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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Jovial Russians mount deep incursion into Georgia |
| 2008-08-14 |
| The Russian soldiers were unusually jovial, waving their hands and pumping their fists at western reporters as their military convoy roared along the highway towards the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi. This may have been the deepest Russian military incursion into foreign territory since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and yet these soldiers acted as though they were going for a Sunday afternoon jaunt. In a way, they were. The moment a 70-strong convoy of infantry fighting vehicles, field guns, military transport trucks and armoured personnel carriers turned out of the strategic town of Gori and onto the main road to Tbilisi, Georgia and many western observers erupted in panic. No one knew what the Russians were doing or where they were going. Wearing broad smiles and winking conspiratorially, the Russian troops denied they knew their destination until the convoy suddenly rumbled off the highway and down a track towards the village of Orsojani, about 40 miles north of Tbilisi. Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, knew exactly what he was doing. This little incursion was clearly designed to taunt the Georgian president Mikheil Saakasvili, whose air force has been largely destroyed after a humiliating defeat after just five days of war, and mock the West. Just the night before, Moscow agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who confidently predicted that Russia had "no intention" of remaining in Georgia. Yet, taking advantage of the first day of peace, Russian troops penetrated deeper into north-eastern Georgia than at any time during the conflict. Mr Putin was essentially telling the West that he could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. There was also serious intent. By briefly threatening Tbilisi, Mr Putin may have been hoping to distract Western attention from serious Russian breaches of the ceasefire agreement. Russia had already occupied Gori and severed the country's main trade route to the Black Sea. South Ossetian irregulars also took advantage of the chaos to commit civilian killings in Georgian villages, eye witnesses said. On a day of surreal irony, Mr Putin must also have taken satisfaction from the fact that Chechen troops from the Russian army's 42nd division led the push to Orsojani. Many of these men had fought against Mr Putin when he launched the Second Chechen War in 1999. The Chechens may have been battle hardened, but they were hardly organised. There was an air of chaos in this advance, just as there had been with the Georgian army's headlong retreat two days earlier. Many of the soldiers in the advance seemed more interested in the western photographers hanging out of windows from cars that careered back and forth along the long, slow line the convoy took. "Where are you going," the reporters shouted. "To see Saakasvili," one Chechen shouted. Adding to the chaos, civilian cars and even a horse and cart belonging to fleeing residents of nearby villages tore through the dirt, wending their way manically through the column. Others stood in disbelief and fear, watching the Russian flags fluttering above military trucks pulling anti-aircraft guns and artillery. At one point, the Russians nearly did make an unintentional advance on Tbilisi with a group of five military trucks missing the turn off to the village of Orsojani. An accident that could have provoked the resumption of war was averted, however, as the Russian soldiers realized they had gone wrong and asked journalists if they had a map. Further towards the Ossetian frontier, two Russian armoured personnel carriers guarded a checkpoint manned by Chechen soldiers tasked with stopping traffic passing from Georgia's Black Sea ports to Tbilisi. The Chechens, who were behind trees above the roads, lolled in the shade smoking cigarettes. "You got any American cigarettes," one asked. "Russian ones are dreadful." From beyond them, smoke rose into the air from burning villages and bursts of automatic gunfire could be heard further down the road. An old woman stumbled down the road, running painfully in the direction of Tbilisi, blood oozing from her eye. "Chechens and South Ossetians are killing people in the villages," she shouted as she slowly hobbled into the distance. Russian soldiers claimed that their intervention was motivated by a desire to provide humanitarian assistance. There was little sign of that as Russian tanks destroyed a deserted military base in Gori, again in contravention of the terms of the ceasefire, and turned a blind eye as South Ossetian irregulars looted the town. According to eye-witnesses, there were sprees on villages between Gori and the border. South Ossetian fighters, their faces covered in balaclavas, also robbed at least three western news teams of their cars at gunpoint. The official fighting might be over, but the plight of both Georgian and Ossetian civilians could become far more desperate. With some Georgian civilians picking up arms and heading to the front line, the buffer zone protecting South Ossetia that Russia is establishing risks become a scene of Balkan style atrocities. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #5 If the Russians invaded to protect the ethnic Russians in South Ossetians what is this nonsense about South Ossetian fighters. Why not say ethnic Russians brigands. If they have left South Ossetian, and they are not part of the Red Army, they are brigands. And what are Chechnyans doing there? The Russian army has a responsibility for them. Either they are directly part of the army or they are surviving within the Armies protection. Either way the Russian army is responsible so an article branding them as Chechnyans is irresponsible and overtly pro-Russian. You can't have it both ways. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-08-14 10:43 |
| #4 Tell that to French President Sarkozy. He even called the action peace-enforcement. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-14 08:25 |
| #3 There is no such thing as a Russian "Peacekeeper". |
| Posted by: newc 2008-08-14 07:10 |
| #2 It is clear that Russians are digging in like a tick. The Kodori element is on the run in Svaneti, dodging pursuing Russians and trying to survive as they have no way out. Cossack and Ossetian irregulars are burning villages and killing or detaining civilians in and around Ossetia shipping them to camps set up in Tskhinvali for God knows what. The Russian positions will be slow to retreat, if any is ordered, and they will cover their tracks. |
| Posted by: jefe101 2008-08-14 02:42 |
| #1 South Ossetian fighters, their faces covered in balaclavas, also robbed at least three western news teams of their cars at gunpoint. ROTFL |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-08-14 02:27 |