Timeline Aug 12 + Report: Medvedev orders end to Georgia battles |
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Written by AP, Stratfor, Russia Today | |
Tuesday, 12 August 2008 | |
![]() Georgians run for safety after a Russian rocket hit a Georgian troop convoy just outside Gori on Monday.Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP-Getty Images Russian president says military will defend itself but halts operations BREAKING NEWS Medvedev said the military has punished Georgia and restored security for civilians and Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia. But he ordered the military Tuesday to defend itself and quash any aggressive action and armed resistance from Georgian forces. "I have taken the decision to bring to an end the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace," Medvedev told Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, according to a Kremlin spokesman. Earlier, Russia's foreign minister said that Georgia's president must leave office and Georgian troops should stay out of the breakaway South Ossetia region for good. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow won't talk to President Mikhail Saakashvili andthat Saakashvili had "better go." Both statements came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy headed to Moscow Tuesday to negotiate an EU-brokered truce for the fierce conflict over the breakaway region. Sarkozy was aiming to win Kremlin backing for a joint European Union-OSCE ceasefire plan which Georgia says it has already accepted. Town bombed In Georgia, Russian warplanes bombed the town of Gori on Tuesday, killing at least five people, a Reuters correspondent said. There were isolated skirmishes along the front line but no major offensives by either side overnight. Close U.S. ally Georgia entered a conflict with Russia last week after launching an offensive to retake the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgian rule in 1992. Moscow responded with a huge counter-offensive. On Monday, Russian tanks roared deep into Georgia, launching a new western front in the conflict, and Russian planes staged air raids that sent people screaming and fleeing for cover in some towns. 'Brutal escalation' Russian forces for the first time moved well outside the two restive, pro-Russian provinces claimed by Georgia that lie at the heart of the dispute. An Associated Press reporter saw Russian troops in control of government buildings in this town just miles from the frontier and Russian troops were reported in nearby Senaki. Georgia’s president said his country had been sliced in half with the capture of a critical highway crossroads near the central city of Gori, and Russian warplanes launched new air raids across the country. The Russian Defense Ministry, through news agencies, denied it had captured Gori and also denied any intentions to advance on the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. The western assault expanded the days-old war beyond the central breakaway region of South Ossetia, where a crackdown by Georgia last week drew a military response from Russia. While most Georgian forces were still busy fighting there, Russian troops opened the western attack by invading from a second separatist province, Abkhazia, that occupies Georgia’s coastal northwest arm. 'A full military invasion' U.N. officials B. Lynn Pascoe and Edmond Mulet in New York, speaking at an emergency Security Council meeting asked for by Georgia, also confirmed that Russian troops have driven well beyond South Ossetia and Abkhazia, U.N. diplomats said on condition of anonymity because it was a closed session. They said Russian airborne troops were not meeting any resistance while taking control of Georgia’s Senaki army base. “A full military invasion of Georgia is going on,” Georgian Ambassador Irakli Alasania told reporters later. “Now I think Security Council has to act.” France also circulated a draft resolution calling for the “cessation of hostilities, and the complete withdrawal of Russian and Georgian forces” to prior positions. The council is expected to take up the draft proposal Tuesday. Saakashvili told CNN late Monday that Russian forces were cleansing Abkhazia of ethnic Georgians. “I directly accuse Russia of ethnic cleansing,” he said. At the U.N. on Friday, each side accused the other of ethnic cleansing. By late Monday, Russian news agencies, citing the Defense Ministry, said troops had left Senaki “after liquidating the danger,” but did not give details. Early Tuesday, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that separatist troops in Abkhazia started an operation to push Georgian forces out of the northern Kodori Gorge, the only area of Abkhazia still under Georgian control. Interfax reported that Abkhazia defense headquarters said the offensive began about 2 a.m. Russia makes contradictory claims Saakashvili earlier told a national security meeting Russia had also taken central Gori, which its on Georgia’s only east-west highway, cutting off the eastern half of the nation from the western Black Sea coast. But the news agency Interfax cited a Russian Defense Ministry official as denying Gori was captured. Attempts to reach Gori residents by telephone late Monday did not go through. Fighting also raged Monday around Tskhinvali, the capital of the separatist province of South Ossetia. 'This is for NATO' “The bombs that are falling on us, they have an inscription on them: This is for NATO. This is for the U.S.,” Saakashvili told CNN. Russia’s massive and multi-pronged offensive has drawn wide criticism from the West, but Russia has rejected calls for a cease-fire and said it was acted to protect its citizens. Most residents of the separatist regions have Russian passports. In Zugdidi, an AP reporter saw five or six Russian soldiers posted outside an Interior Ministry building. Several tanks and other armored vehicles were moving through the town but the streets were nearly deserted. Shops, restaurants and banks were shut down. Georgia borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia and was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Both provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have run their own affairs without international recognition since fighting to split from Georgia in the early 1990, and both have close ties with Moscow. Russian response swift Georgia had pledged a cease-fire, but it rang hollow Monday. An AP reporter saw a small group of Georgian fighters open fire on a column of Russian and Ossetian military vehicles outside Tskhinvali, triggering a 30-minute battle. The Russians later said all the Georgians were killed. Another AP reporter was in the village of Tkviavi, 7½ miles south of Tskhinvali inside undisputed Georgian territory, when a bomb from a Russian warplane struck a house. The walls of neighboring buildings fell as screaming residents ran for cover. Eighteen people were wounded. Hundreds of Georgian troops headed north Monday along the road toward Tskhinvali, pocked with tank regiments creeping up the highway into South Ossetia. Hundreds of other soldiers traveled in trucks in the opposite direction, towing light artillery weapons. In a statement in the Rose Garden, Bush said there was an apparent attempt by Russia to unseat the pro-Western Saakashvili. He said further Russian action would conflict with Russian assurance its actions were meant to restore peace in the pro-Russian separatist areas. Georgian oil sites targeted The world’s seven largest economic powers urged Russia to accept an immediate cease-fire agree to international mediation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her colleagues from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations spoke by telephone and pledged their support for a negotiated solution to the conflict. “I’ve expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia,” Bush told NBC Sports. Putin criticized the United States for viewing Georgia as the victim instead of the aggressor, and for airlifting Georgian troops back home from Iraq on Sunday. “Of course, Saddam Hussein ought to have been hanged for destroying several Shiite villages,” Putin said in Moscow. “And the incumbent Georgian leaders who razed 10 Ossetian villages at once, who ran elderly people and children with tanks, who burned civilian alive in their sheds — these leaders must be taken under protection.” Sarkozy to meet with both sides A Defense Department spokesman said the U.S. expected to have all Georgian troops out of Iraq by day’s end. Pentagon officials said Monday that U.S. military was assessing the fighting every day to determine whether to pull the fewer than 100 remaining American trainers out of the country. Saakashvili’s cease-fire pledge had been proposed by the French and Finnish foreign ministers. Saakashvili voiced concern Russia’s true goal was to undermine his pro-Western government. “It’s all about the independence and democracy of Georgia,” he said. The Georgian president said Russia had sent 20,000 troops and 500 tanks into Georgia. He said Russian warplanes were bombing roads and bridges, destroying radar systems and targeting Tbilisi’s civilian airport. One Russian bombing raid struck the Tbilisi airport area only a half-hour before EU envoys arrived, he said. Another hit near key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which carries Caspian crude to the West. No supply interruptions have been reported. 'Where is our land?' Abkhazia’s separatists declared Sunday they would push Georgian forces out of the northern part of the Kodori Gorge, the only area of Abkhazia still under Georgian control. Before invading western Georgia, Russia’s deputy chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn demanded Monday that Georgia disarm its police in Zugdidi, a town just outside Abkhazia. Still he insisted “We are not planning any offensive.” Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said more than 2,000 people have been killed in South Ossetia since Friday, most of them Ossetians with Russian passports. The figures could not be independently confirmed, but refugees who fled Tskhinvali over the weekend said hundreds had been killed. Many found shelter in the Russian province of North Ossetia. “The Georgians burned all of our homes,” said one elderly woman, as she sat on a bench under a tree with three other white-haired survivors. “The Georgians say it is their land. Where is our land, then?”
------------------------------------------------------------------- Georgia, Russia: Operations Over? Amid conflicting statements coming out of Russia in the early afternoon of Aug. 12, signs are suggesting that the Russian-Georgian conflict of the past several days is coming to a close. Interfax reported that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered an end to operations in the Georgian separatist enclave of South Ossetia, saying that mission there was complete. The statement came after Medvedev met with Russian Defense Minister Anatoli Serdyukov, and just before he entered into a meeting with French President (and current holder of the rotating EU Presidency) Nicolas Sarkozy, who himself had just left a meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Medvedev also said that he has decided to find a way to create peace, though Russian troops were to continue stamping out pockets of resistance in Georgia proper. The Kremlin then issued a statement alongside Medvedev’s, saying Medvedev had ordered an end to operations throughout Georgia, not just in South Ossetia. Stratfor has been looking at Aug. 12 as a day on which we might learn how much further actions between Georgia and Russia would go. Despite the somewhat mixed messages, the statements come on a day when the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is abuzz with rumors that the Russians could possibly push forward to take the city. More importantly, the diplomatic front is hot with meetings on all sides. Thus far we have not seen an actual advance on the ground of Russian troops into the capital, though there has been a great deal of diplomatic chatter between the countries — France, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania and others — most concerned by the prospect of a strong Russia. Russia has made its point that it not only is a significant power once again, but also dominates the path for its peripheral countries. It remains to be seen whether Russia intends this halt in operations to be temporary; most likely that depends on the meetings that Medvedev is currently attending. Stratfor ------------------------------------------------------------------- Georgia: A Timeline of Events Aug. 12 Georgia: A Timeline of Events Aug. 12 3:05 p.m.: Even though Russia has declared an end to military operations in Georgia, this does not mean military hostilities will not continue there, Interfax reports. Georgian Interior Minister Temur Yakobashvili requests that Georgians try to avoid contact with Russian soldiers. 12:10 p.m.: Speaking after talks with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubbom, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Russia will change its approach to negotiating a resolution on the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-South Ossetian conflicts to fit the situation, Interfax reports. Russia has no confidence in the current Georgian leadership, he says. Stratfor ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Georgian war minute by minute - August 12 08:22 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, in Moscow on Tuesday, to discuss the situation in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia. 08:00 GMT Russia will have to review its approach towards negotiations on the situation in Georgia, as the leadership in Tbilisi cannot be trusted, according to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. 07:32 GMT Russian special services arrest a senior Georgian foreign intelligence officer. It says he was gathering intelligence on Russia’s military in the North Caucasus and following the movements of the South Ossetian president Eduard Kokoity. According to the FSB he is the deputy director of the Georgian Foreign Intelligence Service. 02:01 GMT Abkhazian troops have begun an operation to pull the Georgian military out of the upper part of the Kodori Gorge. 01:46 GMT Russia has rejected a draft resolution on Georgia-South Ossetia conflict, introduced by France at the UN Security Council meeting. http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/28860 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bush: Russia 'invaded' Georgia, must back off Almost immediately after his return from the Olympics in China, Bush warned Russia in his strongest comments since the fighting erupted over Georgia's separatist South Ossetia region last week to "reverse the course it appears to be on" and abandon any attempt it may have to topple Georgia's pro-western government. "Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," the president said in a televised statement from the White House, calling on Moscow to sign on to the outlines of a cease-fire as the Georgian government has done. "The Russian government must reverse the course it appears to be on and accept this peace agreement as a first step toward solving this conflict," Bush said, adding that he is deeply concerned that Russia, which Georgian officials say has effectively split their country in two, might bomb the civilian airport in the capital of Tbilisi. 'Unpleasant precedents' A senior U.S. official said the United States and its allies suspected Russia had been planning an invasion for some time and deliberately instigated the conflict through attacks on Georgian villages by pro-Russian forces in South Ossetia despite outwardly appealing for calm and promising to rein in the separatists. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Bush administration deliberations, said there were numerous "unpleasant precedents" for the current situation, including the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslavkia. Despite the tough talk in Washington, there was no specific threat of any consequences Russia might face if it ignores the warnings. American officials said they were working with U.S. allies in Europe and elsewhere, as well as with the Russians, to defuse the crisis. Earlier Monday, the United States and the world's six other largest economic powers issued a call similar to Bush's for Russia to accept a truce and agree to mediation as conditions deteriorated and Russian troops continued their advances into Georgian territory. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her colleagues from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations pledged their support for a negotiated solution to the conflict that has been raging since Friday, the State Department said. "We want to see the Russians stand down," deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. "What we're calling on is for Russia to stop its aggression." Concern for civilian casualties They called on Russia to respect Georgia's borders and expressed deep concern for civilian casualties that have occurred and noted that Georgia had agreed to a cease-fire and said the ministers wanted to see Russia sign on immediately as urgent consultations at the United Nations and NATO were expected, according to Wood. The seven ministers backed a nascent mediation efforts led by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, whose country now holds the chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, he said. The Group of Seven, or G7, is often expanded into what is known as the G8, a grouping that includes Russia, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was notably not included in the call. Wood said the United States was hopeful that the U.N. Security Council would pass a "strong" resolution on the fighting that called for an end to attacks on both sides as well as mediation, but prospects for such a statement were dim given that Russia wields veto power on the 15-member body. A senior U.S. diplomat, Matthew Bryza, is now in Tbilisi and is working with Georgian and European officials there on ways to calm the situation. Americans evacuated from Georgia The U.S. Embassy in Georgia has distributed an initial contribution of $250,000 in humanitarian relief to victims of the fighting and is providing emergency equipment to people in need, although those supplies would run out later Monday, the department said. The Pentagon said it had finished flying some 2,000 Georgian troops back home from Iraq on C-17 aircraft at Georgia's request. It said it had informed the Russians about the flights before they began in order to avoid any mishaps, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin harshly criticized the step, saying it would hamper efforts to resolve the situation by reinforcing Georgian assets in a "conflict zone." Wood rejected the criticism, saying: "We're not assisting in any conflict." Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the U.S. flew the Georgians out of Iraq as part of a prior agreement that transport would be provided in case of an emergency. Pentagon officials said Monday that U.S. military was assessing the fighting every day to determine whether less than 100 U.S. trainers should be pulled out of the country. There had been about 130 trainers, including a few dozen civilian contractors, but the civilians had been scheduled to rotate out of the country and did so over the weekend, Whitman said. The remaining uniformed trainers were moved over the weekend to what officials believe is a safer location, he said.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Georgian war minute by minute - August 12 19:12 GMT – French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili are holding talks in Tbilisi. 19:01 GMT – Georgian government confirms the withdrawal of its troops from the upper part of the Kodori Gorge. 18:10 GMT - Moscow is concerned over Kiev's ‘biased and one-sided position’ on Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its official website. 17:40 GMT - The restoration of the Capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, will take at least two years, said Russian Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoigu. 17:22 GMT - French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Tbilisi to meet with Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili. 17:01 GMT – British Prime Minister Brown praised South Ossetian peace plan revealed in Moscow. 16:37 GMT – Russia declares a period of mourning for war victims. 16:31 GMT – Georgian troops have been forced out of Kodori gorge, according to Abkhazian Deputy Defence Minister. 15:59 GMT – Detailed battle plan discovered in a Georgian staff vehicle sheds light on Tbilisi’s plans for South Ossetia, says Russian military official. 15:55 GMT – Some NATO members suggest reconsidering relations with Russia, according to the U.S. envoy to the alliance. 15:49 GMT – Pentagon announces U.S. has finished transporting Georgian soldiers from Iraq to Georgia. 15:46 GMT – Georgia to announce three day period of mourning, starting August 12, says Saakashvili. 15:32 GMT – Russia is not keeping any peace in Georgia, says U.S. Deputy State Secretary Matthew Bryza. 15:29 GMT – Georgian envoy to NATO has asked for military hardware to be supplied by alliance members. 14:52 GMT – EU is ready to take part in peacekeeping missions in the Caucasus, says French President Sarkozy. 14:42 GMT – Russia will call for an international discussion of war crimes in South Ossetia, says Medvedev. 14:11 GMT – The situation in South Ossetia won’t affect Georgia’s prospects of joining NATO, says de Hoop Scheffer. 13:28 GMT – Saakashvili says he has personally seen Russian troops shelling Tskhinvali. 13:13 GMT – Saakashvili says Georgia is revoking peacekeeping agreements with Russia and Abkhazia. 13:00 GMT – American embassy in Tbilisi confirms to Interfax that a U.S. citizen was wounded in the South Ossetian combat zone. 12:54 GMT – Russian peacekeepers report being sporadically shot at by Georgian troops. 12:45 GMT – Georgian reports claiming that the Russian military is continuing to attack are provocations, says the Russian Defence Ministry. 12:35 GMT – President Saakashvili announces that Georgia is to quit the Commonwealth of Independent States and calls on other members to follow. 11:41 GMT – Tskhinvali mayor says 70 percent of the city’s buildings were destroyed during the conflict. 11:29 GMT – Russia’s military operation in South Ossetia was partially caused by tension over Kosovo and the U.S. anti-missile system in Europe, according to the Belgian Foreign Minister. 10:35 GMT – Georgia's Foreign Minister won’t take part in a NATO meeting in Brussels, reports the France Press agency. 10:22 GMT – Russia’s announcement about the end of the military operation in South Ossetia "is good news", says French President Nicolas Sarkozy. 10:02 GMT – "Tskhinvali and Sukhumi are our Jerusalem, and we won’t wait for 2,000 years to reclaim them," says the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament. 09:44 GMT – The Russian military denies bombing a Georgian oil pipeline. 09:35 GMT – Russia will partially withdraw its troops from South Ossetia after ceasefire is established, says a military official. 09:22 GMT – A Russian military spokesman says the country will cooperate with the U.S. and NATO, despite Western support of Georgia. 09:05 GMT – A Russian military official says that its troops in South Ossetia have been ordered to stop advancing. 8:54 GMT Russian President Dmitry Medvedev decides to end military operation in Georgia. 08:37 Finland's foreign minister says that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is not interested in blaming sides in the Georgian-Russian conflict, and only wants an end to violence. 08:34 GMT – U.S. blocks Russia-NATO Council meeting, according to the Russian envoy to the alliance. 08:22 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, in Moscow on Tuesday, to discuss the situation in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia. 08:00 GMT Russia will have to review its approach towards negotiations on the situation in Georgia, as the leadership in Tbilisi cannot be trusted, according to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. 07:32 GMT Russian special services arrest a senior Georgian foreign intelligence officer. It says he was gathering intelligence on Russia’s military in the North Caucasus and following the movements of the South Ossetian president Eduard Kokoity. According to the FSB he is the deputy director of the Georgian Foreign Intelligence Service. 02:01 GMT Abkhazian troops have begun an operation to pull the Georgian military out of the upper part of the Kodori Gorge. 01:46 GMT Russia has rejected a draft resolution on Georgia-South Ossetia conflict, introduced by France at the UN Security Council meeting. http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/28860
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