluent in Hebrew contributed to this cooperation.

“His door was always open to the Israelis who came and offered his country arms systems made in Israel,” the source said. “Compared to countries in Eastern Europe, the deals in this country were conducted fast, mainly due to the defense minister’s personal involvement.”

Among the Israelis who took advantage of the opportunity and began doing business in Georgia were former Minister Roni Milo and his brother Shlomo, former director-general of the Military Industries, Brigadier-General (Res.) Gal Hirsch and Major-General (Res.) Yisrael Ziv.

Roni Milo conducted business in Georgia for Elbit Systems and the Military Industries, and with his help Israel’s defense industries managed to sell to Georgia remote-piloted vehicles (RPVs), automatic turrets for armored vehicles, antiaircraft systems, communication systems, shells and rockets.

According to Israeli sources, Gal Hirsch gave the Georgian army advice on the establishment of elite units such as Sayeret Matkal and on rearmament, and gave various courses in the fields of combat intelligence and fighting in built-up areas.

“Don’t anger the Russians”

The Israelis operating in Georgia attempted to convince the Israeli Aerospace Industries to sell various systems20to the Georgian air force, but were turned down. The reason for the refusal was “special” relations created between the Aerospace Industries and Russia in terms of improving fighter jets produced in the former U.S.S.R. and the fear that selling weapons to Georgia would anger the Russians and prompt them to cancel the deals.

Israelis’ activity in Georgia and the deals they struck there were all authorized by the Defense Ministry. Israel viewed Georgia as a friendly state to which there is no reason not to sell arms systems similar to those Israel exports to other countries in the world.

As the tension between Russia and Georgia grew, however, increasing voices were heard in Israel—particularly in the Foreign Ministry—calling on the Defense Ministry to be more selective in the approval of the deals with Georgia for fear that they would anger Russia.

“It was clear that too many unmistakable Israeli systems in the possession of the Georgian army would be like a red cloth in the face of a raging bull as far as Russia is concerned,” explained a source in the defense establishment. For instance, the Russians viewed the operation of the Elbit System’s RPVs as a real provocation.

“It was clear that the Russians were angry,” says a defense establishment source, “and that the interception of three of these RPVs in the past three months was an expression of this anger. Not everyone in Israel understood the sensitive nerve Israel touched when it supplied such an advanced arms system to a country whose relations with Russia are highly tense.”

In May it was eventually decided to approve future deals with Georgia only for the sale of non-offensive weapon systems, such as intelligence, communications and computer systems, and not to approve deals for the sale of rifles, aircraft, shells, etc.

A senior source in the Military Industry said Saturday that despite some reports, the activity of Georgia’s military industry was extremely limited.

“We conducted a small job for them several years ago,” he said. “The rest of the deals remained on paper.”

Dov Pikulin, one of the owners of the Authentico Company specializing in trips and journeys to the area, says however that “Israelis are the main investor in the Georgian economy. Everyone is there, directly or indirectly.”

Georgian minister: Israel should be proud

“The Israelis should be proud of themselves for the Israeli training and education received by the Georgian soldiers,” Georgian Minister Temur Yakobashvili said Saturday.

Yakobashvili is a Jew and is fluent in Hebrew. “We are now in a fight against the great Russia,” he said, “and our hope is to receive assistance from the White House, because Georgia cannot survive on its own.

“It’s important that the entire world understands that what is happening in Georgia now will affect the entire world order. It’s not just Georgia’s business, but the entire world’s business.”

One of the Georgian parliament members did not settle Saturday for the call for American aid, urging Israel to help stop the Russian offensive as well: “We need help from the U.N. and from our friends, headed by the United States and Israel. Today Georgia is in danger—tomorrow all the democratic countries in the region and in the entire world will be in danger too.”

How Anti-Iran Policy Contributed to War in The Caucasus

2008-09-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Political Pipeline

This article first appeared on www.antiwar.com , Aug. 15, 2008.

www.antiwar.com

by Muhammad Sahimi
Much has been written about the war between Russia and Georgia.
Neoconservatives, as Justin Raimondo pointed out, have suddenly discovered the “democratic” republic of Georgia, which has been a historical “victim” of the Russian “empire.” Never mind that not only was Georgia not a democracy before it was devoured by the Soviet Union in 1921, but also that the war, started by Georgia’s forces, was a strategic blunder by Georgia’s president, the confrontational, demagogic, American-trained lawyer Mikheil Saakashvili, who dared
foolishly to take on his giant neighbor, thinking naively that NATO would rush
to help him.

William Kristol, the “little Lenin” of the neoconservatives, who now has
another outlet in the op-ed page of The New York Times, opines that the U.S.
must not only give aid to Georgia, but must also help it become a member of the
“League of Democracies” that John McCain has proposed. Never mind that in
the Georgian “democracy” Saakashvili used police brutality to stop huge
demonstrations after hotly disputed elections and shut down opposition
publications, and never mind that when democratic elections in Palestine and Lebanon yielded results deemed undesirable by the U.S. (and people like Kristol), they were not only dismissed, but the voters were also punished by U.S. sanctions.

And, as Robert Parry noted, the same neoconservatives who backed the illegal
invasion of Iraq, and are now threatening to attack Iran over its nonexistent nuclear threat, are suddenly discovering respect for the rule of law and
international agreements. Even Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations,
Richard Holbrooke, who supported the Iraq invasion, got into the act, writing in The Washington Post that “Whatever mistakes Tbilisi has made, they cannot justify Russia’s actions.”

Where was Holbrooke when the U.S. invaded Panama, helped the Contra thugs in
Nicaragua, encouraged—and later supported—Saddam Hussain’s invasion of Iran, and was silent when the Saudi-Pakistani-created Taliban overthrew the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan?

In reality, the Russia-Georgia war involves three important elements:
The desire to encircle Russia with pro-U.S. clients in the former Soviet republics, from Ukraine to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, and by setting up missile “defense” systems in Poland and the Czech Republic that are intended for the Russians, but are justified by the bogus threats posed by Iran’s missiles and its nonexistent nuclear weapons program.

Recognition, over strong and angry objection by Russia, of Kosovo as an independent state. I suppose so long as such unstable mini-states as Kosovo are clients of the U.S., their Islamic identity poses no problem to the neoconservatives. Most other Muslims, such as those in Iran, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, are considered dangerous.

But perhaps the most important element has to do with the control of the routes for transporting oil and gas from Central Asia and the Caucasus region to international markets and, in particular, to Western Europe. If the U.S., pressured by the Israel lobby, had not pushed for bypassing Iran, we would have perhaps been in a different situation than what we have now between Georgia and Russia, with all of its geopolitical implications.

While many have written about the causes and consequences of the war, little
emphasis has been put on the role that the U.S. government’s failed policy
toward Iran has played in this rapidly developing situation.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and the three independent
countries that emerged on the shores of the Caspian Sea, namely, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, declared that they would respect all the old
international and bilateral treaties that the Soviet Union had signed. Crucial
among them were two friendship treaties that had been signed by Iran and the
Soviet Union in 1921 and 1940. An article in both treaties stated, “No country
can take unilateral action regarding the Caspian Sea.” Therefore, the five
countries of the Caspian area, particularly Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, could not
unilaterally decide what to do about the resources of the Caspian Sea without
the consent of the other countries.

Even aside from the old Iran-Soviet treaties that Russia accepted legal
responsibility for after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fact is that,
according to all the international treaties, so long as a territory is in
dispute, no country can take unilateral action regarding its resources and riches.

A good example is the dispute between Iran and Kuwait over the Dorra gas fields in the northern Persian Gulf. Both countries have avoided any action toward
developing the fields, waiting for their final status to be negotiated. But,
supported by the U.S., Azerbaijan and later Kazakhstan took unilateral actions and contracted out disputed oil and gas fields. Compare this with a similar situation, the dispute between Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf over the giant South Pars gas field (the largest in the world). Iran, the “pariah” nation, did no work on the gas field until negotiations between the two countries resulted in a framework for the field’s development. Each country is now developing its own sector.

But that was not the end of the U.S. meddling in the affairs of that region,
particularly its wrong-headed policy toward Iran. Equally important is how
to transport the oil and gas from that region to the international markets.
The issue has remained politically charged, contributing much to the war
between Russia and Georgia.

There are several foreign-operated oil fields in the Caucasus region and
Central Asia. The oil from the ChevronTexaco-operated field of Tengiz in
Kazakhstan is transported through a pipeline north into Russia and by rail west to
the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi. A second line was built by the Caspian
Pipeline Consortium to Novorossiisk in Russia on the Black Sea.

The Kashagan oil field in northeast Caspian is the largest of them all, but
it is still being developed. In the southern Caspian, oil from the British
Petroleum-operated field of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli in the Caspian Sea has been
producing several hundred thousand barrels of oil per day.

The most economical way of transporting all that oil is by pipelines through
Iran. For example, the Kazakh government drafted a framework agreement for
construction of an oil pipeline from the Tengiz field to Belek on the eastern
coast of the Caspian and from there to the Iranian port of Khark, on the
Persian Gulf. The pipeline was supposed to pass through Tehran, Qom, and Esfahan.
The estimated cost for the 900-mile pipeline was only $1.2 billion. But, the U.S. strongly opposed this, and, as a result, the Tengiz oil is transported through routes that cost much more.

The French oil firm TotalFinaElf, with support from the National Iranian Oil
Company, studied a pipeline that would take crude oil from Kashagan across
the Caspian to the Iranian border. From there another pipeline was supposed to
be built to transport the Kazakh oil across Iran to its Persian Gulf export
terminals. The Russian pipeline operator, Transneft, and its Kazakh counterpart, KazTransOil, also carried out a feasibility study for developing a pipeline to Iran in order to link Omsk, in Siberia, with Iran’s port Neka on the Caspian Sea. That pipeline would have allowed Russian, Turkmen and Kazakh crude oil to be swapped for Iranian oil in its terminals on the Persian Gulf.

Although some oil-swapping does take place between Iran and the Central Asian
countries, U.S. opposition and pressure have prevented the pipeline from
becoming a reality.

But the most contentious issue was about transporting Azerbaijan’s oil to
international market. All that had to be done was the construction of a
pipeline from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to the Iranian border, a short distance
away. From there, an Iranian pipeline, when upgraded, could have taken the oil
to the Persian Gulf terminals. But the U.S., pressured by the Israel lobby, opposed this pipeline. Israel wanted to reward Turkey for having established close diplomatic and military relationships with it. Therefore, its lobby went to work in Washington to advocate an alternative route through Turkey.

The result is the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline that connects the Sangachal Terminal in Baku to the Marine Terminal in the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea, a 1,100-mile pipeline, 155 miles of which passes through Georgia. It was built at a cost of $4 billion and was officially inaugurated on May 25, 2005.

The Baku-Tehran-Khark (BTK) pipeline could have been constructed at a fraction of the cost of the BTC pipeline. Another great advantage of the BTK pipeline would have been the fact that it would have passed through the politically stable Iran, whereas the BTC pipeline passes not only through Georgia, but also through the restive Kurdish areas of Turkey. The entire pipeline requires constant guarding in order to prevent sabotage. On Aug. 6, 2008, the pipeline was shut off by a major explosion and fire in the eastern Turkish province of Erzincan. The Kurdistan Workers Party took responsibility for the attack.

The vulnerability of the Georgian portion of the BTC pipeline was also
manifestly demonstrated when Russia bombed the areas around the pipeline’s route in
Georgia, just to send the “proper” message to the West.

One bogus justification for the construc tion of the costly BTC pipeline was
that it would transport oil from several large Azeri oil fields to international markets, totaling 1 million barrels/day, without involving Iran or Russia. That has not happened. The Kurdashi field did not live up to the Italian oil firm Agip’s expectations. TotalFinaElf failed to find any significant oil in the Lenkoran-Talysh field, and ExxonMobil could not find any oil in its Oguz and Zafar-Mashal concessions. Chevron’s work yielded only lackluster results in its Absheron field. These failures would have made the BTK pipeline even more economical.

But all such advantages of the BTK pipeline were set aside. Instead a political pipeline was built, just to satisfy the Israel lobby. Its construction was also accompanied by numerous violations of human rights by both the Azeri and Turkish governments, which have been documented in the Czech documentary film “Zdroj” (“Source”) and by Kurdish human rights activists.

But the U.S., following Israel’s lead, was not yet done with its blind
opposition to Iran’s participation in the oil and natural gas market of the
Caucasus and Central Asian regions, which would have made negotiations regarding
Iran’s nuclear program more susceptible to success. The U.S. even pressured Kazakhstan to build a trans-Caspian pipeline from the Kazakh port of Aktau to Baku, in order to connect the Kashagan’s oil to the BTC pipeline, which would have been a gigantic environmental disaster waiting to happen. But Russian and Iranian opposition killed that project.

Thus, had the U.S. not decided that, in order to isolate Iran to appease the Israel lobby, it would make a minor nation like Georgia the cornerstone of its policy in the Caucasus/Central Asia region; had the U.S. not demonized Iran, creating “threats” from its nonexistent nuclear weapon program to justify what it does in Europe against Russia; and had the U.S. agreed to economical oil pipelines through Iran, not a political one through unstable, war-torn regions in Georgia and Turkey, the Georgia-Russia war would not have seemed as significant, and the U.S. and NATO would not have looked so impotent. In fact, the war might not have happened at all.
But this is what happens when our foreign policy is held hostage by a foreign nation and its lobby.

Looting, fires rage in South Ossetia: rights groups

2008-09-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

www.reuters.com

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Neither South Ossetia's local government nor the Russian army are providing adequate security for citizens in the breakaway territory after last month's Russia-Georgia war, rights groups said on Thursday.

Representatives of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch and Russian group Memorial were reporting on a trip to the province, which until the conflict was a patchwork of South Ossetian and ethnic Georgian villages.

"South Ossetian authorities are not ensuring the defence of property of residents of Georgian enclave villages or the safety of people remaining there," said Alexander Cherkasov of Memorial.

"Currently the (ethnic) Georgian villages we visited...are practically burnt to the ground. Now, a month after military operations, the final houses are being torched, and every day we saw new fires."

Georgia and Russia went to war on August 7-8 after Tbilisi ordered artillery strikes on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali in a bid to recapture the rebel, pro-Russian region.

South Ossetia had declared de facto independence in the 1990s, though remained de jure within Georgia proper. A tri-partite peacekeeping mission with Russia had maintained a semblance of order for over a decade.

Georgia says it had to attack to prevent its peacekeepers from being killed by South Ossetian troops. Russia says it was morally obliged to invade to prevent what it called "genocide."

In the days following Russia's military push into Georgia and its subsequent drubbing of well-equipped but improperly managed Georgian forces, irregular troops and bandits began looting and burning civilian homes in the region.

"Danger remains not just for Georgian and mixed families, but for Ossetian villagers as well from looters who, sensing their impunity, steal and torch not just what belongs to Georgians, but any abandoned home," Cherkasov said.

Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch said checkpoints first established by the Russian army to stop looting had initially worked, but as they were removed armed irregulars returned to continue their raids on civilians.

"Russian troops set up block posts and were able to prevent the death of hundreds of ethnic Georgians at the time. Unfortunately this is no longer happening," Lokshina said.

Lokshina said during the visit to South Ossetia they saw armed irregulars looting furniture, fixtures and valuables from homes in the area. "The enclaves are still burning, and they made no attempt to hide it," she said.

(Reporting by Chris Baldwin, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Georgia breaks ties with Russia, welcomes EU summit outcome

2008-09-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

www.chinaview.cn

MOSCOW, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Russia does not intend to apologize for its actions in the recent conflict with Georgia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Saturday.

"We do not need to apologize to anyone, we are certain that we are right, nor are we going to argue," Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya television channel.

The Russian prime minister said cooperation between Russia and the West should not be cooled down due to the crisis in the Caucasus.

Russia has resources without which its "partners can't exist or it'll be very difficult for them," while what Russia receives from its international partners is available on many other global platforms, Putin said.

Georgia sent in troops to reclaim its breakaway region of South Ossetia on Aug. 8, triggering a military counter-offensive by Russia. The conflict ended with a cease-fire agreement between Tbilisi and Moscow brokered by France.

Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the other breakaway region of Georgia, as independent states last week has further strained its relations with the former Soviet republic. 　

EU favors int'l probe into Georgia crisis, deployment of observers

2008-09-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

www.chinaview.cn

AVIGNON, France, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) foreign ministers have agreed that there is a need for an international investigation into the recent conflict between Georgia and Russia and the deployment of an EU observer mission to monitor the implementation of a peace deal.

"We all stressed that there is a need for an international investigation as to how the crisis developed in Georgia," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who chaired the foreign ministers' meeting, on Saturday.

The European Union (EU) wants to be a "more equal partner" to the United States, said EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner on Friday.

"That investigation needs to be launched as soon as possible," he said.

However, Kouchner failed to give details of the modality of such an investigation. He indicated that it could involve international bodies, non-governmental organizations or the United Nations.

He noted that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he would immediately send a fact-finding mission to South Ossetia.

Georgia launched a sudden attack in South Ossetia on Aug. 7 in an attempt to regain control of the breakaway region. Tbilisi's move triggered prompt reaction from Russia, whose troops drove Georgian forces out of the region and took parts of Georgian territory.

Since the start of the conflict, Tbilisi and Moscow have been accusing each other of ethnic cleansing.

The immediate developments to the military conflict remains a myth.

Solana's spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, said Friday that Solana talked to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on the morning of Aug. 7 and urged him to show restraint in face of the escalating tension between Georgia and Russia.

Saakashvili told Solana that he had offered a cease-fire to the Russians. Gallach said she could not explain why the conflict started before midnight on Aug. 7.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered a six-point peace plan, travels to Moscow and Tbilisi on Monday in an attempt to secure a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia proper.

The six-point peace plan provides for withdrawal of Georgian and Russian troops to pre-conflict positions.

The West is accusing Russia of failing to honor its commitments by establishing security zones on the border of South Ossetia and another breakaway region of Abkhazia.

The West also condemned Russia for its recognition of the two regions as independent states.

On Saturday, the EU foreign ministers also agreed in principle to send an observer mission to Georgia to monitor the implementation of a peace plan between the Caucasian country and Russia.

"We will have an observer mission in Georgia," EU foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana said at the end of an informal EU foreign ministers' meeting.

Such a mission would be the EU's first in Caucasus, although it has had experience in the Balkans, noted Solana.

He said a formal decision is expected at a formal foreign ministers' meeting on Sept. 15. The decision will take into account the results of Sarkozy's trip to Moscow and Tbilisi on Monday.

Sarkozy will be accompanied by European Commission President Manuel Barroso and Solana.

The size of the observer mission is yet to be decided. But there are words that its staff could be in hundreds.

Russia has refused to allow Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers to re-enter South Ossetia after the Georgia-Russia conflict.

Kouchner asked Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia proper. At the same time, he stressed the need for the EU to maintain dialogue with Russia.

"Russia is a great country and Russia is our neighbor. No doubt, we must find the way to talk to each other," he said.

Italian PM says to make diplomatic efforts to solve Georgia issue

2008-09-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

www.chinaview.cn

ROME, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday that his government would continue to make diplomatic efforts to solve a recent crisis between Russia and Georgia.

During a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Berlusconi said he had worked "to prevent what happened in Georgia and South Ossetia from becoming, rather than an isolated incident, a detonator that could push history back years to the Cold War."

Georgia rolled in troops to retake its breakaway region of South Ossetia early August, triggering a Russian military surge that drove out the Georgian forces.

Russia recognized South Ossetia and Georgia's another breakaway region of Abkhazia as independent states on Aug. 26.

After talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy Monday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to withdraw all Russian forces from Georgia except South Ossetia and Abkhazia within a month.

Berlusconi said it is inevitable that Russia and NATO strengthen cooperation, adding the international community should make joint efforts in tackling crises in the world and fighting terrorism.

Cheney strongly condemned Russia's latest military operations in Georgia, saying Georgia and Ukraine have every right to develop their ties with Western countries including their joining into NATO.

He spoke highly of Italy's role of sending troops to Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Kosovo to keep peace and stability there.

Cheney kicked off a visit to Italy Saturday after a tour to Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Georgia, three ex-Soviet republics.
Editor: Jiang Yuxia

Russia calls for UN arms embargo against Georgia

2008-09-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/09/news/UN-UN-Russia-Georgia.php

The Associated Press
September 9, 2008

UNITED NATIONS: Russia called Tuesday for a U.N. arms embargo against Georgia despite certain U.S. opposition.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin circulated a draft resolution to the Security Council that would order all countries to take measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of arms to Georgia.

He said Moscow wants to make the point that Georgia's military build-up in the last six years — from a defense budget of US$18 million to US$900 million — was put to very bad use in attacking Russian-backed separatists in South Ossetia last month.

Churkin was asked whether it was realistic to push for an arms embargo against Georgia when the Americans clearly won't accept it.

"Well I know that strong opposition from some members of the Security Council, particularly the United States, can be expected, but we believe that it was absolutely necessary to make this political statement by introducing this draft resolution," Churkin replied.
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The United States and Russia are both veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

Ben Chang, a spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said: "We do not believe that this affirms the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Georgia which is for us the bottom line of any Security Council action on Georgia."

"We see this as an attempt by Russia to divert attention from the situation on the ground, specifically, that they have not lived up to their own obligations under the cease-fire to withdraw their forces from the territory of Georgia, and they continue to block humanitarian access," Chang said.

Russia drew harsh criticism from the U.S. and Europe for recognizing South Ossetia and another separatist territory, Abkhazia, as independent states following the short but devastating war that left Russian troops in locations deep inside Georgia including near the key Georgian Black Sea port of Poti.

The conflict followed an escalation of incidents by pro-Russian separatists from South Ossetia and Abkhazia and was sparked by Georgia's attempt to use force to retake control of South Ossetia.

The draft resolution expresses concern "at the excessive increase in Georgia's military expenditures and the acquisition by the Georgian government of armaments far surpassing the national defense requirements," which Russia said had led to "a destabilizing accumulation of arms and the use of armed violence in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict."

The United States has been training Georgian troops, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has suggested Washington was to blame for the war for helping the Georgian military rebuild.

"We believe that some countries are taking active efforts to start rearming Georgia and are already allocating large sums of money for that," Churkin said, without identifying any countries.

The draft would also condemn "the military hostilities unleashed by Georgia which constitute a gross violation" of agreements in 1992 and 1996 to settle the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

Churkin told reporters he briefed council members on Monday's meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy in Moscow.

Medvedev pledged to withdraw Russian troops from key areas of Georgia after 200 European Union monitors are deployed later this month.

But Russia said it will keep 7,600 troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia for the foreseeable future, and it was unclear whether the Russians would pull out all troops occupying regions surrounding South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Churkin said the Medvedev-Sarkozy document calls for international talks to start in Geneva on Oct. 15 on stability and security in the region. He added that "demilitarization of Georgia could be a very useful topic for discussion."

He noted that the Security Council is supposed to extend the mandate of the U.N. observer mission in Abkhazia by Oct. 15. The United Nations has maintained an observer mission since 1993 to monitor a cease-fire between Georgia and Abkhazia.

In light of both events, Churkin said Russia was planning to hold an informal meeting of Security Council members and representatives of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Oct. 7 or 8. He said he also told council members that "under the current circumstances it would be impossible" to hold a council meeting to extend the U.N. mission's mandate in Abkhazia without the participation of the official representative of Abkhazia.

Russia to Ramp Up Military Presence in Georgian Territories

2008-09-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

Breakaway republics will host bases with 3,600 Russian soldiers each

September 9, 2008

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/09/AR2008090900983.html?hpid=topnews

by: Philip P. Pan, The Washington Post

Moscow - Russia plans to more than double its military presence in the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and station troops there indefinitely, officials said Tuesday, a day after President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to withdraw Russian forces from the rest of Georgia by Oct. 11.

Speaking at a news briefing, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russian troops would remain in the separatist regions "for a long time. Their presence there will be needed at least for the foreseeable future to prevent any relapses of aggressive actions." Separately, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was quoted telling Medvedev in a meeting that the two republics had agreed to host bases with about 3,600 Russian soldiers each.

Before last month's war with Georgia, the Russian military stationed about 1,000 troops in South Ossetia and 2,500 in Abkhazia as peacekeeping forces, and Russian officials had suggested they intended to keep troops in the disputed regions after last month's five-day war with Georgia.

But Tuesday's statements were the clearest and most detailed indication of the Kremlin's plans to date. The timing of the announcement, a day after Medvedev agreed in talks with European leaders to withdraw troops from other parts of Georgia, seemed intended to emphasize Russia's determination to support the secession of the two regions despite strong Western objections.

"I hope that, as a minimum, this will stop the Georgian military regime from committing any idiotic actions," Medvedev told the defense minister in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency.

The decision to withdraw troops from all Georgian territory outside the two disputed regions came during negotiations Monday with a European delegation led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and it represented a significant concession by Russia after weeks of tough talk in the face of European and American condemnation of its invasion of Georgia.

At a joint news conference with Medvedev, Sarkozy said Russian forces would withdraw from five checkpoints between the Black Sea port of Poti and the Georgian city of Senaki within a week, and from positions in all other undisputed parts of Georgia within a month. The E.U. pledged to send a team of international observers into Georgia to take the place of Russian troops.

But the standoff between Russia and the West over the broader question of Georgia's territorial integrity remained unresolved. Even as he agreed to pull back troops, Medvedev again voiced strong support for the breakaway republics that are at the heart of the conflict. Moscow has recognized both as independent states.

"We have made our choice. This is a final and definitive choice, an irrevocable decision," Medvedev said of his government's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia following its military victory.

The two regions enjoyed de facto autonomy within Georgia for more than a decade before Russia's decision to formally recognize their secession. Russia said it was compelled to act after Georgia abandoned peace talks and attempted to seize South Ossetia by force on Aug. 7, but the West denounced the move as an attempt to unilaterally redraw Georgia's borders.

Russia has also argued that South Ossetia and Abkhazia have a stronger case for independence than Kosovo, the Serbian province that the United States and much of Europe recognized as independent in February over Moscow's objections.

Asked whether Europe had in effect acquiesced to Russia's recognition of the two breakaway regions, Sarkozy bristled and said the issue would be revisited in further talks Oct. 15 in Geneva.

"It was not up to Russia to define Georgia's borders or frontiers," he said. "The Russians will say what they wish to say. We have condemned the Russian position."

Sarkozy flew on to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on Monday to talk with President Mikheil Saakashvili. After their meeting, Saakashvili called the agreement "a step forward" and expressed gratitude to the European negotiators, comparing what he called their "21st-century" diplomacy with the "Stalinian solutions or 19th-century solutions" offered by the Russians.

Alexander Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, applauded the clear deadlines in the agreement but added, "The bad news is that it doesn't refer to territorial integrity."

Separately, in its most concrete gesture of protest to date, the Bush administration on Monday withdrew from congressional consideration a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Moscow that had once been celebrated as a symbol of the strength of U.S.-Russian relations. "We make this decision with regret," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement in Washington. "Unfortunately, given the current environment, the time is not right for this agreement."

The agreement to pull back Russian troops, presumably into South Ossetia and Abkhazia, follows an earlier cease-fire deal brokered by Sarkozy that had also called for a Russian withdrawal. Russian forces withdrew from much of the territory they occupied in Georgia after that agreement, but continued to maintain "security zones" on Georgian soil near South Ossetia and Abkhazia over Western objections. Russian officials said the cease-fire agreement allowed them to patrol such zones to deter Georgian attacks against the breakaway regions.

Under Monday's agreement, the E.U. will send 200 monitors into the region no later than Oct. 1, joining U.N. and other international observers. Russia said it would withdraw its troops within 10 days of the E.U. deployment.

Russia said Monday that it will send a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes to Venezuela this year for a joint military exercise in the Caribbean, the Associated Press reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko insisted the decision was made before Russia's war with Georgia.

--------

Correspondent Tara Bahrampour in Tbilisi contributed to this report.

2008-09-09T09:02:00.001-07:00

Georgian War Victims Memorial - Tbilisi
photo-Jim Doyle, September 2006

Russia Agrees to Limited Pullout From Georgia

2008-09-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/world/europe/09georgia.html?emc=tnt&tntemail

By ELLEN BARRY and DAN BILEFSKY
Published: September 8, 2008

MOSCOW — After a tense four-hour meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, announced Monday that Russia agreed to withdraw its troops by mid-October from its positions in Georgia outside the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

He also agreed to allow 200 observers from the European Union to monitor the conflict, a step that Russia had resisted. But Mr. Medvedev said Russia would stand by its decision to recognize the two breakaway regions as independent nations.

“We have made our choice,” he said at a joint news conference afterward. “This is a final and irreversible choice. This is an irrevocable decision.”

Mr. Medvedev’s comments were greeted defiantly by the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, in Tbilisi, where Mr. Sarkozy brought the agreement later on Monday.

Mr. Saakashvili offered cautious approval of the deal but openly questioned whether Moscow could be trusted, saying he had received written assurances from the European Union that it would protect Georgia’s territorial integrity.

“There is no way Georgia will ever give up a piece of its sovereignty, a piece of its territory,” he said. “Of course they should get the hell out of the territories they control.”

Mr. Sarkozy’s grueling day underlined the challenge facing European mediators as they try to bring the two sides together. The conflict has become a test for the European Union’s ambition to become a major foreign policy player on a par with the United States, and a personal credibility test for the French president, who currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.

Mr. Sarkozy’s task is harder because the European Union has been bitterly divided over how to manage its relationship with Russia. Some member nations, like France, have struggled to safeguard Europe’s economic interests in Russia, while formerly Communist countries like Poland want the bloc to punish Russia for failing to uphold human rights and respect democratic norms.

At times, Mr. Sarkozy’s frustration showed — as when a reporter in Moscow asked if he had allowed Russia to alter Georgia’s borders.

“It was not up to Russia to define Georgia’s borders or frontiers,” he said. “The Russians will say what they wish to say.”

The conflict began Aug. 7, when Georgia attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and Russian troops poured across the border in response. More than a month later, Russian troops continue to occupy Georgian territory outside the enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia despite a cease-fire agreement that called on both sides to withdraw troops to their positions before the fighting broke out.

Throughout the crisis, Russia has excoriated the American role in the region, but welcomed intervention by the European Union. As he stood beside Mr. Sarkozy, praising the Europeans as “our natural partners, our key partners,” Mr. Medvedev claimed that the United States was responsible for the attacks on Tskhinvali.

Georgia, he said, “received the blessing of one government. I can’t say how it was given, whether through direct instruction or tacit approval. But there is no doubt that it happened.”

He continued: “They launched an idiotic escapade. People were killed. And now all of Georgia is paying for it.”

If implemented, the agreement will go a long way toward reconciling outstanding conflicts from the original cease-fire agreement reached on Aug. 12. The roughly 200 European Union observers, working with monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, would replace Russian peacekeepers in the security zone outside the two enclaves and in other disputed areas, so that Russian troops would pull back.

The agreement also requires Russia to withdraw five peacekeeping posts in the west of Georgia, between the cities of Poti and Senaki, within seven days. In return, Georgia is required to withdraw its forces to their bases by Oct. 1. Mr. Medvedev also said he had received a written commitment by Georgia, backed by France and the European Union, that it would not use force on the enclaves.

In an interview after a news conference in Tbilisi, Mr. Saakashvili said he had refused to sign a document pledging not to use force because that matter was covered in the cease-fire deal of Aug. 12.

Monday’s agreement — and, in particular, Russian cooperation with Mr. Sarkozy — could have an impact among European leaders, said Tomas Valasek, a foreign policy specialist at the Center for European Reform, a research group in London.

“Those within Europe who have argued for nonconfrontation and against isolating Russia, like Germany, will now feel justified,” he said. “They will say engagement works.”

The decision came a day before European officials were due to meet in France for discussions, to be attended by President Viktor A. Yushchenko of Ukraine, on whether to offer Ukraine the possibility of future membership in the European Union, a move that Russia opposes. Monday’s announcement makes Ukraine’s case less likely to move forward, Mr. Valasek said.

Russia plans to establish formal diplomatic relations with governments in Sukhumi and Tskhinvali, the Abkhaz and South Ossetian capitals, on Tuesday. Two weeks after Mr. Medvedev announced the decision to formally recognize them, Nicaragua has followed suit.

Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, said Monday that the Belorussian Parliament might take up the matter after elections this month.

At the news conference, Mr. Medvedev said he was certain that over time, other governments would come to accept the new borders.

“We realize everything changes in this world, including recognition or nonrecognition of this or that state,” he said. “This is a reality that should be taken into account by our European partners.”

“If our colleagues are ready to do it right here and right now,” he added, “we wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

Meanwhile, Georgia and Russia carried their dispute over the breakaway enclaves to the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Monday, as three days of hearings began over Georgia’s request for an injunction ordering Russia to stop “terrorizing” ethnic Georgians and to allow refugees to return to their homes.

Georgia’s first deputy minister of justice, Tina Bujaliani, said her country was urgently turning to the court, the United Nations’ highest, “at a time of great distress in its history, a time when hundreds of thousands of its nationals are persecuted and displaced from their homes only because they are Georgians.”

Russia, as expected, challenged the court’s jurisdiction and asked it to dismiss the Georgian application.

Ellen Barry reported from Moscow, and Dan Bilefsky from Tbilisi, Georgia. Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York, Michael Schwirtz from Moscow, and Marlise Simons from Paris.

Polish TV crew freed in South Ossetia

2008-09-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/?id=90997

September 9, 2008

A crew from the Polish National Television (TVP), detained yesterday by a patrol of Ossetian police, has been freed.

In the morning journalists were taken to a border crossing to Georgia where they were handed over to the Georgian party. No charges were leveled against the crew.

The journalists revealed that they were taken for spies and accused of co-operation with Georgian intelligence.

The crew was detained on a road from Gori to Tskhinvali, near the city of Karaleti, where the Russian buffer zone starts. Reporter Dariusz Bohatkiewicz and cameraman Marcin Wesołowski, as well as their Georgian driver Lewan Guliaszwili were preparing material for the evening news.

The police confiscated their entire equipment, including cameras and mobile phones.

After the initial questioning the detained were transported to the South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali where they were interrogated for a second time. Later on the journalists were transported to a school in the capital’s suburbs where they spent the night. (jm)

Memo From Tbilisi

2008-09-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/world/europe/08georgians.html?em

Within a Russian-Infused Culture, a Complex Reckoning After a War

By DAN BILEFSKY and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: September 7, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia — When a Russian-language theater troupe from Georgia went to St. Petersburg a few years ago to stage a darkly satirical play about modern Russia — featuring a mentally impaired child named Vladimir who brings the country to ruin and a Stalinist plot to create a master race through artificial insemination — much of the Russian audience hissed and booed before leaving early.

Avto Varsimashvili, the Georgian director of the play, “Russian Blues,” said he expected it to inspire the opposite reaction when it opened in Georgia next year. But he insisted it was the caustic Georgian sense of humor, rather than an anti-Russian mania spurred by the recent war between Georgia and Russia, that would help make the play a success.

“Georgians have always had a deep affection for Russian people and Russian culture going back centuries,” said Mr. Varsimashvili, speaking in fluent Russian at his theater in a multiethnic neighborhood of Tbilisi plastered with posters showing graphic pictures of Georgians bombed in the recent war.

“We perceive a modern Russia that is big and sometimes monstrous,” he said. “But the difference between Georgians and Russians is that we have never mistaken the Russian people for the Russian government.”

The war and its aftermath have nevertheless been greeted with an anti-Russian backlash that is spilling over into politics and culture. A popular rap video, which has been run repeatedly on state television, shows an image of the head of Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian prime minister, attached to the body of a rat stomping on a map of Georgia, under the words the “evil vampire.” Also, the government of Georgia has cut off Georgians’ access to Russian television and Web sites, while both countries have officially cut off diplomatic relations.

Yet the reality here is more complex. Although the Georgian government has spent the years since the Soviet Union fell promoting Georgian identity, Georgian society remains infused with an appreciation for Russian culture that Georgian sociologists and historians say will outlive this latest round of tensions.

A monument to Alexander Pushkin, a Russian poet and icon who once visited Tbilisi for inspiration, stands in a park just off Freedom Square in the city. Georgian television channels routinely broadcast old Russian films, kiosks sell Russian-language fashion magazines and Russian pop music blares from taxi radios. While Georgians proudly cling to their distinct centuries-old language, Russian is the second language here.

Even some of those victimized by the Russian bombings said they perceived the conflict as a proxy battle between two global powers — Russia and the United States — rather than a vendetta between Georgians and Russians.

“We hate the policies of the Russian government, but we do not hate the Russian people,” said Zura Pushauvi, looking over the rubble of his bombed-out casino in Gori, a central Georgian city. A statue of Stalin, Georgia’s best-known son, peered from outside a shattered window. “This war was a spat between two global powers. It was not an ethnic war between Georgians and Russians.”

Georgia has long had an ambivalent relationship with its former colonial ruler. Georgian princes benefited from Russian protection against the Persian and Ottoman armies in the 19th century, although Russia abolished the Georgian monarchy and squashed the separate identity of its Orthodox church. In the early 20th century, a nascent independent Georgian state was quashed by the Soviet Red Army.

Some ethnic Russians living in Georgia, of which there are around 70,000, said the war had forced them to choose sides. Nadejna Diakonova-Giuashvili, an ethnic Russian whose late husband was a Georgian officer in the Russian Army, recently escaped to a refugee center in Gori after fleeing from her bombed-out Georgian village near South Ossetia. She said she was now ashamed to be Russian.

“I’m so ashamed to look in the eyes of my neighbors after what Russia has done,” she said, speaking in both Russian and Georgian. “I only learned my husband was Georgian when he signed his name on the marriage registry the day we were married,” she said. “He spoke fluent Russian, and he tricked me. But I didn’t care. We have the same blood.”

Some ethnic Russians here said bubbling anti-Russian sentiment had forced them to conceal their Russian identity, even as they insisted they had no intention of leaving Georgia, where they had lived for decades.

Vera Tsereteli, who moved from Moscow to Tbilisi more than 30 years ago, said her Georgian friends still greeted her with a kiss even as they teased her by calling her an “occupier.” She is unable to speak Georgian, and she said she was now wary of speaking Russian in public.

“During Soviet times, it was prestigious to speak Russian and a sign of being educated and refined,” she said. “Now, Russia is associated with occupation, annexation and refugees.”

Irina Minasyan, a Russian-speaking Georgian of Armenian descent, said she feared her 13-year-old son, Edgar, could face limited career prospects because he attended a Russian school in Tbilisi. “A lot of people have switched their children from Russian to Georgian schools since the war began,” she said. “The young generation is anti-Russian, and I worry about Edgar’s future.”

Sozar Subari, Georgia’s human rights ombudsman, whose job is to monitor human rights abuses in Georgia, said he had received no complaints of violence against ethnic Russians since the war began. He emphasized that the country’s Russian-language schools were an integral part of a multiethnic Georgia and would not be closed.

A generational divide in Georgian attitudes toward Russia was apparent on a recent day at Teremok, a popular Russian restaurant in Tbilisi. Dimitry Dotiashvili, 34, a hotel security guard, said the younger generation preferred speaking English to Russian and wanted to link Georgia inextricably to NATO and the European Union. He said he loved Tolstoy and pelmeni, Russian dumplings, even as he feared Russian nuclear bombs.

A survey of Georgian attitudes toward Russia in June by the Tbilisi-based Institute for Polling and Marketing showed that 76 percent of Georgians were against war with Russia.

“We want to hold on to the illusion of a Russia that loves us because Russia has for so long been part of our lives,” said Gocha Tskitishvili, the director of the institute.

Russians, meanwhile, have traditionally vacationed in Georgia, whether to soak in Tbilisi’s sulfur baths or to relax on Batumi’s Black Sea beaches. Georgian cuisine, with its spicy plum and pepper sauces and khachapuri, a cheese-filled flat bread, is among the most popular in Russia, and there is barely a major Russian city from Moscow to Vladivostok without a Georgian restaurant.

Yet the backlash against Georgians living in Russia appears to be far more pronounced than the sentiment against Russians being stirred in Georgia. “Once again they have begun to endlessly show us programs about Georgian thieves,” Grigory Chkhartishvili, a Georgian native and one of Russia’s most popular authors, who writes under the pseudonym Boris Akunin, recently told Echo of Moscow, an independent Russian radio station. “The entire country is beginning to hate Georgians.”

International Court Hears Georgian Case

2008-09-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/world/europe/09hague.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=&oref=slogin

By MARLISE SIMONS
Published: September 8, 2008

PARIS — Georgia and Russia carried their dispute over the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to the International Court of Justice on Monday, as three days of hearings began over Georgia’s request for an injunction ordering Russia to stop “terrorizing” ethnic Georgians and to allow refugees to return to their homes.

Georgia’s first deputy minister of justice, Tina Bujaliani, said her country was urgently turning to the court — the United Nations’ highest — “at a time of great distress in its history, a time when hundreds of thousands of its nationals are persecuted and displaced from their homes only because they are Georgians.”

Russia, as expected, challenged the court’s jurisdiction and asked it to dismiss the Georgian application. Roman Kolodkin, the legal department director at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the judges that Georgia had provoked the current crisis last month when it began an attack to recover control of South Ossetia. He said that Russia had no choice but to become involved to prevent further deaths, and that now that the two regions were independent, Russia could not be held responsible.

Georgia, offering sworn witness statements and satellite images taken during the conflict, argued that ethnic Georgians still living in the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia continued to be driven from their villages by a “systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing” organized by Russia.

Payam Akhavan, a lawyer representing Georgia, said a distinction should be drawn between destruction resulting from the fighting and a systematic campaign against ethnic Georgian civilians. “The satellite images showed hundreds of houses burning, houses with missing roofs,” he said in a telephone interview. “This is damage from deliberate torching, quite different from war damage.”

The commercial satellite images were analyzed by a Geneva-based United Nations agency, Unosat. Human Rights Watch, which has also looked at the images, said that destruction of five ethnic Georgian villages near the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali “was caused by intentional burning and not armed conflict.”

Mr. Akhavan said that the conflict had already displaced some 160,000 ethnic Georgians.

“The pattern is continuing, but it is done more quietly without the burning and killing but through pressuring people,” he said, citing reports that residents near Akhalgori, a Georgian town south of South Ossetia, were being told they could only stay “if they have a Russian passport.”

Georgia filed an earlier case against Russia before the same court, on Aug. 12, shortly after the conflict began, charging Moscow with racial discrimination.

EU asks Russia to honour Georgia withdrawal

2008-09-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10531177

Tuesday September 9, 2008

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the European Union presidency, began the difficult mission yesterday of trying to persuade Russia to honour its pledge to withdraw troops from Georgia.

During the talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the EU also was pushing for a quick deployment of several hundred EU monitors to Georgia. But just after Sarkozy arrived here Monday morning, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Moscow is against an independent European Union monitoring mission in Georgia.

Nearly a month after a truce negotiated by Sarkozy ended a five-day war between Russia and Georgia, Russian troops remain entrenched deep inside Georgian territory. Georgia and the West have accused Russia of failing to honour its pledge to withdraw its troops to positions held before the fighting broke out Aug. 7.

But Russia says those troops are peacekeepers and that they are allowed under the accord to help maintain security around Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moscow has recognised the two regions as independent states.

Sarkozy has been criticized for giving the Russians too much room for interpretation in the peace deal signed Aug. 12, and his diplomatic blitz to Moscow and Tbilisi on Monday may be his last chance to save it - as well as his own credibility as a peacemaker.

Sarkozy is leading an EU delegation that includes European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

In pushing for a quick deployment of several hundred EU monitors to Georgia, EU officials said they would remove any justification for the continued presence of Russian troops outside the two provinces. But their mandate is yet to be negotiated.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said just before the EU delegation sat down for talks with Medvedev that Moscow was against an autonomous EU monitoring mission in Georgia.

"We believe it will lead to an unnecessary fragmentation of international monitoring efforts already being conducted today by the UN and the OSCE," Nesterenko said at a briefing.

Nesterenko said Russia has welcomed the recent decision to increase the Organization for Security and Cooperation's number of monitors in Georgia. His statement appeared to reflect Russia's hope of influencing the UN and the OSCE teams by using Moscow's membership in both organizations.

In his 16 months in office, Sarkozy's doggedness has paid off in the international arena.

He helped win the release of six Bulgarian medics held in Libya; he has boosted France's diplomatic and military role in Afghanistan; and he has restored France's ties with Syria, among other things.

But he faces a tough job in persuading Medvedev to back down. Moscow has argued that the peace deal allows its soldiers to maintain patrols in a so-called security zone of up to 4 miles (7 kilometers) that it carved out on Georgian territory, and Russian officials have indicated they have no intention of pulling the "peacekeepers" out.

At a Russian checkpoint in Karaleti outside South Ossetia, Tamazi Kaidarashvili, an ethnic Georgian who is one of only a few dozen people remaining in his village north of the checkpoint, said he hoped the EU would persuade Russia to withdraw forces.

"As long as the Russian boot is in the Caucasus, there will never be peace," he said.

Kaidarashvili had crossed through the checkpoint to visit his brother, who lost an arm and a leg when he stepped on a mine a week ago and is in a hospital in Gori.

He said Russian soldiers had been stopping at houses in the village to demand food and drink and asking "why are you with the Americans and against us."

Despite the presence of Russian troops on Georgian soil, Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili said the West would help his country regain control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"Our territorial integrity will be restored. I am more convinced of this than ever," Saakashvili said in a televised appearance Sunday. "This will not be an easy process, but now this is a process between an irate Russia and the rest of the world."

Russian tanks and troops entered South Ossetia after Georgian forces began an offensive to gain control of the pro-Russian territory, which has had de-facto independence for more than 15 years. The Russians quickly repelled the soldiers and drove further into Georgia.

- AP

Georgia seeks protection from UN court

2008-09-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

By Marlise Simons
Published: September 8, 2008

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/08/europe/court.php

PARIS: Georgia on Monday sought the protection of the International Court of Justice for ethnic Georgians living in the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, arguing that they are still being driven from their villages by a "systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing" organized by Russia.

Georgia's immediate aim is for the court, based in The Hague, to issue an injunction ordering Russia to stop "terrorizing" ethnic Georgians and to allow refugees to return to their homes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In an earlier lawsuit, filed in August, Georgia charged Russia with racial discrimination, an issue which the court may address later.

The 15 judges of the highest United Nations court, which deals with conflicts between countries, must first decide if it has jurisdiction over the conflict. If so, lawyers for Georgia said they hoped to obtain the injunction against Russia within two weeks, which would be very fast for this court.

Opening three days of hearings on Monday, Georgia's first deputy minister of justice, Tina Bujaliani, said her country was turning to the court "at a time of great distress in its history, a time when hundreds of thousands of its nationals are persecuted and displaced from their homes only because they are Georgians."

Russia challenged the court's jurisdiction to hear the case, and asked it to dismiss the Georgian application. Roman Kolodkin, for Russia, told judges Georgia had provoked the current crisis last month when it launched an attack to recover control over South Ossetia. He said that Russia had no choice but to become involved to prevent further deaths.

Russia agrees to limited Georgia troop pull-out

2008-09-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/08/europe/09georgia.php

By Ellen Barry and Graham Bowley
Published: September 8, 2008

MOSCOW: President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia said Monday that his country's forces would withdraw from Georgia to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two ethnic enclaves that Russian troops seized and Russia quickly recognized as independent last month.

Speaking after meeting with a delegation led by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Medvedev said Russia would allow 200 European monitors to deploy in the security zones outside the two enclaves and in other disputed areas in Georgia by Oct. 1, so that Russian troops would be able to pull back. Georgia and Russia have traded accusations over civilian deaths since the conflict over the territories began.

"Russia has received from the countries of the European Union, and France which is chairman of the European Union, a guarantee of the non-use of force by Georgia," Medvedev said after the talks. He said Russia had also agreed to remove checkpoints around the port of Poti in Georgia, Reuters reported.

That was something of a turnaround, since Russian officials had earlier indicated they would resist the deployment of European monitors.

But the Russian president would not yield on the sovereignty of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which the European Union, the United States and others insist remain part of Georgia.

Sarkozy and Medvedev met at the Russian presidential retreat at Barvikha outside Moscow. The other members of Sarkozy's delegation were Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign-policy chief, and José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president.

Sarkozy, who had hoped to get Russia to finally comply with the six-point cease-fire agreement he and Medvedev negotiated last month, defended his limited victory, and his failure to overcome the issue of Georgia's territorial integrity, saying Europe did not want another cold war. The European Union delegation was due to travel on to Georgia.

Speaking before the meeting, Medvedev said: "A tense month has passed during which all necessary efforts have been undertaken to conform strictly with the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan. But there have been other important events. Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. There are new approaches in the way we have to move forward."

European foreign ministers met informally over the weekend in Avignon, France. But even at that meeting, there was significant doubt that the Monday mission, deputized at an emergency European Union summit meeting on the Georgia crisis a week ago, would produce significant, concrete results.

"There's a great deal to do, with a lot of details, and not much time on Monday," said a European Union official who was due to travel with Sarkozy. Like several other officials interviewed for this article, he spoke on condition of anonymity according to diplomatic rules.

A senior French official said the mission could not resolve the entire crisis but had two main aims. The first was the withdrawal of Russian troops from what diplomats termed "Georgia proper," the parts of Georgia beyond the boundaries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The second was to get the Russians to agree to a monitoring group, as the cease-fire agreement called for, and establish its area of responsibility.

The roughly 200 monitors, ideally with a United Nations mandate, would replace Russian peacekeepers in the security zone outside the two enclaves and in other disputed areas, so that Russian troops would pull back, as Russia had agreed, to positions they held before the crisis started on Aug. 7.

The Europeans want Russia to accept the appointment of a high representative to run the "international mechanism" overseeing the monitors, but Russia is insisting on involving the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in which it has a strong voice.

Then, under the cease-fire plan, talks are to start on the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, though details remain vague and must be negotiated.

The meeting's participants in Avignon over the weekend had no ready answer to the Russians' violation of Georgian territorial integrity, which the European Union has condemned as unacceptable, and no expectation that Russia would readily relent.

The phrase "Georgia proper" was frequently heard this weekend to describe Georgia without the enclaves. "I agree it's a dangerous phrase," the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said. "But the facts on the ground have been imposed."

Sikorski was said to be the strongest voice inside the closed meetings for a hard line with Russia and a strong statement of support for Ukraine, which meets with the European Union on Tuesday.

On the sidelines, Sikorski said he favored giving Ukraine associate status in the European Union while "maintaining a European perspective" backing it for future membership in the bloc "even though it will take many years to fulfill the necessary criteria."

While Poland, Britain, Sweden and the Baltic countries pressed for a hard line toward Russia, officials said that specific sanctions were not discussed. Kouchner also refused to discuss how the 27-nation group would respond if Russia continued to delay compliance.

"It depends on the Russian answer," he said. There is no point, he said, in imposing "unuseful sanctions," steps Russia could ignore.

"Sanctions are not our word," he said. "We must find an understanding to solve this conflict."

Ellen Barry reported from Moscow and Graham Bowley from New York. Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Avignon, France, and Alan Cowell from London.

Sarkozy arrives in Moscow for Georgia peace talks

2008-09-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

French president urges Russia to honour troop withdrawal as Georgia opens legal fight for breakaway provinces at UN court

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/08/georgia.russia?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, arrived in Moscow today as part of a European Union delegation hoping to persuade Russia to honour its pledge to withdraw troops from Georgia.

As Sarkozy arrived in the capital, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman set a tough tone for the talks, saying that Moscow opposed an independent EU monitoring mission in Georgia.

Andrei Nesterenko said the deployment of an EU monitoring force would lead to unnecessary "fragmentation" of international monitoring efforts by the UN and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Sarkozy's primary mission will be to persuade the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, to pull his forces out of Georgia.

The EU delegation, which includes the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, and the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, will also push for a quick deployment of several hundred EU monitors to Georgia.

However, there was little sign that Russia intends to comply with the EU's demands. Nearly a month after a truce negotiated by Sarkozy ended a five-day war, Russian troops remain entrenched deep inside Georgian territory.

Earlier today, Russian soldiers turned back a UN convoy from a tense zone around the breakaway province of South Ossetia in a blunt demonstration of who is in charge.

The convoy of four vehicles from UN agencies waited for about an hour at the checkpoint in Karaleti, but was turned away after a brief discussion with a Russian general.

David Carden, who is leading the interagency mission by the World Food Programme, Unicef and the UN refugee agency, said the teams were attempting to do a preliminary humanitarian assessment and would try again.

After talks in Moscow, Sarkozy and the EU delegation will travel to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, to meet the president, Mikheil Saakashvili.

Sarkozy has been criticised for giving the Russians too much room for interpretation in the peace deal, which was signed on August 12. His diplomatic blitz to Moscow and Tbilisi is seen by some as a last chance to save it - as well as his own credibility as a peacemaker.

Georgia and the west have accused Russia of failing to honour its pledge to withdraw troops to positions held before the fighting broke out. Russia says those troops are peacekeepers and are therefore allowed under the accord to help maintain security around Georgia's breakaway provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Moscow has recognised the two regions as independent states.

Meanwhile, Georgia has opened a new legal front in its battle with Russia for control of the regions, going to the International Court of Justice in The Hague over claims of Russian human rights abuses in the two provinces. It wants the court to impose emergency measures to halt killings and forced expulsions.

Tina Burjaliani, Georgia's first deputy minister of justice, told the court today that Russian forces, local militias and mercenaries were conducting a campaign of murder, forced displacement and attacks on towns and villages that started in the early 1990s and culminated in last month's brief war.

The court is the UN's highest judicial body. Its rulings are binding, but it has no enforcement powers.

Russia accuses West of warship provocation

2008-09-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

Sat Sep 6

http://www.reuters.com/

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused the West on Saturday of acting provocatively in and around the Black Sea, where the United States is using warships to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia.

"I wonder how they would feel if we now dispatched humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean, suffering from a hurricane, using our navy," Medvedev said, adding that a whole U.S. fleet had been dispatched to deliver the aid.

The United States has used warships to ferry relief supplies to Georgia after the brief but intense war with Russia in early August, in part to send a signal to Moscow.

Its biggest ship yet arrived on Friday, when the USS Mount Whitney dropped anchor off Georgia's Russian-patrolled port of Poti.

NATO has also rejected talk of a buildup of its warships in the Black Sea, saying their recent presence in the region was part of routine exercises.

Russia has accused U.S. warships of rearming Tbilisi's defeated army, a charge dismissed as "ridiculous" by Washington.

Medvedev was speaking at a meeting of his advisory state council, which meets regularly and comprises regional governors.

Medvedev said he had summoned the state council to discuss changes in Russia's foreign and security policy after the conflict in Georgia.

"The South Ossetian conflict showed that Russia will not allow anyone to make an attempt on the lives and dignity of its citizens, its peacekeepers," he told officials gathered in the gold-and-white St Alexander Hall in the Kremlin palace.

"Russia is a state (whose interests) will now be taken into account," he added.

READY FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW

Medvedev had earlier set out five principles of Russia's foreign policy, including a readiness to abide by international law and a claim of special interests in specific areas around the globe.

Medvedev said Russia was disappointed with the concerted Western condemnation of its operation in South Ossetia.

"We haven't heard words of support from those who, in similar situations, spoke broadly of freedom of choice, national dignity and a right to use force to punish an aggressor."

Medvedev did not go into detail, but was clearly referring to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and to Western support for the self-proclaimed independence of Serbia's breakaway region Kosovo. Russia bitterly opposed both.

Russia will not back down under international pressure and will not row back on the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Medvedev added.

"We are under political pressure, but this is not something new for us," he said.

He urged the regional governors to offer comprehensive assistance to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, including the shaping of their statehood.

"The new states should become examples of civil peace, national accord and commitment to democratic principles," he said.

(Reporting by Oleg Shchedrov, editing by Tim Pearce)

Georgia

2008-09-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

photo - Jim Doyle
September 2006

The Truth About Russia in Georgia

2008-09-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/08/the-truth-about-1.php

TBILISI, GEORGIA – Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.

Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn't start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.

Regional expert, German native, and former European Commission official Patrick Worms was recently hired by the Georgian government as a media advisor, and he explained to me exactly what happened when I met him in downtown Tbilisi. You should always be careful with the version of events told by someone on government payroll even when the government is as friendly and democratic as Georgia's. I was lucky, though, that another regional expert, author and academic Thomas Goltz, was present during Worms' briefing to me and signed off on it as completely accurate aside from one tiny quibble.

Goltz has been writing about the Caucasus region for almost 20 years, and he isn't on Georgian government payroll. He earns his living from the University of Montana and from the sales of his books Azerbaijan Diary, Georgia Diary and Chechnya Diary. Goltz experienced these three Caucasus republics at their absolute worst, and he knows the players and the events better than just about anyone. Every journalist in Tbilisi seeks him out as the old hand who knows more than the rest of us put together, and he wanted to hear Patrick Worms' spiel to reporters in part to ensure its accuracy.

“You,” Worms said to Goltz just before he started to flesh out the real story to me, “are going to be bored because I'm going to give some back story that you know better than I do.”

“Go,” Goltz said. “Go.”

The back story began at least as early as the time of the Soviet Union. I turned on my digital voice recorder so I wouldn't miss anything that was said.

“A key tool that the Soviet Union used to keep its empire together,” Worms said to me, “was pitting ethnic groups against one another. They did this extremely skillfully in the sense that they never generated ethnic wars within their own territory. But when the Soviet Union collapsed it became an essential Russian policy to weaken the states on its periphery by activating the ethnic fuses they planted.

-----> SEE THE REST OF THIS STORY AT -
http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/08/the-truth-about-1.php

White House hopeful blames U.S. for Caucasus war

2008-09-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

September 5, 2008

http://russiatoday.com/news/news/30004

White House hopeful blames U.S. for Caucasus war
In the United States, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader says last month's armed conflict over South Ossetia was provoked by Republican John McCain and his colleagues in Washington.
The green candidate also said both McCain and Democrat Barack Obama would continue to militarise U.S. foreign policy, which he says will lead to more global friction.

"We've been sending arms and other support to Georgia and we've been getting them ready for NATO membership," Nader said.

"The Russians see that as a hostile act on their underbelly," he added.

Ralph Nader was speaking close to the site of the Republican National Convention in the city of St Paul, in a scaled down venue across the river in Minnesota.

The 74-year-old won't be allowed to explain his position in the upcoming Presidential debates. Officials say Nader doesn't meet the 15 percent popular vote requirement needed to participate.

Meanwhile, John McCain has accepted the Republican nomination to run for the U.S. presidency. In his speech at the party convention, he lashed out at Russia, criticising the country's actions in the Caucasus.

"They invaded a small, democratic neighbour to gain more control over the world's oil supply, intimidate others and further their ambitions of reassembling the Russian empire," McCain said.

McCain continued his aggressive rhetoric when discussing Iran.

"Iran remains the chief state sponsor of terrorism and on the path to acquiring nuclear weapons," he said.

His adversary Ralph Nader disagreed.

"Iran is surrounded west, south and east by US. It's military hasn't invaded anybody in 250-years," Nader said.

Outside the conference centre, dozens of protestors against the Iraq war have been arrested. Some have marched from the U.S. capital, Washington DC, to the location of the Republican National convention.

U.S. Warship to Arrive in Poti

2008-09-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=12308

USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), a flagship of the U.S. 6th Fleet, will arrive in the port of Poti on September 5 with humanitarian aid onboard, the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi said in a statement.

The command and control warship is expected to arrive in the port town – in the outskirts of which Russian forces maintain outposts – at 5 pm local time.

“USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) plans to deliver more than 17 tons of relief supplies, including 4,000 blankets donated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), juice, powdered milk and hygiene products,” the U.S. embassy said.

This will be the third ship to have transported humanitarian aid to Georgia. Two previous ships - a U.S. navy guided missile destroyer, the USS McFaul, and a U.S. coast guard cutter, Dallas (WHEC 716) – dilivered aid in the port of Batumi last month.

EU wants truth about Ossetian war

2008-09-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

September 5, 2008

http://russiatoday.com/news/news/29988

EU Foreign Ministers are calling for an international inquest into identifying who was responsible for starting the conflict in South Ossetia.

They made the statement in the French city of Avignon, where they have gathered for an informal meeting.

The ministers said the EU needed to re-evaluate its foreign policy, particularly in relation to Washington. French FM Bernard Kushner said U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was not America’s best ambassador

"The very fact that Americans didn't find anything else to support their failed ally - Mr. Saakashvili - other than sending Mr. Cheney to the region, who is incredibly unpopular in the world, who is associated with the war in Iraq, with all these neo-conservative, black-and-white visions of the world, who was accused of corruption - remember the Halliburton affair in Iraq. And if they wanted, if the Bush administration really wanted to consolidate the international community behind the United States in criticising Russia, I think they should find somebody else and not send Mr. Cheney," Kushner said.

He also said the European Union should develop a joint approach to Russia.

"We have to be together. The U.S. have their own views, but we are living close to Russia. We need to develop our own policy, a neighbouring policy. We have to talk about our views of being close to Russia, a great country, a partner," he said.

The ministers are also debating when and under what terms civilian monitors will be sent to Georgia. EU is about to send 700 observers to the region.

A discussion on delivering humanitarian aid and restoring Georgia’s economy is also on the agenda.

The meeting comes just four days after an emergency summit in Brussels, at which EU leaders denounced Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

International parliamentarians visit South Ossetia

Meanwhile, an international parliamentary delegation is already in South Ossetia. The main goal of the trip is to clarify the sequence of recent events in the region.

The group consists of members of parliament and public representatives from several European and CIS countries.

They will be joined by a delegation from Russia.

The officials will meet local residents, before heading to the neighbouring republic of North Ossetia, which hosted large numbers of refugees after the conflict.

Joint declaration on South Ossetia signed in Moscow

2008-09-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

September 6, 2008

http://russiatoday.com/news/news/29953

The leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) have signed a joint declaration on recent developments in the Caucasus at a meeting in Moscow on Friday. The group also expressed its support of Russia's reaction to Georgian aggression against South Ossetia.

The issue has also been at the forefront of EU foreign ministers’ talks in France.

Countries in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation will make their own minds up on the issue of recognising South Ossetia. This was the conclusion of Russia's President Medvedev, following a summit of the organisation.

”All our partners in the CSTO will be guided by their own opinion on the issue of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. This is how it should be according to the norms of international law. They'll be guided by their own national interests. Russia believes this is absolutely right,” Dmitry Medvedev said.

But the Armenian President stressed that the members of the organisation should show a united front in different issues, including foreign policy.

”Along with strengthening the military aspects of CSTO, we must also coordinate our foreign policy, because we are members of one organisation,” said Armenian President, Serzh Sargsyan.

The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) which includes Russia and six of its neighbouring countries - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - backed Russia's actions in South Ossetia and condemned Georgia's aggression in a joint statement issued on Thursday.

“The statement highlights the key points and has all the necessary verifications, including condemnation of Georgia's military actions against South Ossetia. It condemns the policy of double standards and admits the situation in the conflict zone is dangerous,” said Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.

Russia is clearly satisfied with the support, but there is still a lot of work to be done and diplomatic talks continue on Friday at the highest level.

Meanwhile, a two-day informal meeting of EU foreign ministers which started in Avignon, France, on Friday will focus on the situation in the Caucasus.

The summit in Avignon will examine the questions of rendering humanitarian aid to Georgia and assistance in restoring its economy. The EU FMs will also consider the effect of events in South Ossetia on relations between Russia and the EU.

The special EU summit on September 1 took a moderate stance concerning Russia. Although denouncing the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the EU leaders refrained from taking any sanctions against Russia.

At the same time, there is a group of countries inside the EU, which continue pushing through a tough anti-Russian line. The core of the bloc includes the Baltic states, Poland and the UK.

The second day of the informal EU foreign ministers’ summit is expected to be devoted to the European Union’s relations with the U.S. and their future prospects.

The French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will also deliver a report on his trip to the Middle East.

Georgia severs ties with Russia

2008-09-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

Govt announces the split in the wake of allegations of ethnic cleansing against Georgians

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=4&contentid=200808312008083103535736993bc8c97

AFP

Georgian Dy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze announces the cutting of diplomatic ties
Tbilisi: Georgia on Friday cut diplomatic ties with Russia and Moscow lashed out at Georgia’s Western backers, sharpening the battle lines in a growing international crisis.

The government in Tbilisi announced the split three days after the Kremlin formally recognised the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Russian troops have been in control of both regions and also swathes of undisputed Georgian territory since pouring over the border into Georgia on August 8.

Fresh allegations on Friday of ethnic cleansing against Georgians in South Ossetia added fuel to Georgia’s anger over the occupation by Russian troops.

“Georgia is cutting diplomatic ties with the Russian Federation. Russian diplomats will have to leave Georgia,” Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said.

An increasingly isolated Russia also launched an angry attack on the West, rejecting criticism from NATO and the Group of Seven industrialised powers.

The G7 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - have called on Russia to “implement in full” a French-brokered peace plan requiring total withdrawal of forces from Georgia.

A Russian foreign ministry statement accused the G7 of being “biased” in favour of Tbilisi and seeking to “justify Georgian acts of aggression”.

Russian troops entered Georgia on August 8 and repelled Georgian troops trying to recover control over South Ossetia.

China calls for int'l efforts to resolve Russia-Georgia conflict

2008-09-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

www.chinaview.cn 2008-09-04

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- China voiced hope on Thursday the international community could "create favorable conditions" to promote a peaceful resolution to the Russia-Georgia conflict through dialogue.

"If the international community as well as the United Nations gets involved in the issue, (their efforts) should represent the consensus of the major concerning parties and be helpful to the peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and consultation," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a routine press conference here.

She also called on the international efforts to be conducive to the peace and stability in the South Ossetia region.

Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two breakaway regions of Georgia, as independent states last week, further increased tension in the region.

The conflict began early last month when Tbilisi sent in troops to reclaim South Ossetia. Russia quickly mounted a counter-offensive by sending in its forces to drive out the Georgians. The fighting ended with a ceasefire agreement brokered by France.

Editor: Lu Hui

Georgian actor and singer Vakhtang Kikabidze refused the Friendship Order.

2008-09-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

A beer-like gift: Georgian actor and singer Vakhtang Kikabidze refused the Friendship Order.
By Anar Garagezov

http://www.caspianbusinessnews.com/

The Russians can not understand why Vakhtang Kikabidze refused the Friendship Order given by Russian President Dmitriy Medvedyev in July in occasion of his 70th Anniversary. To find out the reason, the Russian journalists called him. Kikabadze explained them linking it with the ongoing war.“While we passed through Gori city we witnessed how it was blasted by Russians”, ’the Russians’ beloved actor said. “The citizens were robbed by unknown marauders. On the other hand, my friends in Russia neither could answer my calls or tell anything about it. The war shall end but hearts won’t soothe”.

Armenia Rules out Abkhazia, South Ossetia Recognition

2008-09-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--President Serzh Sarkisian has made clear that Armenia will not formally recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states any time soon, while reiterating his support for their residents' right to self-determination.

http://www.asbarez.com/index.html?showarticle=34734_9/4/2008_1

In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech made public late Wednesday, he also indicated that Armenia will continue to seek simultaneously good relations with Russia, the West and other major regional players after the conflict in neighboring Georgia. He said the Russian-Georgian conflict underlined the need for his landlocked country to have “alternative transit routes” for external commerce running through Iran and Turkey.

“Today one is wondering from time to time why Armenia is not recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” Sarkisian said, speaking at an annual meeting of Armenian ambassadors abroad. “The answer is simple: for the same reason that it did not recognize Kosovo's independence. Having the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia can not recognize another entity in the same situation as long as it has not recognized the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.”

The realization of a nation's right to self-determination “takes time” and requires the understanding of “all interested parties,” explained Sarkisian. That is why Armenia will keep trying to “convince” Azerbaijan to come to terms with the loss of Karabakh, he said.

Russia unilaterally recognized the two breakaway regions after crushing Georgian military forces in a brief war over South Ossetia and seems to be pressing Armenia and its other allies to follow suit. The issue will be on the agenda of Friday's meeting in Moscow of presidents of Russia, Armenia and four other ex-Soviet states aligned in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). President Dmitry Medvedev already discussed it with Sarkisian at his summer retreat in the Black Sea city of Sochi on Tuesday.

With more than 70 percent of Armenia's foreign trade carried out through Georgian territory, antagonizing Georgia would prove disastrous for a country already blockaded by Azerbaijan and Turkey. The Armenian economy has already been affected by major disruptions in rail and ferry traffic caused by the Russian-Georgian war. The war has also called into question continued vital supplies of Russian natural gas to Armenia through a pipeline passing via Georgia.

“Naturally, we are interested in a rapid and peaceful resolution of Georgia's problems and the establishment of lasting peace there,” Sarkisian said. He at the same time again criticized Tbilisi for attempting to settle the South Ossetian conflict by force and said the de facto secession of this and other territories does set a precedent for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

“Let them repeat that Kosovo is not a precedent, and some may say that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are not precedents either,” he said. “But the fact is that exceptions not considered precedents are beginning to set a pattern for the resolution of such conflicts.”

Sarkisian further announced that Armenia is poised to end its heavy dependence on Russia for natural gas with the impending launch of a gas pipeline from Iran.

“The gas pipeline has already been built and we can receive gas from the Islamic Republic of Iran as early as tomorrow,” he said. “Work on enhancing the capacity of that pipeline will likely end in late October or early November, and we will be able to import from 2 to 2.5 billion cubic meters of [Iranian] gas each year. That is, as much as we import now [from Russia.]”

Sarkisian went on to speak of his “political expectations” from Turkish President Abdullah Gul's upcoming visit to Yerevan and the broader thaw in Turkish-Armenian relations. “Without forgetting the past, we should look to the future, form an agenda of mutual interest and start contacts without preconditions,” he said.

The Armenian leader specifically stressed the importance of reopening the Turkish-Armenian border, telling his top diplomats to help generate greater international pressure for the relaunch of the Gyumri-Kars rail link.

“Arm yourselves with maps, statistical data and arguments: we must make sure everyone realizes that these several kilometers of railway can radically change the whole picture of regional partnership.”

Sarkisian further stated that he intends to “deepen and strengthen” Armenia's “friendly partnership” with the United States as well as other Western powers and structures. He said he will be personally overseeing his government's implementation of a plan of actions stemming from Armenia's inclusion in the European Union's European Neighborhood Policy program.

And he confirmed that a planned NATO-led military exercise in Armenia will go ahead later this month despite the latest upsurge in Russia-West tensions over Georgia. Yerevan will “consistently” take other actions stemming from its Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), he said. Those include Armenian participation in the NATO-led peace-keeping missions in Kosovo and possibly Afghanistan.

Sarkisian and his predecessor Robert Kocharian have repeatedly stated that despite growing security ties with the West, Armenia will not seek membership in NATO in the foreseeable future and that the military alliance with Russia remains the bedrock of its defense doctrine. Sarkisian reaffirmed this “complementary” policy in his speech.

“We will by all means develop and expand our strategic allied relations with Russia, which are based on the centuries-old friendship of our peoples,” he said.

ROAD TO WAR IN GEORGIA

2008-09-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

The Chronicle of a Caucasian Tragedy

By SPIEGEL Staff

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,574812,00.html

Many in the West were surprised by the outbreak of war between Georgia and Russia. But there were plenty of signs that the conflict was approaching. SPIEGEL reconstructs the road to violence.

The Sheraton Metechi Palace Hotel in the Georgian capital Tbilisi has a sand-colored façade, dozens of floors and a bright atrium-style lobby. It is an ideal base for guests working abroad who are eager not to attract attention.

A small group of American soldiers along with US advisors in civilian clothes stand huddled around laptop computers, whispering with officers and looking at images on the screen. As soon as a visitor walks over to see what they're up to, they snap the computers shut. A man in his mid-30s, wearing a blue polo shirt, explains: "We're the worst-informed people in Tbilisi. I can't even tell you what we're doing here."

As of the end of last week, the roughly 160 American military advisors still stood their ground in Georgia. They weren't the only foreign soldiers in the country, though. Russia withdrew far more slowly than Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had promised. And Moscow has likewise announced that some 500 soldiers will remain in the country to secure a buffer zone between Georgia and South Ossetia.

It is, in short, a messy situation. But who is actually responsible for this six-day war in the southern Caucasus?

Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili criticizes what he calls a "brutal Russian attack and invasion." In return, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin calls Saakashvili a "war criminal" and talks of the "genocide" committed against Russian citizens. But what are the representatives of the Western community of values saying? The fact is, they are still puzzled.

If They Only Looked

This is surprising, because the war that erupted on the southern flank of the Caucasus Mountains was almost as inevitable as thunder after a lightening strike. The dozens of witness statements and pieces of intelligence information at SPIEGEL's disposal combine to form a chronicle of a tragedy that anyone could see coming -- if they only looked.

But a true reconstruction of events must begin well before Aug. 7 -- the day when Georgian troops marched into South Ossetia. A war of words had been raging between Moscow and Tbilisi since the beginning of the year and, before long, both sides were conducting military maneuvers, which, in retrospect, can be seen as preparation for actual conflict. A number of intelligence agencies had observed troop movements in Georgia and South Ossetia, with satellites providing precise images of what was happening on the ground. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice became involved in shuttle diplomacy, trying to appease Saakashvili on the one hand, while criticizing Putin, on the other.

In truth, the world should have been able to predict what was about to happen in the southern Caucasus. Nevertheless, when the armed conflict finally erupted, it was to great astonishment worldwide. No one had wanted a return to the Cold War.

Between Jan. 5, 2008, the day of Mikhail Saakashvili's re-election as president of Georgia, and May 7, 2008, the last day of Vladimir Putin's term in office as president of Russia, there was a great deal of movement along the fronts in the conflict over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, separatist Georgian provinces for the past 18 years.

Wreaths laid at the Russian barracks in Tskhinvali where nearly a dozen soldiers were killed in a Georgian attack.
It was as if the Caucasus populist Saakashvili and the coolly calculating Russian Putin, facing the nominal end of his regency, had realized that it was finally time for a showdown.

'Only Through the Force of Weapons'

Saakashvili wanted to bring his country into NATO as quickly as possible and was confident that he had the support of the West. Putin, who wanted to establish his country as a hegemonial power in the southern reaches of the former Soviet empire, relied on the skills he had acquired as an agent working for the KGB -- especially those involving a careful analysis of the enemy.

The signals that Saakashvili was sending after his re-election set off alarms in Moscow. The Georgian, who, since 2004, had been promising his people that he would regain control over all of Georgian territory, was getting impatient. He attempted to discuss a plan to invade Abkhazia with Washington, before Georgia, as a candidate for NATO membership, came under more intense scrutiny. Meanwhile, SakarTVelo, a Georgian military television station with the motto "We serve those who serve," was using a 1932 quotation attributed to Adolf Hitler to advertise for new recruits: "Only through the force of weapons" could lost territory be regained.

Putin, meanwhile, watched and waited -- he wanted to see how the Kosovo question would turn out. He made it clear that if the ethnic Albanian province was granted the right to secede from Serbia, the West could not deny Abkhazia and South Ossetia the right to secede from Georgia. On Feb. 17, 2008, the United States, Great Britain and France recognized Kosovo's independence.

After Saakashvili's state visit to Washington on March 19, when he clearly enjoyed his reception as the president of a key ally in the war on terror, there was the NATO summit in Bucharest. In response to a German and French initiative, the alliance denied Georgia and Ukraine its consent to their joining NATO, but promised membership at a later date.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko promptly predicted that this decision would have "the gravest consequences for overall European security." US President George W. Bush met with Putin at his Black Sea vacation home in an effort to restore calm. But Bush apparently failed to take the Russian president's warnings as seriously as they were intended. In retrospect, Western observers describe what happened in the ensuing few days in April as a "point of no return" for the Georgian-Russian war.

Ideologue of Expansionism

Twelve days after the NATO summit, Putin issued an order to upgrade Russia's relations with the separatist regimes in Abkhazia and South Ossetia almost to the point of recognition. On April 20, a Russian fighter jet shot down a Georgian reconnaissance drone over Abkhazia. According to observations by the International Crisis Group, Saakashvili then assembled 12,000 Georgian soldiers at the extremely well-fortified Senaki military base. It was still a good three months before the outbreak of hostilities.

In May and June, Moscow sent additional troops to the separatist regions, allegedly for "humanitarian purposes." They included 500 paratroopers and a maintenance team of 400 men, which arrived in Abkhazia on May 31 to repair segments of a railroad south of the capital Sukhumi. The work was necessary to prepare for transporting tanks and heavy military equipment.

By that time, Alexander Dugin had set up camp. Dugin is the bearded chief ideologue of those in favor of an expansionist Russia -- and an advisor to Putin's United Russia Party. He had come to the region to tour a tent camp set up by members of his youth movement about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. Thirty army tents housed the 200 attendees. The program included geopolitical seminars and paramilitary training. The pro-Russian forces in South Ossetia provided the group with Kalashnikovs and live ammunition for its field exercises.

"Here is the border in the battle of civilizations," said Dugin. "I think Americans are great. But we want to put an end to America's hegemony." It was a sentiment shared by the young men in the tent camp -- and Dugin's dreams did not end at the Russian-Georgian border. "Our troops will occupy the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the entire country, and perhaps even Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, which is historically part of Russia, anyway," he continued.

As Dugin's supporters were preparing for the worst, the situation along the borders between both South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the areas controlled by Tbilisi became increasingly tense. There were even exchanges of grenade fire between the two sides, all under the eyes of OSCE and United Nations emissaries.

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Madeleine Albright - 'The Russians Have Crossed a Red Line'

2008-09-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

Der Spiegel interview with former US Secretary of State - Madeleine Albright

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,575599,00.html

What should the West do about Russia. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told SPIEGEL that the West needs to work together -- and look for ways to isolate Russia internationally.

Madeleine Albright was Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton and played a major role in the expansion of NATO.

SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, Russian troops are still in Georgia. Moscow has recognized the independence of the Georgian provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia and promised them military assistance if necessary. Are we at the beginning of a new Cold War?

Albright: Well, we can't be at the beginning of a new Cold War. That would be a huge step backwards. On the other hand, we can't afford to stay on the sidelines in this complicated situation. With the invasion of a sovereign country, the Russians have crossed the red line. What is troubling is that Russia is behaving in a way that reminds us of the Russian empire in the 19th century -- that is unacceptable in the 21st century.

SPIEGEL: If you were still US Secretary of State, what would you tell the Russians?

Albright: First of all, I would have gone to Moscow, unlike the current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is very important to be direct. I would tell them: That is not acceptable behavior -- but also reassure them not to worry about security threats at their borders. I would tell them that they simply misjudged the situation. That has to be corrected.

SPIEGEL: Who would you have delivered your message to? Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or Russian President Dmitry Medvedev?

Albright: Putin, whatever he calls himself, is in charge. There were many questions about the fact that he had given up the presidency. It is now very clear that he is still calling the shots and has created a Russia that in many ways is not compatible with the 21st century. We want to be able to have a cooperative relationship but the Russians currently make it much more complicated.

SPIEGEL: Moscow compares the situation in Georgia with the recognition of Kosovo's independence by the US and some European countries this year. Is this a valid analogy?

Albright: The comparison is completely mistaken. The Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had ordered along with his henchmen the ethnic cleansing of Serbia and Kosovo. We worked through a variety of UN resolutions to end this situation, trying to figure out a way to cooperate with the Russians. The situation was simply very different. Plus, there is no comparison between what Milosevic was doing and what the Georgians were trying to do to hold their country together

SPIEGEL: Would the Western reaction have been different if Georgia had already been a NATO member?

Albright: That is a hypothetical question because it was decided at the NATO summit in Bucharest in April they would not be. But the necessity is clear now to move forward with the NATO membership plan for Georgia. We can't afford to show any hesitation on that matter.

SPIEGEL: NATO enlargement was one of the success stories of the Clinton administration for which you were partly responsible as Secretary of State. In retrospect, was it a mistake? Did it maybe provoke the Russians to invade Georgia?

Albright: I am still very proud of the fact that we enlarged NATO. It was an accident as a result of World War II that Europe was divided. When we began to enlarge NATO -- the first new member states were Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary -- we made very clear to the Russians that independent states are not a security threat to them. I had a talk with President Boris Yeltsin on this, President Bill Clinton spoke with Yeltsin. We created all sorts of mechanisms that NATO and Russia could cooperate. No, I am absolutely sure: There is nothing about NATO that could be seen as a threat to Russia.

SPIEGEL: Is that also true for the plans of the Bush administration to install a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic?

Albright: The missile defense technology is not proven -- it is not clear whether it would really work. I personally believe that the missile defense system is not yet ready for use.

SPIEGEL: So, a new US administration should stop the missile defense project altogether?

Albright: This whole debate has been much more complicated by the Russian actions in Georgia. But I think the real problems in the US-Russia relationship has nothing to do with the missile defense plans. It really started when President Putin began doing ridiculous things -- comparing the US with the Third Reich or threatening its neighbors that considered joining NATO and other Western institutions. That is when we had to push back.

SPIEGEL: Many European leaders are reluctant to embark on a strong anti-Russia course -- partly because of the European dependence on Russian oil and gas. What do you expect from the Europeans?

Albright: The Soviet Union has not been able to divide Europe and the alliance. And we should not allow Russia to divide the US and Europe. I think we should do more trans-Atlantic consulting on this. It is too bad that we are both held hostage to energy -- energy which is often provided from very dangerous countries. That is why it is so essential to look into other sources of energy.

SPIEGEL: Any new US administration will inherit the complicated relationship with Russia. You are a supporter of Barack Obama. How would his reaction differ from one taken by a President John McCain?

Albright: On Georgia, John McCain has been very bellicose and sounded like a cold warrior. Barack Obama has recognized the seriousness of the situation and issued a very strong statement when the independence of the Georgian provinces was recognized. He called for actions within the United Nations. I think he is right: If Putin does not change his behavior, we have to look at ways to isolate Russia internationally.

Interview conducted by Gregor Peter Schmitz and Gabor Steingart

Cheney criticises Russia on Georgia visit

2008-09-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

September 4, 2008
US Vice President Dick Cheney has given his support to Georgia's bid to join NATO
©AFP - Vano Shlamov

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories

TBILISI (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney accused Russia Thursday of an "illegitimate" invasion to redraw the map of Georgia and cast doubt on whether Russia could be trusted as an international partner.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Cheney pledged US help beyond a one billion dollar (690 million euro) aid package announced Wednesday.

Meanwhile Moscow, which says its military intervention was justified because Georgia had attacked Russian citizens in breakaway South Ossetia, received the backing of foreign ministers from six ex-Soviet countries.

They stopped short of following Russia into recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a second separatist region also at the centre of last month's brief war.

"Russia's actions have cast grave doubt on Russia's intentions and on its reliability as an international partner, not just in Georgia but across this region and indeed across the international system," Cheney said.

"After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy," he said, referring to the 2003 uprising that brought Saakashvili to power.
Foreign ministers from six ex-Soviet countries have backed Russia's role in its conflict with Georgia

"We are doing so again as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world."

Later Thursday the OSCE said it had sent military observers in a buffer zone between Russian and Georgian troops for the first time since the conflict.

The European security body said its officers were patrolling the road between the villages of Karaleti and Megrevekisi, four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the bombed-out South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali.

Georgia Russia has said it will only pull troops out of the buffer zone once international controls including military observers and police are in place in the area and once Georgia signs a non-aggression pact.

Cheney, who became the highest-ranking American official to visit Tbilisi since last month's conflict, watched boxes of aid being unloaded to highlight the one-billion-dollar US package.

Saakashvili, for his part, said the "number one priority" was the rebuilding of Georgia, parts of which were left devastated by Russia's fighter planes and advancing troops.

Russia sent its forces into Georgia on August 8, one day after Georgia had tried to take back control of the rebel region of South Ossetia from Moscow-backed separatists.

US-Russia relations have nosedived since the US led angry Western criticism of Moscow's military action, its recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the continued presence of its troops in Georgia.

On Thursday, the parliaments of Russia and Abkhazia signed a cooperation agreement aimed at harmonising the laws of the two countries, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

"The parties will begin harmonising the legislation of the Russian Federation with the legislation of the Republic of Abkhazia," the report quoted the text as saying.

Cheney is pointedly not visiting Russia on a tour that has already taken him to Azerbaijan, where he stressed that the security of the energy-rich region was a top concern for Washington.

His trip has also been aimed at expanding the transit of oil and gas exports to the West through pipelines across Georgia and Azerbaijan, avoiding Russia which Washington views with increasing distrust.

Cheney also strongly backed Georgia's bid to join NATO, a move that has been vehemently opposed by Russia, saying Washington was "fully committed" to its eventual membership.

"As the current members of NATO declared at a summit in Bucharest, Georgia will be in our alliance," he said, referring to an April meeting of the Western military bloc.

NATO's chief, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, plans to visit Georgia later this month for further aid talks.

After his talks with Saakashvili, Cheney headed to Ukraine where President Viktor Yushchenko has plunged the country into fresh political turmoil by pulling his Our Ukraine party out of the ruling pro-Western coalition.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega became the first foreign leader to follow Russia's lead and recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, newspaper reports there said Wednesday.

Son of Late President Arrested for Alleged Espionage

2008-09-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php

Police arrested Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, son of late Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, in the Tbilisi airport in the evening on September 3, the Georgian Public Broadcaster reported.

Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, who was wanted by Georgia for alleged espionage in favor of Russia and for alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government, was reportedly arrested upon arrival from Moscow via Baku.

Charges against Gamsakhurdia were brought in November, 2007. On November 7, after the riot police broke up the anti-governmental demonstration, the authorities released a video tape showing Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, who is a brother of Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, the leader of the opposition Freedom Party, meeting with a diplomat of the Russian embassy in Tbilisi. In a separate taped phone conversation Tsotne Gamsakhurdia tells his brother, Konstantine, how the opposition could lose a momentum after gathering 150,000 people outside the Parliament on November 2.

Tsotne Gamsakhurdia’s lawyer told the Georgian Public Broadcaster that her client strongly denies charges against him and refused to plead guilty.

Similar charges were brought against Shalva Natelashvili, the leader of opposition Labor Party, in November. But later the charges were dropped.

Russia is Long Run ‘Loser’ in Georgia Conflict

2008-09-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

Robert E. Hunter:

http://www.geotimes.ge/
Interviewee: Robert E. Hunter, Senior Advisor, RAND Corporation

Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

Robert E. Hunter, the U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during the Clinton administration, says that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili miscalculated badly in sending his troops into South Ossetia in mid-August. This move precipitated a conflict with Russia and the Russian recognition of the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent. In the long run, however, Hunter says that "Russia is the loser here." At a time when the Russians need Western investment and expertise, "Putin has gone much too far and does not understand exactly what he is doing, not just stirring up a hornet's nest in all the countries that used to belong to the Communist world, but also leading people in the West to ask whether they can do business with this man."

It'll soon be a month since the conflict in Georgia erupted, and we still have some Russian troops occupying parts of Georgia in and around the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. What has been the European reaction in general to all this?

First, of course, we have to go back to Donald Rumsfeld's division between Old and New Europe [after the start of the Iraq war in 2003], something that actually was just a throwaway line but became kind of iconic. Those countries that were part of the Warsaw Pact and are now part of NATO, and other former Soviet republics like Ukraine, which are not part of NATO obviously, have been deeply affected and worried—if not fearful—about what has happened. For example, in Poland, where the government had been trying to drive a hard bargain with the United States over the deployment of an anti-missile site, the day after the Russian invasion of Georgia, their position collapsed, and the U.S. secretary of state went over there and actually signed the agreement with the Poles soon thereafter.

The British and French have rhetorically been quite strong, but some other countries like Germany and Italy, which are heavily dependent upon Russian hydrocarbons, particularly natural gas, have taken a more muted position. In part this is about the issue of dependence, or as the European Union said on Monday in its declaration on the matter, "we have a lot of interdependence," and this is a fact of life. That means the European Council considers that given the interdependence between the European Union and Russia, and the global problems they are facing, there is no desirable alternative to a strong relationship with cooperation, trust, dialogue, etc. Of course they go on to say that Russia overreacted, but it's also a question of not wanting to descend into another Cold War, having seen the virtues of following what President George H.W. Bush called the attempt to create a Europe whole and free and in peace. I also think a number of people in Europe don't believe Georgia in itself is very important. Also they have noted the role that has been played by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who may have given an excuse to the Russians to do what they wanted to do all along.

You mean his sending Georgian troops into South Ossetia to try and end its efforts at breaking away?

Yes, and by all accounts that was not just a response to the kind of tactical things that were being done by South Ossetians, aided by the Russians. By Georgian standards it was a really major military action going into Tskhinvali [the South Ossetian capital], and obviously a miscalculation in terms of what the Russians might do. Now a lot of Europeans would say, "Why didn't somebody, meaning the United States, keep this guy under control?" Some Europeans would also say—I'm not justifying it, I'm just reporting it — that the effort at the NATO summit in Bucharest in April to give what's called a Membership Action Plan to both Ukraine and Georgia, pressed by the United States, was a problem for them because of what it might say to the Russians, but also a clear recognition on the part of just about all Europeans that they weren't prepared to do what the NATO alliance is fundamentally about, namely, to defend an allied country against aggression. Nobody was prepared to go to Georgia's defense, including the United States.

What actually happened in Bucharest was, in terms of causing a potential problem, worse than anybody's fears about a Membership Action Plan [MAP]. As a compromise or face-saver for President Bush, the Europeans in their usual cynical, hypocritic way, said that Ukraine and Georgia will become members of NATO eventually. Well, that is the moment at which a country gives a commitment to another country for security. Putin read it that way and Saakashvili read it that way. Putin said "I'll teach these guys a lesson; they really are encroaching on my sphere of influence." And Saakashvili apparently believed that if he tried to unify his country he'd get backed up by the West.

Now Vice President Cheney is due in Georgia shortly, and he's also going to Ukraine and Azerbaijan. Is this a dangerous moment? Do you think that the United States is going to make some kind of security commitment to these countries?

I don't think we're going to make any military commitments because we could not carry them out. I don't think I would have sent the vice president. I would have sent somebody else, like the secretary of state again or a delegation that would involve members of Congress of both parties. I do believe now we have to reassure the Georgians that we stand with their leadership and with their democracy. They are part of our world. Yes, in the fullness of time they will join Euro-Atlantic institutions. And here, frankly, it's more important all around for Ukraine and Georgia to be part of the European Union rather than NATO. I would start pumping major economic, not just humanitarian, but economic development and investment into Georgia and into Ukraine. The European Union, incidentally, in its usual half-hearted way, said "we will call an international conference," but it's different from saying we hereby pledge certain amounts of money. This is what you have to do.

The real way of engaging these countries in the West is not by giving military guarantees you won't honor, but by providing them with the support for democratization and the support for development that will indeed give them a greater sense of national hopefulness for the future. If you go all the way back to the original NATO enlargement in the 1990s, we believed in the West what the countries in central Europe most needed was the European Union. On the NATO side, we said what they need is a partnership for peace and to renovate their militaries. Then they came back and said, "We will not feel confident doing either of those things unless we are taken off the international chess board and have a sense of security that we won't become a plaything for outside powers anymore."

In 2001, Putin became the new president of Russia, and under his leadership Russia took a much harder line. Do you think he was provoked or is this just Putin's own thinking that he felt that Russia was too subservient to the West?

The latter, clearly. He made an effort to reassert first his own primacy within the country and recentralization of the country and to erode institutions that might challenge his authority. As to the external world, you can say, "Yes, great powers always are going to want to have areas around them that are not going to be challenging." We do it. Look at our attitude toward Cuba, eighteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Monroe Doctrine. But the objective of what NATO and the European Union was doing was to say, "We are going to bring these people into Euro-Atlantic institutions, into a globalized society."

What's going to happen as a result of Georgia?

Russia is the loser here. It is interesting that when Putin decided to push back, he did so at a remote region next to his own country. He did it in a place where no one really cared about in geopolitical terms, as opposed to human terms, democratic terms, and the like. It also took him four days. Why is Russia the loser? If you look back to when it happened, it happened at a time when the whole world recognized that China is an amazingly competent and powerful country. They produce more innovation in a week in China than they do in Russia in ten years. There's all this incredible space in eastern Siberia, bordered by 1.3 billion Chinese, that's being rapidly depopulated by Russians. Russia's losing population at a faster clip than any other country in the developed world, even faster than some of the European countries with low birth rates. And the Russians need the outside world.

Why?

If you look to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, his five point speech of the other day, it's interesting. The first three points are, "We want to be part of the real world." One of them is, America can't run everything. We already knew that. He is underscoring the need to be part of the outside world. Of course the European Union underscored it, but Putin has gone much too far and does not understand exactly what he is doing, not just stirring up a hornet's nest in all the countries that used to belong to the Communist world but also leading people in the West to ask whether they can do business with this man. That involves investment, it involves creditworthiness, it involves the sanctity of Russian investments abroad, it involves cooperation with the European Union, and in fact the strongest thing that's been done so far is what the EU decided yesterday, to suspend meetings on the EU-Russia partnership program. What they've said is, "We're going to send a team to look, and we're going to judge whether the Russians are following the six points of the cease-fire agreement with French President Sarkozy, and decide whether it's worth having this EU-Russian summit on November 14." This is done without a lot of shrill talk, it's done outside of the context of the United States, with our campaign rhetoric and all the memories of the old relationship. The Europeans are getting it about right in the low-key way of saying, "If you want to be a partner in the outside world, and by God you need it, you can't behave like this." Putin therefore has to judge whether to throw away opportunities to be engaged in the outside world.

Maybe Putin will make the wrong decision. At the moment, Russia is Saudia Arabia with trees. What I'm getting at is, if they want to play in the outside world, it's not like the old days when they had a choice. They don't have a choice. The last regime of the Soviet Union collapsed over the failure of having made that choice. Of getting outclassed. If Putin says, "Having my sphere of influence is more important than being involved in the outside world," then Russia's going to pay a huge price for it. On the other hand, if he says "We've made our point, people will show us more respect in the future. We're now going to show we can be positive members of the international community," then he will have shown some stewardship of Russia with the outside world. If he makes the wrong choice we can live with it. He needs us a lot more than the other way around.

Cracks in Putin's kingdom

2008-09-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080903/cm_csm/yquinnjudge

Opinion
Cracks in Putin's kingdom

Opinion

By Paul Quinn-Judge Wed Sep 3, 4:00 AM ET

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - A few days after the Kremlin recognized the independence of contested territories South Ossetia and Abkhazia last week, an upscale Moscow daily newspaper called Kommersant added a biting video clip to its site. Vladimir Soloviev, whose reporting from Georgia was among the best in any country's media, offered a crisp analysis of the war and its aftermath.

The moment Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recognized the two breakaway regions, he said, Georgia's defeat in war became a political victory. "It really is time for [Georgian President] Mikheil Saakashvili to dial Dmitry Medvedev and say 'Thank you, colleague.' "

The clip captured a growing mood within the Russian establishment. The euphoria that followed the destruction of Georgian's $2 billion Army and the humiliation of President Saakashvili has dissolved. And for the first time since Vladimir Putin – and his muscled, uncompromising, and vindictive world view – came to power in 1999, serious voices are expressing doubts about his judgment.

They clearly feel that Russia has not emerged onto the world stage quite so authoritatively as Mr. Putin may have thought; the country has instead stumbled into a dangerous and debilitating trap.

A number of prominent Russian foreign policy analysts saw the recognition of the disputed territories coming and warned urgently against it. They include a highly experienced diplomat and former government minister, Alexei Adamishin. "Russia has every moral right to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," he wrote in an opinion piece beforehand. But the consequences will be "catastrophic."

A couple of weeks earlier, Sergei Karaganov, of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, Russia's equivalent of the Council on Foreign Relations, urged the Kremlin to think carefully before recognizing the two secessionist states. Equally grim analyses have followed the announcement, and there are indirect signs of concern in the business community.

The criticisms highlight a difference in vision within the Russian ruling elite. They come from modernizers who see Russia, like it or not, as part of the international community, and want Russia to move beyond the current corrupt state capitalism and stifling bureaucracy.

These people fear that Russia has already become embroiled in a new cold war that will distract from economic development and lead to a rollback of personal liberties. "We need to clearly realize that the main aim of the game that has been imposed on us, consciously or unconsciously, is to wreck Russia's modernization," Karaganov wrote in a bleak follow-up piece to the recognition.

Those making these arguments are sophisticated members of the political establishment. They apparently have no problem with a Kremlin policy that limits the sovereignty of Russia's neighbors. Independence does not, in other words, mean freedom to choose your own alliances if you share a frontier with Russia.

These voices expect the real crisis to come when attention shifts to Ukraine. They have not commented on the discrepancy between Putin's determination to protect Russian citizens, no matter where they live, now and the way he oversaw a campaign at the beginning of the decade that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Russian citizens in Chechnya. And they agree with Putin's argument, advanced in recent interviews, that a dark Western conspiracy was behind the Georgia conflict.

What they implicitly reproach Putin for, however, is the fact that he was taken in by the supposed plot; this, they feel will have profound consequences for the country's development.

An even bigger problem, perhaps, is that Putin is looking backward.

He can best be characterized by the term "sovok," one of those many-layered pieces of word play in which Russians delight. In this case, it can be summarized as someone who embodies the dark and circumscribed world view of the Soviet man in the street, suspicious of the outside world, resentful, who holds a grudge and remembers a slight. Putin speaks passionately about the "tragedy" of the Soviet Union's collapse, a personally scarring time when he found himself unemployed.

He trusts very few people. Aides say he makes policy on key issues – Georgia, Ukraine, NATO – himself, along with a small circle, and tends to improvise. He shows little interest in the Russian stock market, which has taken a battering since the outbreak of the Georgia crisis, while most of the mega-rich, many of them close associates, have attained their fortune by obeying one rule: Do exactly what Putin says.

In the past, everybody obeyed this rule, and many in the ruling elite were genuinely convinced that he was the right leader for these times. Now, doubts are creeping in, and people are bracing themselves for tense years. The strong man has started to show his weaknesses.

• Paul Quinn-Judge is Central Asia project director of the International Crisis Group.

Saakashvili 'no longer exists' as Georgia's president: Medvedev

2008-09-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

02/09/2008 20h54
http://www.afp.com

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday Moscow no longer considered Mikheil Saakashvili as Georgia's leader, calling him a "political corpse" and accusing his regime of "aggression that ended in many deaths."

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday Moscow no longer considered Mikheil Saakashvili as Georgia's leader, calling him a "political corpse" and accusing his regime of "aggression that ended in many deaths."

Speaking in an interview ahead of US Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Georgia, Medvedev again accused Washington of helping Tbilisi "build its war machine" and urged the United States to review its relations with the country.

"For us, the present Georgian regime has collapsed. President Saakashvili no longer exists in our eyes. He is a political corpse," Medvedev said in the interview broadcast on Russian television.

Medvedev said Moscow was ready to hold talks with the international community "on all sorts of questions, including post-conflict resolution in the region" of the Caucasus.

"But we would like the international community to remember who began the aggression and who is responsible for people's deaths," he said.

The Kremlin leader said the US should reconsider its relations with Tbilisi "because it has put Georgia in a very difficult position, caused serious destablisation and launched an aggression that ended in many deaths."

The strong rhetoric came as Cheney was to head to Georgia in a show of support for the former Soviet republic that has been seeking to join NATO.

He will be the highest-ranking US official to visit Tbilisi since Russian tanks rolled into its smaller neighbour in early August and fought a five-day war over the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.

Medvedev's interview was broadcast after Moscow claimed victory Tuesday following a European Union emergency summit, where EU leaders stepped back from imposing sanctions over Russia's partial occupation of Georgia.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who retains huge power after leaving the presidency earlier this year, praised what he called the EU's "common sense."

EU leaders decided at the summit in Brussels on Monday to freeze talks on a new strategic EU-Russia accord.

But the bloc did not accept proposals by Britain and eastern European nations for harder measures, including sanctions, over Russia's August military offensive in Georgia and recognition of two separatist regions.

"Thank God, common sense prevailed. We saw no extreme conclusions and proposals, and this is very good," Putin said in comments shown on NTV television.

Saakashvili, meanwhile, pointed to the moratorium on EU-Russia partnership talks as proof of Western solidarity behind Georgia.

"Russia failed to break the unity at the heart of Europe," he told France 24 television.

US President George W. Bush, one of Moscow's harshest critics during the crisis, also "expressed appreciation for the EU sending strong messages," the White House said.

The Russian foreign ministry said that "the intention to freeze talks about a new partnership agreement is a cause for regret."

Medvedev had earlier criticised what he called the EU's failure to understand Russian motives for going to war in Georgia.

"Unfortunately there is still no full understanding of the motives of the leadership of the Russian Federation when it took the decision to repel the aggression of Georgia," Medvedev said, according to state news agency ITAR-TASS.

However, Russia will fulfill all its contractual gas export commitments to the European Union, Medvedev also told Euronews television Tuesday.

"We will respect all our obligations as the principal provider of hydrocarbons to Europe," he said.

Moscow says that troops were sent to repulse an attempt by Georgia to restore control over South Ossetia, a tiny region where the local ethnic Ossetian population broke away with Russian backing in the 1990s.

Last week the Kremlin recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. No other country has yet followed suit.

Georgia says the Russian incursion was part of a plan to annex its territory and bring down Saakashvili's government, which wants Georgia to join NATO and has positioned the country as a key export route for Caspian Sea energy.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a visit to NATO-member Turkey that the alliance had been arming Georgia ahead of the conflict.

He also reiterated Russia's support for sending an international police mission to Georgia to help maintain security around South Ossetia and another secessionist region, Abhkazia.

However, the Russian envoy to the European Union was cautious on this issue, saying that the rebel governments in Abkhazia and South Ossetia would also have to agree.

"So far they said they would accept only Russian peacekeepers," he said.

Both rebel areas have made formal requests to host Russian military bases -- a move that Georgia says underlines Moscow's desire to annex the territories and weaken its statehood.

Another e-mail from Georgia - September 2

2008-09-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

from another close friend in Tbilisi, Georgia

Jim,

We went through the awful period and now everything seems a little bit calmer. I mean we are not waiting for the bombs from the sky. You know what it is. We don’t know what will be and how it will be continued. We pray for Peace here and everywhere.

A city of desolate mothers

2008-09-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.russiatoday.com/documentary/release/1529/video

August 29, 2008

RT correspondent Oksana Boyko investigates the aftermath of the conflict in South Ossetia. She produced this in-depth report into the mothers who are grieving the loss of their children during the war.

Georgia admits dropping cluster bombs

2008-09-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

September 1, 2008

http://russiatoday.com/news/news/29788/video

The Georgian government has admitted dropping cluster bombs in its military offensive to regain control of South Ossetia, reports Human Rights Watch.

The international organisation says it has received an official letter form Georgia’s Defense Ministry that acknowledges the use of the M85 cluster munition near the Roki tunnel linking South Ossetia with Russia.

The M85 is the same weapon that was used extensively by Israel in its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Human Rights Watch has also said that Russia used the widely condemned weapons in several places during the conflict. Moscow has rejected the accusations.

News - Russia Today

2008-09-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

http://russiatoday.com/news/news/29794/video

September 1, 2008
Anti-Russian protesters take to Tbilisi streets
In Georgia's capital Tbilisi, 100,000 protesters have crammed into the city’s main avenue as part of an anti-Russian demonstration.

Georgia-Russia

2008-09-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

Put out even more flags
Aug 28th 2008 | MOSCOW
From The Economist print edition
www.economist.com

Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia will reverberate for a long time—not least at home
A FEW months ago Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s new president, did not think he would be recognising the independence of two separatist regions of Georgia and heading into direct confrontation with the West. When he met Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, in St Petersburg in June, both seemed happy. War did not feature in Mr Medvedev’s plans; he was even considering an early visit to Tbilisi. But when the two leaders met again in early July, the temperature was far chillier. The night before, South Ossetian and Georgian forces had exchanged fire. Mr Medvedev never made it to Tbilisi: instead Russian tanks poured into Georgia.
Did Russia’s security chiefs fear that the two presidents might agree on something that would spoil their long-planned conflict? Did Vladimir Putin, Mr Medvedev’s patron and prime minister, crave a small, victorious war? Or did Mr Saakashvili think Mr Medvedev was too soft to respond to Georgia’s attempt to regain control over South Ossetia? The answer may never be known. But after barely 100 days in office, the soft-spoken Mr Medvedev was cast in the unlikely role of war leader.
His initial job appeared to be as Mr Putin’s spokesman. But he quickly got a taste for war. This former lawyer may have been overcompensating for his civilian background. At any rate, on August 26th he stood beneath the two-headed Russian eagle and solemnly announced the Kremlin’s decision to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. A day earlier the Russian parliament had demanded that Mr Medvedev do just that.
Mr Medvedev said he had no choice and had to protect human lives. The decision, he argued, was forced on him by Georgia’s aggression and “genocide” against South Ossetia. But the argument is spurious. It is true that, in the early 1990s, when Georgia was barely a state, its nationalistic leaders (one military commander is still hiding in Russia) committed atrocities in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But it is also true that more than 200,000 Georgians were driven out of Abkhazia in a burst of ethnic cleansing, and that Russia backed Abkhazia militarily.
Abkhazia had the trappings of a nascent state, but South Ossetia was a chessboard of villages (Georgian and Ossetian) which suffered under a Moscow-sponsored, thuggish and corrupt regime whose main job seemed to be to provoke Georgia. Mr Saakashvili made mistakes: he was in too much of a rush to take back the enclaves and did too little to disown Georgia’s nationalist past. His worst mistake (which he does not admit to) was to order the shelling of Tskhinvali, South Ossetia’s capital, on August 7th. But this was not, as Russia claimed, genocide; the death toll was fewer than 200. Moreover, the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in South Ossetia is all too evident: Georgian villages have been destroyed and thousands of Georgians displaced by South Ossetian militia under Russia’s watch.
If Russia had really wanted to resolve the separatist conflicts in Georgia, it had opportunities. It might have begun by not handing out Russian passports and then claiming a purported need to defend its “citizens”. It might also have avoided unleashing anti-Georgian and anti-Western hysteria in the Russian media.
And although the latest conflict was triggered by Georgia, the deeper roots of Russia’s invasion lie in domestic events that go back as far as 2003-04: the destruction of the Yukos oil company, and Russia’s perception of the colour revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine as a Western plot to undermine its sovereignty. Mr Saakashvili’s support for Ukraine’s orange revolution particularly irked Mr Putin.
Lilia Shevtsova of the Carnegie Moscow Centre argues that the political system built by Mr Putin requires the images of an enemy and a besieged fortress. “This war is not about South Ossetia, Abkhazia or Georgia,” she says. “It is about the matrix of the Russian state and its survival. The beast needs feeding.” Konstantin Zatulin, a Duma deputy handling relations with former Soviet republics, is more belligerent. “The time when we needed Western applause is over,” he says. “Mikhail Gorbachev made military and political concessions to the West: he agreed to the unification of Germany and the liquidation of the Warsaw Pact but a few years later the country where he was president fell apart.”
After years of cultivating xenophobic sentiment and persuading Russians that they face an enemy, the Kremlin had prepared the population psychologically for war. That, says Boris Dubin, a sociologist, is why Russia’s propaganda fell on fertile ground. In the public mind, he claims, the cause of the war is to be found in “America’s expansionist plans and desire to establish control over Russia’s neighbours.”
In practice, Russia’s recognition of the two territories may not change much. Russia already had almost full control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia and dealt openly with its self-proclaimed presidents. Few countries will follow Russia’s recognition. With its troops still in Georgia, Russia has also made a mockery of the French-negotiated ceasefire that demanded their withdrawal to pre-war positions and an international discussion about the enclaves. But overall the war has cemented the victory of isolationist ideology in Russia, which will shape both domestic politics and foreign relations for years to come.
The partition of Georgia may cause a long-term confrontation between Russia and the West, with echoes of the cold war. Too bad, Mr Medvedev said this week: “Nothing scares us, including the prospect of a cold war…we have lived in different situations and we will survive.” (“If it’s only cold, that’s not a problem,” Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister retorted.) Russia’s elite is convinced that the West is weak and will swallow Russia’s decision. “When you cross the road you have to check for dangers,” declares Mr Zatulin. “The West can apply psychological pressure. But Europe cannot afford to turn down our gas and America needs our help with Afghanistan and Iran.”
The fallout may be felt most inside Russia itself. Hopes for liberalisation and modernisation under Mr Medvedev have evaporated. In the past few days the Kremlin has rejected Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s parole application, refused to grant Russian citizenship to an investigative Moldovan journalist from Russia and briefly detained protesters in Red Square who held a banner “For Your Freedom and Ours” in a repeat of a protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia staged by dissidents 40 years ago. Views once considered extreme are creeping into the mainstream. For example, Alexander Dugin, a nationalist ideologue, greeted events in Georgia by celebrating the removal of the previous “masks”. “We are at war,” he proclaimed. “Now the country should fight not only against its external enemies but also with the fifth column. Pro-Western liberals …should be interned. War is war. The time of patriots is coming: the time for revenge for all the humiliation from these people that we have been suffering for years.”
Mr Medvedev’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia may also have unpredictable consequences for Russia’s north Caucasus. Russia has bolstered separatism in Georgia but crushed it brutally in Chechnya. “Talking about the right for independence, about genocide and the war crimes of Mr Saakashvili, Russia’s leaders are perhaps forgetting about the tens of thousands of civilians who were killed by Russia’s bombardment of Grozny and who were executed, cleansed and tortured by the Russian military in Chechnya,” says Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya of Memorial, a human-rights group.
Indeed, Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia could easily reignite separatist sentiment in the north Caucasus. Chechnya may be too exhausted to fight another war with Russia at present, but in ten years’ time “the question of independence of Chechnya will arise again,” says Ms Sokiryanskaya. Russia maintains stability in the Caucasus by military force and fear. Even as Russia was “liberating” South Ossetia, its security services were intimidating human-rights activists in Ingushetia and Dagestan. The methods they use differ little from those of the separatists and terrorists they are fighting. Inevitably, this leads to further radicalisation of the population, says Magomet Mutsolgov, a human-rights activist in Ingushetia.
Mr Mutsolgov says the war in Georgia found little support in Ingushetia, not long ago engaged in a bitter ethnic conflict with North Ossetia. Rather, Russia’s actions in Georgia have created a general sense of injustice, says Mr Mutsolgov. “What about the thousands of Ingush who have been forced out of their homes by Ossetians?” Many Ingush refused to fight in Georgia. “People here say ‘it is not our war’ ”. The seeds of many conflicts in the Caucasus, as of Russia’s own problems, were planted by Stalin’s ruthless nationalist policies in the 1930s and 1940s. Today’s Russia is planting new ones.