The problem with missing a few days is there's so much to catch up on.
So. Russia/Gerorgia items first, in no particular order:
***
Assad: Syria may host Russian missiles in its territory
Syrian President Bashar Assad has pledged to support Russia in its conflict with Georgia and said that Damascus was ready to consider deploying Russian Iskander missile systems in its territory, in response to the US missile shield in Europe.
In an interview with the Russian paper Kommersant, cited by the Interfax News Agency, Assad said regarding the option to install Rusian missiles on Syrian ground "In principle, yes. We have not thought of it yet. No such proposal has been received. In any case, all similar projects must be first studied by military experts. And when everything is decided, we willmake an open and public announcement," Assad said in the interview, published on Wednesday, the day before his visit to Russia was scheduled to begin.
The Iskander missile (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is a short range, solid fuel propelled, theater quasi-ballistic missile system.
Russia condemns US missile deal
Russia has warned that a US-Polish missile defence deal creates a new arms race in Europe and beyond.
A foreign ministry statement said that Moscow "will be forced to react, and not only through diplomatic demarches". It did not elaborate.
The comments came just hours after the US and Poland signed the deal to locate 10 US interceptor rockets in Poland.
The US says the system will protect the US and Europe against missiles from "rogue" states such as Iran.
Georgia's Nato membership on track, says David Miliband
Foreign secretary says keeping alliance's pledge to grant Georgia membership is 'important signal'
The formal process leading to Georgia's membership of Nato has begun, partly because of Russia's occupation, David Miliband said today.
In an interview with the Guardian in Tbilisi, the foreign secretary said Georgia had been given a "route map to membership" after the formation on Tuesday of a joint commission aimed at forging closer ties.
He said the commission was an important step towards implementing a pledge made by Nato leaders at a summit in April.
"I think the formal process kicked off yesterday with the establishment of a Nato-Georgia commission, and we have taken seriously the commitments the heads of government made in April," Miliband said. "It's an important signal but there is also important substance to it."
Some European diplomats have depicted the joint commission as a sop to Georgia, predicting its membership will be put on hold because of the conflict with Russia that started on August 7.
Moscow can't be trusted
To stop Russia, the west must honour the words of freedom on which I have staked Georgia's fate
Mikheil Saakashvili The Guardian, Friday August 15 2008
Russia's invasion of Georgia strikes at the heart of western values and our 21st-century system of security. If the international community allows Russia to crush our democratic, independent state, it will be giving carte blanche to authoritarian governments everywhere. Russia intends to destroy not just a country, but an idea.
For too long we underestimated the ruthlessness of the regime in Moscow. Within 24 hours of agreeing to a ceasefire, Russia's forces were rampaging through Gori; blocking the port of Poti; sinking Georgian vessels; and - worst of all - brutally purging Georgian villages in South Ossetia. The Russian leadership cannot be trusted - and this hard reality should guide the west's response. Only western peacekeepers can end the war.
Russia also seeks to destroy our economy and is bombing factories, ports and other vital sites. Accordingly, we need to establish a modern version of the Berlin airlift. The United Nations, the US, Canada and others are moving in this direction, for which we are deeply grateful.As we consider what to do next, understanding Moscow's goals is critical. It aims to satisfy its imperialist ambitions, to erase one of the few democratic, law-governed states in its vicinity - and, above all, to demolish the post-cold war system of international relations in Europe. It is showing that it can do as it pleases.
The historical parallels are stark: Russia's war on Georgia echoes events in Finland in 1939, Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Perhaps this is why so many eastern European countries, which suffered under Soviet occupation, have voiced their support for us. Russia's leaders see us as a threat because Georgia is a free country whose people have elected to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community. But Russia's rulers do not want their nation or its borders contaminated by democratic ideas.
Since our democratic government came to power after the 2003 Rose revolution, Russia has used economic embargoes and closed borders to isolate us, and has illegally deported thousands of Georgians. It has tried to destabilise us politically with the help of criminal oligarchs. It has tried to freeze us into submission by blowing up vital gas pipelines in midwinter. When all that failed to shake the Georgian people's resolve, Russia invaded.
Last week Russia, using its separatist proxies, attacked several peaceful, Georgian-controlled villages in South Ossetia. On August 6, just hours after a senior Georgian official travelled to South Ossetia to attempt negotiations, a massive assault was launched on Georgian settlements. Even as we came under attack, I declared a unilateral ceasefire in the hope of avoiding escalation, and announced our willingness to talk to the separatists by any means.
But we then learned that columns of Russian tanks and troops had crossed Georgia's sovereign borders. The thousands of troops, tanks and artillery massed on our border are evidence of how long Russia had been planning this aggression. Our government had no choice but to protect the country from invasion, secure our citizens and stop the bloodshed.
For years Georgia has been proposing 21st-century, European solutions for South Ossetia, including full autonomy guaranteed by the international community. Russia has responded with crude, 19th-century methods.
It is true that Russian power could overwhelm our small country - though even we did not anticipate the ferocity and scale of Moscow's response. However, we had to try to protect our people: any democratic country would have done the same.
Facing this brutal invading army, our government decided to withdraw from South Ossetia, declare a ceasefire and seek negotiations. However repeated attempts to contact senior Russian leaders were rebuffed. Russia's foreign ministry even denied receiving our notice of ceasefire hours after it was officially - and very publicly - delivered. This was just one of many cynical ploys to deceive the world and justify further attacks.
This war threatens not only Georgia but security and liberty around the world. If the international community fails to take a resolute stand, it will sound the death knell for the spread of freedom and democracy everywhere. Georgia's only fault in this crisis is its wish to be an independent, free and democratic country. What would western nations do if they were punished for the same aspiration?
I have staked my country's fate on the west's rhetoric about democracy and liberty. As Georgians come under attack, we must ask: if the west is not with us, who is it with? If the line is not drawn now, when will it be drawn? We cannot allow Georgia to become the first victim of a new world order as imagined by Moscow.
· Mikheil Saakashvili is the president of Georgia
Russia rejects UN call to pull out of Georgia
Russia has rejected a draft UN resolution demanding it immediately pull out of Georgia, as President Dimitry Medvedev again delayed the withdrawal.
The French-drafted Security Council resolution called for Moscow's forces to retreat to positions they held before the conflict that broke out on August 7 after Georgia attemped to reclaim South Ossetia, a rebel province.
But Moscow insists the ceasefire deal brokered last week by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, allows for its troops to remain in a buffer zone well inside the Georgian side of the South Ossetian border, and that any UN resolution must reflect this.
Here's the thing: there were Russian troops in Georgia that weren't supposed to be there at that time. Allowing that as the bounds is a gigantical cop-out by the west.
Russia threatens new confrontation over Georgian provinces
A fresh confrontation between Moscow and the West was looming after Russia announced that it was preparing to recognise the independence of the two Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The State Duma, Russia's parliament, has been recalled and will meet in emergency session on Monday to debate an Abkhaz appeal for immediate recognition of the region's sovereignty. The South Ossetian rebel leader, Eduard Kokoity, said he would follow suit imminently.
Russian acquiescence to the proposals would inevitably mark a serious escalation of the crisis in the Caucasus by further undermining a fragile ceasefire in the area and creating a fresh diplomatic rift with the United States and Europe.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has signed 14 United Nations Security Council resolutions accepting that Abkhazia and South Ossetia remain part of Georgia despite establishing rebel administrations after secessionist wars in the early 1990s.
But after crushing Georgia on the battlefield, Russia has indicated that it was no longer prepared to honour UN edicts on the breakaway provinces. Earlier this week, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told the world to "forget" about Georgia's territorial integrity.
Forty Years Ago, The Tanks Rolled Into Czechoslovakia
PRAGUE -- Viewed from Prague, the images of Russian tanks streaming into Georgia earlier this month carried inevitable echoes.
Many commentators and politicians around the world have made comparisions to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
"Russia needs to leave Georgia at once," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a visit to Tbilisi on August 15. "This is no longer 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, when a great power invaded a small neighbor and overthrew its government."
And the parallels certainly haven’t been lost on the Czechs.
Russia warns NATO against re-equipping Georgia's military
BRUSSELS, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin warned Wednesday NATO against filling the gap of losses of the Georgian military incurred in its conflict with Russia.
"Any attempt of NATO to fill the gap of losses of the Georgian army contradicts the conventions of the OSCE (Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe)," Rogozin told reporters.
All NATO countries, Russia and Georgia are members of the OSCE.
He said the provision of strategic armament to Georgia and the flight of NATO reconnaissance planes along Russia's borders as requested by Georgia are regarded as hostile actions to Russia.
He warned that these actions may make Russia change its position on its relationship with the West, including military cooperation and on Moscow's policy on Iran.
Moscow plans 18 long-term checkpoints inside Georgia
Deputy chief of the Russian army general staff Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters Aug. 20: “The president ordered us to stop where we were. We are not pulling out or pulling back troops behind this administrative border into South Ossetia,” he said.
He pointed out the proposed Russian positions on a map, one just outside the Georgian city of Gori. Moscow planned to establish 18 long-term checkpoints including at least eight in undisputed Georgian territory outside the pro-Russian enclave of South Ossetia, said the general. They will be staffed by hundreds of Russian troops.
In Ukraine, fear of being a resurgent Russia's next target
KIEV, Ukraine: For 17 years now, several former satellites and republics of the Soviet Union have cherished their democracies, all made possible by the simple premise that the days of Russian dominance were over.
The events in Georgia over the past week have made them rethink that idea. Poland announced Thursday that it had reached a deal with Washington to base American missile interceptors on its territory, after months of talks. But then a Russian general went so far as to say that Poland might draw Russian nuclear retaliation, sending new shudders through the region.
The sense of alarm may be greatest here in Ukraine. Since the Orange Revolution began in 2004, bringing the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko to power after widespread protests, Ukraine has been a thorn in Moscow's side, though perhaps not as sharp as the outspoken Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili.
"We're next," said Tanya Mydruk, 22, an office assistant who lives in Kiev, the capital. "Sooner or later our president is going to say or do something that goes too far, and then it will start."
NATO ships enter Black Sea for exercises
BRUSSELS, Belgium: NATO warships entered the Black Sea on Thursday for what the alliance said were long-planned exercises and routine visits to ports in Romania and Bulgaria.
The move is not linked to the tensions over Russia's invasion of Georgia, which lies on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, about 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the Romanian coast, said officials at NATO's military command in southern Belgium.
Three warships — from Spain, Germany and Poland — sailed into the Black Sea on Thursday. They are due to be joined by a U.S. frigate, the USS Taylor, later this week.
Gut feeling says it's a bluff, and attempt to keep Russia from naval attacks against Georgia or Ukraine.
US destroyer heading toward Georgia after Turkish approval
Ankara allows for transit through Turkish straits into the Black Sea of two U.S. Navy ships and one coast guard cutter, State Dept.
A first U.S. Navy ship, a guided-missile destroyer, is due to pass through the Turkish straits shortly to carry humanitarian aid to war-torn Georgia after Turkey approved the transit of three American military ships into the Black Sea and amid reports that the Russian Navy is still controlling the sea off the Georgian coast.
...
Shortly after Woods' announcement the USS McFaul, the guided-missile destroyer, left the Greek island of Crete, heading for Georgia with its load of humanitarian aid materials, Agence France Presse reported, quoting a Pentagon official.
The USS McFaul will later be joined by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas, which is taking on supplies in Crete.
The USS Mount Whitney, the flagship of the U.S. Sixth Fleet deployed in the Mediterranean, also was ready to go if ordered, but at this point was not going.
Restricted freedom of movement for diplomatic corps through Georgia
On 21 August 2008 the Embassy of the Russian Federation to Georgia sent a Note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. The Note, in particular, indicates: ‘in order to arrange civilized movement throughout Gori for the delegations and persons intending to arrive or already present in Georgia and planning to travel to Gori, the Embassy requests advance notification on any such travel plan, delegation members, travel objectives and duration, transport vehicles and itinerary. In the given situation the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation must obtain such information in order to give respective instructions to the peacekeeping command, which will further ensure unhindered movement’.
No, tthis is not just some blog; it really is the temporary site of the Georgian government, as their official site is under cyberattack.
In Georgia, Russia appears to break pledge to pull back
[ *eyeroll*--Amanda ]
Digging into Georgian territory despite promises to withdraw, Russian forces plowed ground Wednesday for what residents feared were two new checkpoints near this strategic Black Sea port.
Tractors turned over fresh earth along a riverbank outside Poti, while Western news reporters said Russian soldiers in central Georgia appeared to be building a sentry post 30 miles from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
Russian military officials in Moscow said they planned to construct a "security zone" along the border of South Ossetia, the pro-Russian breakaway province where fighting began on Aug. 7, that will include 18 checkpoints manned by hundreds of soldiers.
A cease-fire agreement between Russia and Georgia allows Russia to maintain troops along the South Ossetian border. But the activity outside Poti, 170 miles west of Tbilisi, was well outside that zone and appeared to be in defiance of the agreement, which calls for Russia to withdraw its forces to pre-Aug. 7 positions.
In a clearing just outside Poti, where two Russian tanks sat alongside mounds of freshly dug soil, a Russian officer refused to say what his troops were building there. He shooed away a handful of Western reporters by saying he wasn't authorized to answer questions.
Protesters Chant `Russians Go Home' at Georgian Port
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of Georgians chanted ``Russians go home'' at the Black Sea port of Poti today to protest checkpoints set up by Russian troops manning armored personnel carriers.
Protesters waved Georgian flags in front of about 15 Russians near the Rioni River as international observers arrived in Georgia a day after Russia announced completion of a troop pullback under terms of the French-brokered cease-fire over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Georgia Prepares for Refugees; Russians Declare Pullback Finished
GORI, Georgia — Though Russian forces still held several key areas of the country, the Georgian government began on Saturday to prepare cities and villages in the conflict areas for the return of thousands of refugees.
Russia said its military pullback had been completed, [ "and we believe them why?!?"-- Amanda ] and large columns of Georgian police special forces were seen in and around the city of Gori. Officers said they had come to provide security for returning residents.
Georgian Army units also appeared in Gori for the first time since they retreated under heavy Russian bombardment two weeks ago. They were lightly equipped — most had only rifles and pistols, and rode pickup trucks and personal cars — and arrived at a base that had been ransacked.
“We are the guys who fire artillery,” said one soldier, standing in the parking lot of his base. “Only we do not have an artillery to shoot.”
Russian Forces Won’t Go Home; Christians Give Aid to Georgia
Russian forces remained in Georgia on Saturday despite having signed an agreement to withdraw all troops by Friday, reports indicate.
In the western port of Poti, Georgia’s main commercial port, Russian troops are still
controlling access, according to Agence France-Presse.
...
As the conflict fails to end, churches throughout the region are opening their doors to help refugees.
It is estimated that 100,000 people have been displaced by the violence.
No comments:
Post a Comment