Russia/Georgia Situation News & Updates

Georgia and Turkey Discuss Establishment of Regional Security and Aid System

Georgia is ready to dialogue with Turkey to establish the regional security system, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili stated at a joint news conference with Turkish Premier Receb Tayyip Erdogan on 14 August.

source

Woah!! I've just been watching Sky News and there were Turkish Journalists in a car getting shot at you could see the window cracking with bullet marks. They reveresed but Sky said the "Russian Forces" then got them and attacked them and let them go after around 30 minutes.

I guess the lunar eclipse this weekend will be right over the war zone. From what I've read, we have days to live.

8-15-08
Diplomacy steps in with Russian troops in Georgia-ap

GORI, Georgia (Reuters) - Russian troops remain deep inside Georgian territory on Friday, hours before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives to secure Tbilisi's signature to a peace deal with Moscow.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi, near Georgia's border, to urge Russia to embrace diplomacy in its showdown with its small neighbour.

Georgia has yet to formally place its signature on the deal brokered this week by France, and President Mikheil Saakashvili appeared uncertain about it.

Saakashvili said he would need to "take a closer look" at the French-brokered peace proposal brought by Rice before signing it. "We have to see what she has to bring," he told CNN late on Thursday.

Beyond two breakaway regions where thousands of Russian troops are deployed, Moscow still has tanks and soldiers in three Georgian towns, three days after declaring its military counter-offensive against Georgian forces over.

On Friday, Russian tanks and armoured vehicles were again blocking the main entrance to the key Georgian town of Gori, west of Tbilisi, a Reuters correspondent said.

Russian soldiers relaxing under trees at the Gori checkpoint said looters had been active in the town overnight.

Residents blame the lawlessness on Ossetian militias. Rights groups say militias are raiding Georgian villages abandoned by Tbilisi's forces and now held by Russian troops.Witnesses said Russian tanks had rolled through the Black Sea port of Poti on Thursday morning, accompanying trucks with troops to the port area. A large column of Russian troops was seen in the western town of Zugdidi, not far from the second pro-Moscow separatist region of Abkhazia.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he was "extremely concerned" about the humanitarian situation in Georgia and called for a halt to lawlessness.

Saakashvili said Russia was behind a "deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing".

Earlier this week Georgia asked the United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice, to issue an urgent order to Russia to halt what it describes as human rights violations on ethnic Georgians.

TROOPS PULL-OUT, INTEGRITY

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the architect of a three-day old ceasefire, said Saakashvili's signature to the six-point peace deal would "consolidate" the halt to fighting and lead to the withdrawal of Russian troops.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "We can forget about talks on Georgia's territorial integrity because it's impossible to force South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree that they can be returned into Georgia's fold by force".

Mentioning Georgia's territorial integrity in any document settling the conflict would be seen by people as "the deepest insult", he added in a radio interview.

Russia has said the case of Kosovo, a breakaway province of Serbia whose self-proclaimed independence was promptly recognised by major Western powers, creates a legal precedent for Georgia's separatist South Ossetia and Abkhazia "Georgia is a member of the United Nations, as such it has internationally recognized borders, therefore the territorial integrity of Georgia within those borders is not an issue," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in comments to Lavrov's remarks.

"Georgia's borders have been reaffirmed by numerous Security Council resolutions," she said. "So the question of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be the subject of international negotiations as they have been at the U.N. Security Council," Perino said.

"The resolution of Kosovo's status is covered by a U.N. Security Council resolution and that resolution envisions an international process," she said. "So the two cases are totally different.

In a move likely to sour further Russia's ties with the U.S., Poland finally agreed on Thursday to host elements of U.S. global anti-missile system on its land after Washington improved the terms of the deal amid the Georgia crisis.

Russia views the planned U.S. anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe as a threat to its national security.

(Additional reporting by Washington bureau; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Russian Troops Continue Presence in Gori

The Russian forces, which control Gori, continue refusing to allow the Georgian police units inside the town.

source

[edit on 15-8-2008 by -Rugged Shark-]

First, I want to point that now there are 3 almost independed forces on Georgian territory (outside of S.O. and Abkhazia): Russian military force, S.O. militia and probably Abkhasian troops.
I think Russian goals on Georgian territory are:
1) Reconnaisance (really )
2) Capturing all Georgian military equipment. I have seen a video where Russian forces have been taking out fully prepared Georgian tanks and APCs from Georgian bases. Captured about 100 vehicles they just left them. I wonder why.
3) Preventing S.O. militia and Abkhasian troops from looting

About S.O. militia actions...
There are many Russian blogs confirming atrocities Georgian troops have done in Tskhinvali and other parts of osetia. They say that Georgians have been capturing Ostian families, shooting legs of men and forced them to look Georgians raping their wives, sisters and daughters. They have burned whole families alive. Georgians had learned some words in osetian and bogusly have been making osetians out of their vaults, then killing them. You may belive this or not, I think you won't ever get a video "proving" all of this.
Another thing that should be taken into account is that feud is a thousands years old Caucasian tradition.
So, you can now imagine how hard is it for Russian troops to stop S.O. militia from their revenge. Even I don't know what I would have done with Georgians if aforementioned things happened with my family.

Forgive my English

It appears that, as some earlier posters surmised, Ossetian militia are largely responsible for the looting and violence we keep hearing about. The situation appears to be that Georgian forces left towns that were coming under heavy attack by Russia during the more heated phase of the conflict a few days back, and since that time the militia/rebels have been looting while Russian forces occupy the areas in or near said towns, ostensibly to try and secure them against such looting.

Russian soldiers relaxing under trees at the Gori checkpoint said looters had been active in the town overnight.

Residents blame the lawlessness on Ossetian militias. Rights groups say militias are raiding Georgian villages abandoned by Tbilisi's forces and now held by Russian troops.

Russian troops have occupied parts of Georgia since repelling a Georgian attack last week on the tiny separatist territory of South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in the 1990s.

www.alertnet.org...

If they are trying to stop the looting and violence, thus far is appears that they have been unsuccessful.


[edit on 8/15/2008 by AceWombat04]

As many of you might have noticed is that Google Maps is kind of useless these days.

Here's a small map of the region, for those of you who don't have Google Earth.

Truce may give Russia loophole in Georgia conflict

The wording in a cease-fire agreement between Russia and Georgia may have given Russians a loophole to send their troops into points into the former Soviet republic and continue their action there.

source

Yes, welcome back, Maloy.

Latest from the Associated Press:

Russian troops continue to block Georgian city

GORI, Georgia (AP) -- Russian troops are still blocking entrance to the city of Gori in war-battered Georgia. Doubt remains about whether Russia will honor an agreement to pull back its forces.

The city is on Georgia's main east-west road. The Russian troops' presence there effectively cuts the country in two.

A cease-fire agreement calls for Russian forces to pull back to the positions they held before fighting that broke out a week ago in the separatist region of South Ossetia. The conflict has since seen Russian forces enter Georgia proper.

A Georgia Interior Ministry spokesman says there are no Russian troops in the second-largest city of Kutaisi, despite reports they were headed in that direction overnight.

(AP)

Originally posted by -Rugged Shark-
As many of you might have noticed is that Google Maps is kind of useless these days.

Here's a small map of the region, for those of you who don't have Google Earth.

Kudos for a pic of the Pipeline...

Havent seen that yet...

...saved...

reply to post by RenegadePsycho


Is that for real? What does turkey have to say about that?Anything new from Sky news on this? Or anything new on sky news about Russia/Georgia conflict.If i remember rice is to be there by now

Is Interfax not working for anyone else?

Anyway, some strong words from Russian FM Lavrov today:

August 15, 2008, 8:00
Georgia is a U.S. Project - Russian FM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticised Georgia’s relationship with the U.S. in the aftermath of the trouble in South Ossetia. In a news conference he addressed a wide range of issues surrounding the future of the Caucasus region including Abkhazia, the role of the U.S. and media coverage of the conflict.

“The repercussions of blood spilled in the Caucasus will last for centuries, not decades. We can now start counting centuries from August 8, 2008,” he said.

“It’s an open secret – Western analysts have been writing about it, that the current Georgian leadership is a special project of the United States. And of course it must be hurtful to see a protégé making such a sleazy performance.”

(Russia Today)

reply to post by chips


Interfax is working fine for me.

British newspaper writes about failure of the policy of the West with respect to Russia

Moscow. On August 15. INTERFAX.RU - the British newspaper “Guardian” ridiculed the martial course of the West with respect to Russia, which, according to its estimation, completely fell through during the military operation in South Osetia, carried out on this week.

s ource

Second UNHCR airlift reaches Georgia; aid for 40,000 being distributed

(AlertNet)

Russia Is Using Iskander Missiles Against Civilians - Georgia

Georgia Wednesday said Russian forces were using Iskander missiles against civilians, describing it as "inhuman brutality."

source

Originally posted by -Rugged Shark-
As many of you might have noticed is that Google Maps is kind of useless these days.

Here's a small map of the region, for those of you who don't have Google Earth.

Uhm, don't have google map, but why has there been a lot of problems? To make sure we don't actually see what happen? This is a war alright, it's a information war and it's all about our thoughts...

Originally posted by chips

Georgia Downs Two Russian Planes

Make that 4 Russian planes, according to Mikheil Saakashvili, Renegade.

Some links:

SKY: Russian Tanks Roll Into Georgia
BBC: Russian tanks head towards South Ossetia
CNN: Georgia 'under attack' as Russian tanks roll in
AP: Georgian army moves to retake South Ossetia
FOX: Russia, Georgia Battle Over Breakaway Republic
AFP: Russian troops killed in S.Ossetia
MSNBC: Battle erupts over Georgia's breakaway region
REUTERS: Russia sends forces into Georgia

Heres another link confirming 4 russian planes shot down.
www.strategypage.com...

Glen Beck past few days been talking about this conflict non stop and he comes on at 4am, just heads up to you all who want some info.Last night has the Georgian president on

Hmm russian planning as far back as April?

www.jamestown.org...