Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
To tell you the truth, I find that Saakashvili has actually conducted very well propoganda. The man is on the media 24/7, always giving interviews and always yapping about Russian this Russian that. It's one thing that the Georgians have done right.
RussiaToday has an article on the issue http://www.russiatoday.com/features/news/28918
It just highlites how important it is to dominate the media with a face that becomes familiar and with fluent English.
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Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
For our amusement
Quotes by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
13 Aug 2008 14:25:34 GMT
Source: Reuters
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Following are some of the various statements made on Wednesday by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili:
TO CBS TELEVISION
"In Georgia's far region of South Ossetia... Russian tanks are going through villages inhabited by the Georgian population and throwing people out of the houses, pushing people into concentration camps that they are setting up in those villages and separating men and women and doing worse kind of atrocities I've heard of since the Balkans or the war in Chechnya." "...Several hundred kilometres or miles removed from south Ossetia, where (villages) are again inhabited by Georgians, they are throwing out every single Georgian man or woman and children."
"...They moved into the town of Gori and they ransacked the town, looted the town. These are regular Russian troops, they go into houses, they destroy houses, there is all this documentary footage around that can prove it....they are taking things like furniture, toilet seats, killing people, terrorising people."
He compared the situation with the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and appeasement.
"This is freedom in general at stake. This is not about some far away remote country about which we know little."
TO CNN TELEVISION
Saakashvili lashed out at a suggestion that Georgia started the conflict by entering South Ossetia last week.
"I'm sickened, sickened of this cynical and absolutely unfounded allegation."
"We only responded after 150 Russian tanks moved into Georgian territory and started open aggression."
"You know what? Germany told the world they were attacked by Poland in 1939. The Soviet Union was attacked by Finland in 1939. Soviet Union was attacked by Afghanistan in 1979."
"Didn't the world learn enough? I am really sickened that there are people in the West asking these questions because that's exactly what the Russians want. It's our territory for God's sake. They're killing our people."
ON THE CEASEFIRE
"The Russians never meant any ceasefire. This is a kind of ceasefire that I don't know they had with Afghanistan in 1979 or that Germany had with Poland in 1939. There is no ceasefire. They are moving."
ON WASHINGTON REACTION
"Frankly, some of the first statements from Washington were perceived by the Russians almost as a green light for doing this because they were too soft."
"Everything the Americans had achieved from the Cold War is being undermined and destroyed right now."
"America is losing the whole region."
"I know America is overstretched. I know there are many other things. But realise what we are heading toward now. Russians have been very brutal, very deliberate, and they been showing everybody, 'We don't give a damn.'"
(He said Russian bombs bear inscriptions that say "This is for President Bush, this is for the United States, this is for NATO").
"They are by proxy trying to fight war with the West."
ON PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MCCAIN COMMENTS
"Yesterday I heard Senator McCain say we are all Georgians. Well very nice ... but of course it's time to pass from words to deeds."Leave a comment:
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Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
Originally posted by Federate View Post
Russian troops down Georgian drone over S. Ossetia
19:46 | 13/ 08/ 2008
MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russian peacekeepers shot down a Georgian unmanned reconnaissance plane over the capital of breakaway South Ossetia on Wednesday, a Defense Ministry official said.
"Despite Georgia's assurances that it would end military action, a Georgian unmanned drone was detected over Tskhinvali on Wednesday. ... Russian peacekeepers shot it down," the official said.
The spokesman said the drone was downed around 17:30 [13:30 GMT] and was the second reconnaissance aircraft to be shot down over the region since last night.
At least eight flights by reconnaissance drones over the separatist republic were reported by Russian peacekeepers last Thursday, a day before Georgia launched its devastating military offensive on South Ossetia August 8.Leave a comment:
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Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
Georgia's Israeli arms point Russia to Iran
By Peter Hirschberg
JERUSALEM - With the eruption of fighting between Russia and Georgia, Israel has found itself in an awkward position as a result of its arms sales to Georgia. Israel is now caught between its friendly relations with Georgia and its fear that the continued sale of weaponry will spark Russian retribution in the form of increased arms sales to Iran and Syria.
After fighting broke out late last week between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Israel's Foreign Ministry over the weekend recommended suspending the sale of all weapons and defense-related equipment to Georgia, the daily Ha'aretz newspaper reported.
The paper quoted an unnamed senior official saying that Israel needed "to be very careful and sensitive these days. The Russians are selling many arms to Iran and Syria and there is no need to offer them an excuse to sell even more advanced weapons."
Israel's immediate concern is that Russia will proceed with the sale of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, which would help it defend its nuclear installations from aerial attack. Israel, like the US, believes that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing a bomb, and Israeli leaders have refused to rule out the possibility of a pre-emptive strike aimed at derailing Iran's nuclear aspirations.
Israel recently conducted a major aerial exercise over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece that was widely viewed as a rehearsal for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear installations. But with the US and Europe resorting to diplomatic pressure in the form of sanctions to deter Iran, Israel is loathe to anger Russia, which until now has opposed harsher sanctions on Tehran.
Israel's relations with Georgia have been close, partly because there is a large Georgian xxxish community in Israel. In recent years, ties have also taken on a military dimension, with military industries in Israel supplying Georgia with some US$200 million worth of equipment since 2000. This has included remotely piloted planes, rockets, night-vision equipment, other electronic systems and training by former senior Israeli officers.
"Israel should be proud of its military, which trained Georgian soldiers," Georgian Minister Temur Yakobashvili told Israel's Army Radio in Hebrew shortly after the fighting erupted.
Israel is not a major supplier of arms to Georgia, with the US and France supplying Tbilisi with most of its weaponry. But the arms transfers have attracted media attention partly because of the role played by some high-profile Israeli figures, including former Tel Aviv mayor Roni Milo, who conducted business in Georgia on behalf of Israel Military Industries.
According to media reports, Brigadier General Gal Hirsch, a senior commander in the 2006 Lebanon war who resigned after the release of a highly critical report on the way the war was conducted, served as an adviser to Georgian security forces.
Further attention was drawn to the Israel-Georgia arms trade earlier this year when a Russian jet shot down an Israeli-made drone being operated by the Georgians.
Even though weapons transfers were modest in scope, Russian diplomats began increasingly relaying to Israel their annoyance over its military aid to Georgia, including the special forces training provided by security experts. Israel decided about a year ago to limit military exports to defensive equipment and training.
New contracts weren't approved as the arms sales were scaled back. Georgia's request for 200 advanced Israeli-made Merkava tanks, for example, was turned down.
There were reports in Israel that the sale of the tanks didn't go through because of a disagreement over the commission that was to be paid as part of the deal. But Amos Yaron, the former director general of the Defense Ministry, insisted it had to do with "security-diplomatic considerations" - a clear reference to the sensitivity of the arms sales to Georgia. Israel, Yaron added, didn't want "to harm Russian interests too much".
Asked about the motivation to initially engage in the sale of weaponry to Georgia despite concerns it might anger Russia, Yaron replied: "We did see that there was potential for a conflagration in the region but Georgia is a friendly state, it's supported by the US, and so it was difficult to refuse."
From http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JH14Ak02.htmlLeave a comment:
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Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
Captured map shows Georgia planned to invade Abkhazia
Russian troops have discovered what they believe are plans for an invasion of Abkhazia in a captured Georgian command post vehicle. On Wednesday, Abkhazian armed forces succeeded in pushing Georgian troops out of the Upper Kodori Gorge in anticipation of such an attack.
For the past few days the spotlight has been on Georgia's other breakaway republic, South Ossetia.
But the captured documents apparently outline steps for the invasion of Abkhazia, a region twice the size of South Ossetia, bordering the Black Sea.
From http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/28931Leave a comment:
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Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
Sailor says 4 Russian ships return to Crimea from Abkhazia coast
18:59 | 13/ 08/ 2008
SEVASTOPOL, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Four Russian ships have returned from waters off Abkhazia to their Black Sea Fleet base in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, a crewman said Wednesday.
Ships from Russia's Black Sea Fleet patrolled the waters off the Georgian coast during the Russian "peace enforcement" operation that began after Georgia launched an offensive in breakaway South Ossetia on August 8.
The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, from whom Russia rents the Sevastopol base, said Sunday that it could bar Russian ships involved in the conflict from entering the port.
Former Black Sea Fleet commander Vladimir Komoyedov said the Ukrainian warning was nothing but another provocation.
"Kiev is most likely to have decided to shift from international-level charges against the Black Sea Fleet to routine accusations, which have become a sort of norm, of illegal movements of units or warships, not reporting etc.," he said.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree Wednesday stating that Russia had to inform the Ukrainian authorities of all movements by warships and aircraft from its Crimea-based Black Sea Fleet.
According to the decree, Russia must ask permission from Kiev for the movement of its warships and aircraft beyond Ukrainian borders. Permission is to be sought no later than 72 hours prior to any planned movements.
From http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080813/116015659.htmlLeave a comment:
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Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
Georgian villages looted as conflict ceasefire threatened
GORI, Georgia (AFP) — Separatist fighters and Russian troops looted and set homes ablaze in Georgian territory on Wednesday amid fears over a fragile ceasefire that ended five days of bitter conflict.
Despite a French-brokered truce agreed Tuesday by the leaders of the two countries, Russia faced mounting criticism in the West for its military offensive.
Russian armoured vehicles patrolled Gori, the flashpoint Georgian town between the capital and South Ossetia, the breakaway region at the centre of the conflict.
Hundreds of South Ossetian rebels with some Russian army personnel went house-to-house in villages near Gori. They set houses ablaze and looted buildings, witnesses said.
The body of a man, his mouth caked with blood, lay in a street in the village of Dzardzanis and nearby the body of a bearded man could be seen crushed under an overturned mini-van, an AFP journalist reported.
The Human Rights Watch group said its researchers in South Ossetia had on Tuesday "witnessed terrifying scenes of destruction in four villages that used to be populated exclusively by ethnic Georgians."
About 60 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles were seen on the road leading east from Gori to the capital. An AFP reporter saw Russian troops shouting: "Tbilisi, Tbilisi" but their destination was unclear.
General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian deputy chief of staff, denied any Russian forces were heading for Tbilisi. The Georgian government also said it did not believe the convoy was headed for Tbilisi, though President Mikheil Saakashvili told CNN television he believed Russia wanted to surround the capital.
The Russian military said its forces were in Gori to disarm Georgian munitions.
President Dmitry Medvedev halted the Russian military offensive -- ordered in response to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia week -- on Tuesday and French President Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated a ceasefire with Medvedev and Saakashvili.
Russia accused Georgia of violating the truce by failing to pursue an "active withdrawal" from South Ossetia.
"Georgian forces have begun their pull-back toward Tbilisi but no active withdrawal has yet been observed," General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the staff of the armed forces, told reporters.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Russia would withdraw from Georgia only after Georgian troops had returned to their barracks.
The United States, Georgia's main Western ally, cancelled joint military exercises with Russia due to start Friday in the Sea of Japan and is considering other protest measures, US officials said. France and Britain were also to take part.
"In the wake of this conflict, there is no way that we can proceed with this joint exercise at this time," the official said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "I can assure you that Russia's international reputation and what role Russia can play in the international community is very much at stake here."
EU foreign ministers reviewed the crisis at a meeting in Brussels. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the European Union should reassess relations with Russia.
"The aggressive Russian force beyond South Ossetian borders has been something that really shocked many people," he said.
"The sight of Russian tanks in Gori, Russian tanks in Senaki, the Russian blockade of Poti, the Georgian port, are a chilling reminder of times that I think we had hoped had gone by."
EU foreign ministers said they would contribute to any international peacekeeping force.
Russian troops and tanks poured into Georgia on Friday after the Georgian army launched an offensive to regain control of South Ossetia, a Moscow-backed region which broke from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.
There was considerable scepticism among Russian newspapers about whether the conflict was really over.
Even as Medvedev announced an end to the Russian operation "it immediately became clear that in fact the confrontation was hardly finished," wrote the daily Kommersant.
"It is too early to reach unequivocal conclusions about whether the agreement reached by Medvedev and Sarkozy will really put an end to military actions in South Ossetia," wrote the popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.
"Saakashvili is characterised by his unpredictability and a lack of willingness to respect agreements," it added.
Russia claims the conflict has left more than 2,000 civilians dead, while the United Nations estimates some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes.
The Georgian health minister put the death toll in Georgia at 175 people, mainly civilians. Russia said that 74 of its troops had been killed.
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Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
It's not over yet!
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Georgian villages burned and looted as Russian tanks advance
Mood of panic as eyewitnesses say ceasefire being broken by Russian military and 'irregulars'
Russian tanks near the Georgian city of Zugdidi.
Villages in Georgia were being burned and looted as Russian tanks and soldiers followed by "irregulars" advanced from the breakaway province of South Ossetia, eyewitnesses said today.
"People are fleeing, there is a mood of absolute panic. The idea there is a ceasefire is ridiculous," Luke Harding, the Guardian's correspondent, said.
Earlier, witnesses reported a military convoy heading towards the Georgian capital Tbilisi, but it later turned off the road and headed back towards South Ossetia. Russia denied any advance.
Harding, watching villages near Gori burn, said witnesses had told him Russian military, including at least 25 tanks, had moved from the Russian-controlled South Ossetia into the villages.
"They asked villagers to hang white flags or handkerchiefs outside their houses if they did not want to be shot, they say."
The tanks had passed through the village of Rekha at about 11.20am local time. "Behind them (say eyewitnesses) is a whole column of irregulars who locals say are Chechens, Cossacks and Ossetians.
"Eyewitnesses say they are looting, killing and burning. These irregulars have killed three people and set fire to villages. They have been taking away young boys and girls," said Harding, watching smoke rise from another village, Karaleti.
He said he had witnessed people fleeing in the direction of Tbilisi. "For three hours there were people fleeing in cars, I saw one with 11 people and a Lada with eight people in it." He had also seen people fleeing on a horse and cart and a tractor.
It appeared that Russian tanks had entered Gori, targeting military installations, some built with Nato money.
Link to this audio
The ministry of foreign affairs in Georgia claimed four civilian cars with murdered passengers "were reported to have been seen in the village of Tedotsminda near Gori."
Russia's deputy chief of general staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitisyn, said earlier today that no tanks were in Gori. He claimed Russians went into the town to implement the truce with local officials but could find none.
A reporter from the Associated Press also said fighters from the other separatist region of Abkhazia had moved into Georgian territory, planting their flag on a bridge over the Inguri river and saying they were laying claim to what had historically been Abkhazian territory.
Earlier, Georgia said its troops had pulled out of Abkhazia after the Kremlin had laid down humiliating peace terms as the price for halting the Russian invasion and its four-day rout of Georgian forces.
The ceasefire required both sides to return to positions they held before the conflict started in South Ossetia last week.
The key demands are that the Georgian leader pledges to abjure all use of force to resolve Georgia's territorial disputes with the two breakaway pro-Russian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia; and that Georgian forces withdraw entirely from South Ossetia and are no longer part of the joint "peacekeeping" contingent there with Russian and local forces.
The Russian president, Dimitry Medvedev, also insisted the populations of the two regions had to be allowed to vote on whether they wanted to join Russia, prefiguring a possible annexation that would enfeeble Georgia and leave its leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, looking crushed.
Russian leaders claimed Georgian forces perpetrated atrocities against civilians when Saakashvili gave the go-ahead last week for the bungled attempt to recapture South Ossetia.
The gamble triggered the onslaught which the US state department yesterday described as "plain and simple blatant aggression on the part of Russia".
Georgian forces have been part of the peacekeeping force in South Ossetia for the past 15 years. But Russian leaders declared yesterday the Georgians would not return, and South Ossetia would be under Russian control.
"They shot their brother Russian peacekeepers, then they finished them off with bayonets, so we are not going to see them there any more," said Dmitri Rogozin, the Russian ambassador to Nato in Brussels.
While Nato leaders in Brussels stressed that South Ossetia and Abkhazia were part of Georgia, Medvedev encouraged the secession of the two breakaway regions.
"Ossetians and Abkhaz must respond to that question taking their history into account, including what happened in the past few days," he said.
Western officials at Nato, in the EU, in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and in Washington, while calling for an immediate ceasefire, also demanded that Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity be upheld.
Following a meeting of Nato states yesterday, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato's secretary general, accused Russia of not respecting Georgia's territorial integrity. "Abkhazia and Ossetia, if I mention territorial integrity, are to the best of my knowledge part of Georgia." He added that "Nato is not seeking a direct role or a military role in this conflict".
From http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008...eorgia.russia7Leave a comment:
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Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
Western media is so f'ucked up it makes me want to puke. Morals are relative to what can be gained politcally and economically, depending on the situation.Leave a comment:
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