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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia wants to redraw map of Europe in peace terms with Georgia |
| 2008-08-12 |
| The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is taking Russia's peace terms to Georgia, after Moscow achieved a crushing victory in a five-day war. In addition to six points proposed by European leaders, Russia wants Georgia to agree to further measures which would in effect guarantee Moscow's capture of the two breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia wants a buffer zone around these enclaves, from which all Georgian forces will be excluded, and is demanding that Georgia give a signed pledge never to use force in the regions again. With his Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, Mr Sarkozy will now place these terms before President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia. After suffering five days of Russian onslaught, Georgia's beleaguered leader may have little choice but to agree. Speaking at a joint news conference with Mr Sarkozy, the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, insisted his forces would remain in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "That has been the case and that will continue to be the case," Mr Medvedev said. President Medvedev said the EU peace plan contained "good principles to settle the problem," but that Russia would also add proposals and that it was "up to Georgia now". He said that President Saakashvili, whom he described as a "lunatic," had lied about his side's respect for a ceasefire during the conflict. "You know, lunatics' difference from other people is that when they smell blood it is very difficult to stop them. So you have to use surgery," President Medvedev said. Asked about the progress of the peace plan, President Sarkozy said: "The night is young. We are not at peace yet but we are at a stage of temporary cessation of hostilities, which is certainly significant." He added that the EU could provide peacekeepers to be stationed in South Ossetia if all sides agreed. President Saakhashvili said that he would continue to regard Russian troops in the breakaway states as occupying forces. He said Georgia would refuse to be "broken to pieces" under any agreement. Georgia also disclosed that it had filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice for ethnic cleansing. "Today Georgian ambassador to the Netherlands filed a law suit to the International Court of Justice," the secretary of Georgia's Security Council, Kakha Lomaia, said, "because of ethnic cleansing conducted in Georgia by Russia in 1993 to 2008." Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, said that he had also been contacted about the conflict, and may launch a preliminary investigation. The news conference came shortly after Russian forces continued to shell the strategically important Georgian town of Gori, in an attack representing a continuation of Moscow's military offensive, even after President Medvedev had ordered a cessation to hostilities. The artillery barrage – the first against Gori since the five-day conflict began – suggested that, despite denials in Moscow, Russian ground troops had advanced into undisputed Georgian territory from South Ossetia. Gori, a town of about 70,000 people that was the birth place of Stalin, lies 15 miles south of Georgia's internal border with the breakaway region. A Dutch journalist was killed and another wounded after a fragmentation shell exploded outside a press centre where western reporters in Gori, including reporters for The Daily Telegraph, have based themselves since the conflict began. The explosion shattered windows and embedded walls in neighbouring buildings with shrapnel. It also destroyed the sole shop that had remained open in Gori in order to provide reporters with food and drink. Russian shells also struck apartment blocks in the main square in an apparent attempt to destroy Gori's town hall. Only one elderly woman was living in the block as all her neighbours fled yesterday when the Georgian military abandoned the town without firing a shot during a chaotic retreat to the capital Tbilisi. Other buildings on the outskirts of the town were also damaged or destroyed in the assault, which witnesses said killed at least six people. But, contrary to Georgian government claims, there were no Russian ground troops in the town. Earlier President Medvedev had announced: "I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian authorities into peace," said President Medvedev, in a televised meeting. "The security of our peacekeepers and civilians has been restored. The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. Its military has been disorganised." However, over half an hour after Mr Medvedev gave his ceasefire order, The Daily Telegraph saw three Russian helicopters fire nine missiles at targets 25 miles north of Tbilisi. It was not immediately clear what they were shooting at. "Despite the Russian president's claims earlier this morning that military operations against Georgia have been suspended, at this moment, Russian fighter jets are bombarding two Georgian villages outside South Ossetia," the Georgian government said. Eduard Kokoity, the leader of the South Ossetian separatist movement, said that following the conflict he would redouble his efforts to have his province unified with the Russian region of North Ossetia. He said: "I would like to point out again that we are a small, divided people. This is a big humanitarian problem and of course we will strive for unification with North Ossetia." Thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, which was sparked by Russia's response to a Georgian grab for South Ossetia last week, while 100,000 are now thought to have been displaced. Plane loads of medical supplies and aid are being flown into Tblisi by international agencies including the Red Cross, while the US and several European countries have pledged to provide humanitarian and economic aid to prevent the conflict from destabilising Georgia furthe |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #5 "Tis NOT the first time in RUSH LIMBAUGH's "HISTOIRE" that TSARIST RUSSIA, USSR, and even Post-Cold War RUSSIA had used MILITARY AGGRESSION AS COVER FOR PERCEIVED NATIONAL/STRATEGIC WEAKNESS AND FEAR. Not the first, nor the last, for Russ + many other World States, includ the USA. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-08-12 20:57 |
| #4 IMO RUSSIA's "VICTORY" AGZ GEORGIA IS PYRRHIC.My instincets are also telling me that RUSSIA IS "HEDGING" AGZ THE DAY NUCLEAR ISLAMISM ANDOR STRONG CHINA EFFEC REDRAWS THE MAP OF ASIA AS WELL. Prob safe to also argue as per any PAN-REGION CONSEQUENCES VV GLOBAL WARMING. Again, RUSSIA IMO fears its ability to long withstand any new destabilization and breakup of post-USSR RUSSIA, espec after Radical Islam [States + Militants-Terr groups]+ its Jihad goes full-monty NUKULAR. MUSLIM SOUTH OSSETIA [Georgia] + MUSLIM NORTH OSSETIA [Russia] = RUSS INVERSELY? KEEPING ITS ENEMIES CLOSE AND ITS FRIENDS CLOSER??? This basically leaves Russ free to focus on the looming Islamist threat to CAUCASIA, CHINA + RUSS FAR EAST [North Asia] VV PAKLAND, AFGHANISTAN, MONGOLIA + UIGHURS. RUSS FEARS NUCLEAR "YOUNG TURK" RADICAL ISLAMISM IN CENTRAL ASIA, + ITS OWN TRADITIONAL/HISTORICAL FEARS OF CHINA AS PER [modernizing]CHINESE HEGEMONIC AMBITIONS = INTER-NATION COMPETITION IN ASIA-PACIFIC. * TOPIX > RUSSIAN MARKETS COLLAPSE ON NEWS OF SOUTH OSSETIAN CONFLICT. HOWEVER, RUSS DEFENSIVE MILOPS AGZ RADICAL ISLAM IN CHECHNYA + OTHERS IS USING UP THE RUSS MILITARY's POST-SOVIET MIL ASSETS, MANPOWER $$$ + MATERIEL, WHICH RUSS CAN'T USE AS "HEDGE" AGZ THE US-NATO OR PAN-ASIAN COMPETITORS [read - CHINA], ETC. VV "THE GREAT GAME" OF GEOPOL. Where MANCHU CHINA was once belabeled the "SICK MAN OF ASIA" at the turn of the 20th century = BOXER REBELLION [BTW > History Channel], RUSSIA COVERTLY FEARS BECOM THE NEW SAME AS CHIN GEOPOL MILPOL POWERS SLOWLY IMPROVES AND STRENGTHENS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-08-12 20:51 |
| #3 A shell landed a few feet from the massive statue of Stalin but it is untouched. Likewise the marble monument that covers the hut where he was born. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-12 16:56 |
| #2 Gori, the birthplace of Stalin, now appears firmly in the hands of Holy Mother Russia. |
| Posted by: borgboy 2008-08-12 16:33 |
| #1 However, over half an hour after Mr Medvedev gave his ceasefire order, The Daily Telegraph saw three Russian helicopters fire nine missiles at targets 25 miles north of Tbilisi. It was not immediately clear what they were shooting at. You know, lunatics' difference from other people is that when they smell blood it is very difficult to stop them. So you have to use surgery," President Medvedev said. Res Ipso Loquitur |
| Posted by: superstitiousGalitizianer 2008-08-12 14:41 |