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Title: Russian Troops Launch Ground Offensive in Georgia (Update3)
Source:
Bloomberg
URL Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news? ... 87&sid=aPYmM80WrBHk&refer=home
Published: Aug 11, 2008
Author: Henry Meyer and Torrey Clark
Post Date: 2008-08-11 16:51:51 by Rotara
Keywords: None
Views: 297
Comments: 22
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Russia sent ground forces into Georgia proper for the first time since fighting began five days ago, seizing a military base and forcing the Georgian army to retreat toward the capital. Georgian officials accused Russia of seeking to overthrow the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili, while Russia said it was protecting the separatist Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Both countries gave contradictory accounts of fighting. Georgia says Russia is invading two cities while the Russians insist they're hitting only military targets. ``We no longer know the limits of the invading Russian Army,'' said Kakha Lomaia, the Secretary of Georgia's National Security Council. ``Russia seems intent on overthrowing the democratically elected government of Georgia and occupying the country.'' The conflict is Russia's first major military offensive outside its borders since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. The war threatens to draw the U.S. into confrontation with Russia. The Bush administration backs Georgia's bid to join NATO which Russia views as a security threat. The West has courted Georgia as a counterweight to Russia's influence in the region, in part because it has an oil pipeline that bypasses Russia. Russian troops seized a military base in the town of Senaki, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Abkhazia, and ``invaded'' the city of Gori near South Ossetia, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said by phone. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said in comments on CNN that Russia has ``to attack Georgian military targets'' to ``protect the lives of Russian citizens.'' Senaki About 30 armored personnel carriers and more then 20 trucks with Russian soldiers entered Senaki and took control of its military base, Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said by phone. A Russian official said the move into Senaki, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Abkhazia, is aimed at preventing Georgian troops from massing. Ivanov said the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali was still being shelled by Georgian artillery near Gori. A Russian Defense Ministry official said ``not a single Russian soldier'' is in the city. Most residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia hold Russian passports. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU presidency, is to visit Russia tomorrow to try to negotiate a cease-fire. Russia Achieves `Goals' ``Russia has achieved its goals,'' said Alexander Rahr, a Russia expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.``Georgia will not be able to reunite with its regions in the coming decades.'' Russia may be seeking to incapacitate the U.S.-armed Georgian military and topple Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer who came to power in 2003 and has sought to bring his former Soviet nation into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said Masha Lipman, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Center. ``I think Russia has not brought in its troops for the first time projecting military force outside its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union in order to pull out quickly and return to the status quo,'' Lipman said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. ``I think that Russia has serious goals and Russia will not withdraw until its goals are fulfilled.'' Georgia and Russia have been fighting since Aug. 8 when Russia moved in troops and bombed targets after Georgian forces launched an offensive into South Ossetia, which split away from Georgia in an early 1990s war. EU Peace Mission The Russian incursions came after Saakashvili proposed a cease-fire to the five-day conflict and on the eve of a peace mission by the European Union. Kutelia said the Georgian armed forces had withdrawn from Gori and regrouped in Mtskheta, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the capital Tbilisi. ``We are moving the defense line to Mtskheta,'' Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said by text message. Saakashvili earlier today accused Russia of seeking ``regime change.'' ``We want and need an immediate cease-fire,'' he said in a conference call with reporters. At least 1,600 civilians have died in South Ossetia since the conflict began on Aug. 7, according to Russia. Georgia says hundreds of troops have been killed on both sides as well as ``huge numbers'' of civilians. Russia hasn't received an official proposal from Georgia for a cease-fire, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russian deputy chief of the General Staff, told reporters today in Moscow. Georgia has downed four Russian planes and 18 Russian soldiers have been killed, said Nogovitsyn. Halt Military Action The European Union's executive branch demanded a halt to all Russian military action on Georgian territory. ``We consider that the latest developments, such as the crossing of the Georgian borders by Russian troops, changed the dimension of the conflict,'' European Commission spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy told a news briefing in Brussels. The Russian offensive has continued even though Georgia says it complied with Russian demands to withdraw its troops from South Ossetia. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said Russia's ``aggression'' would have ``serious consequences'' if it continued. Putin today rounded on the U.S. for its ``cynicism'' in transporting 800 Georgian troops back from Iraq to take part in the conflict. He accused U.S. officials of ``Cold War thinking'' in televised comments. `Russian Aggression' U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain called for an international diplomatic response to what he termed ``Russian aggression'' in Georgia. McCain said Moscow's attempt at ``toppling a democratically elected government'' is ``unacceptable to all the democratic countries of the world and should draw us together in universal condemnation of Russian aggression.'' Russia has said its actions are justified by what it calls a Georgian-waged ``genocide'' in South Ossetia. Russia says most of those killed in the conflict are civilians who died through Georgian military action. Fighting spread over the weekend to Abkhazia, another separatist region which like South Ossetia is seeking independence from Georgia. Russia sent 9,000 troops there in addition to a 3,000-strong peacekeeping force on the ground. Georgia is a key link in the U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline to Turkey runs about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali. To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at Hmeyer4@bloomberg.net; Torrey Clark in Moscow at tclark8@bloomberg.net Last Updated: August 11, 2008 14:24 EDT
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Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, speaks during a news conference in Berlin on June 25, 2008. Photographer: Adam Berry/Bloomberg News
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#1. To: Rotara (#0)
Great interview. Webster rocks.
Except he shills for Hillary!. ;-)
I agree with him. Shrill would put all of deecee into permanent gridlock. Which I fully support.
Shrill would put all of deecee into permanent gridlock. Which I fully support. Hmmm
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#2. To: lodwick (#1)
Webster rocks.
#3. To: Rotara (#2)
#4. To: lodwick (#3)
I agree with him.
Replies to Comment # 4.