Russian Forces Invade Georgia
puremagic
Posts: 1,907
Russian Forces Invade Georgia
Reuters
posted: 1 HOUR AGO
MEGVREKISI, Georgia (Aug. 8) - Tensions over Georgia's rebel territory of South Ossetia exploded on Friday when Georgia tried to assert control over the region with tanks and rockets, and Russia sent forces to repel the assault.
Fighting between Georgian forces and Russian-backed separatists raged in and around Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, after Tbilisi sent troops to take back the territory, which broke away in the 1990s.
<> A senior Georgian security official said Russian jets had bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi, and President Mikheil Saakashvili said 150 Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles had entered South Ossetia from neighboring Russia.MM. He also said Georgian forces had downed two Russian jets.
The Russian RIA news agency quoted a source in the regional Russian military headquarters as saying Russian armor had rolled into Tskhinvali, which Georgia had earlier claimed to have "freed." There was no immediate confirmation from Russia that it had sent bombers.
The crisis, the first to confront Russian President Dmitry Medvedev since he took office in May, looked close to spiraling into full-blown war in a region emerging as a key energy transit route, and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.
The roar of warplanes and the explosions of heavy shells were deafening more than three km (two miles) away from Tskhinvali. Many houses were ablaze.
Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeepers in the territory, told Interfax by telephone from Tskhinvali: "As a result of many hours of shelling from heavy guns, the town is practically destroyed."
Russian news agencies quoted witnesses saying a Russian armored column had rolled across the border.
MOBILISATION
Saakashvili told reporters: "This is a clear intrusion on another country's territory. We have Russian tanks on our territory, jets on our territory in broad daylight." He ordered a full-scale mobilization of military reservists.
Russia's benchmark equity index fell more than 4 percent to a 14-month low, while the rouble lost over 1 percent against a basket of 0.45 euros and 0.55 dollars.
NATO, the European Union and the United States, a vocal Georgian ally, all urged a halt to the bloodshed while Moscow vowed to respond after it said several Russian peacekeepers were killed by Georgian artillery fire.
"Some shells directly hit (their) barracks in Tskhinvali," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a peacekeepers' spokesman as saying.
Andrei Chistyakov, a correspondent for Russia's Vesti-24 television station, said at least 15 civilians had been killed in Tskhinvali, where thousands of people took refuge in cellars.
"These are the people whose bodies were seen in their yards and in the streets," he said by telephone.
Medvedev vowed to defend Russian "compatriots" in South Ossetia, whose separatist administration is supported by Russia, and where most people have been given Russian passports.
"We will not allow their deaths to go unpunished," Interfax quoted him as saying.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged the two sides to set up a "humanitarian corridor" to evacuate civilians and the wounded.
Georgia said its operation, launched after a week of clashes between separatists and Georgian troops in which nearly 20 people were killed, was aimed at ending South Ossetia's effective independence, won in a 1991-92 war.
The majority of the roughly 70,000 people living in South Ossetia are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, visiting Beijing, said Georgia had used heavy armor and artillery.
"The Georgian leadership has resorted to very aggressive actions, he said. "There are casualties, including among Russian peacekeepers. This is very sad and this will incur a response."
EMERGENCY U.N. SESSION
A senior Georgian security official, Kakha Lamaia, told Reuters that heavy military equipment and armored vehicles were entering South Ossetia through the Roki tunnel from Russia.
"Our intelligence didn't detect any regular Russian units, but detected heavy equipment and armored military vehicles coming through the tunnel," he said.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said government forces had also fought mercenaries who had entered South Ossetia from Russia.
Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said the operation would continue until a "durable peace" had been reached.
The Kremlin said Medvedev had summoned his top security advisers to discuss how to restore peace and defend civilians "within the peacekeeping mandate we have."
At an emergency session of the United Nations on Thursday night, Russia failed to push through a statement that would have called on both sides to stop fighting immediately.
Council diplomats said a phrase calling on all sides to "renounce the use of force" had been unacceptable to the Georgians, backed by the United States and the Europeans.
Saakashvili, who wants to take his small Caucasus nation into NATO, has made it a priority to win back control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebel region on the Black Sea.
The issue has bedeviled Georgia's relations with Russia, which is angered by Tbilisi's moves towards the Western fold and its pursuit of NATO membership.
Copyright 2008, Reuters
2008-08-03 03:30:03
Reuters
posted: 1 HOUR AGO
MEGVREKISI, Georgia (Aug. 8) - Tensions over Georgia's rebel territory of South Ossetia exploded on Friday when Georgia tried to assert control over the region with tanks and rockets, and Russia sent forces to repel the assault.
Fighting between Georgian forces and Russian-backed separatists raged in and around Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, after Tbilisi sent troops to take back the territory, which broke away in the 1990s.
<> A senior Georgian security official said Russian jets had bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi, and President Mikheil Saakashvili said 150 Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles had entered South Ossetia from neighboring Russia.MM. He also said Georgian forces had downed two Russian jets.
The Russian RIA news agency quoted a source in the regional Russian military headquarters as saying Russian armor had rolled into Tskhinvali, which Georgia had earlier claimed to have "freed." There was no immediate confirmation from Russia that it had sent bombers.
The crisis, the first to confront Russian President Dmitry Medvedev since he took office in May, looked close to spiraling into full-blown war in a region emerging as a key energy transit route, and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.
The roar of warplanes and the explosions of heavy shells were deafening more than three km (two miles) away from Tskhinvali. Many houses were ablaze.
Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeepers in the territory, told Interfax by telephone from Tskhinvali: "As a result of many hours of shelling from heavy guns, the town is practically destroyed."
Russian news agencies quoted witnesses saying a Russian armored column had rolled across the border.
MOBILISATION
Saakashvili told reporters: "This is a clear intrusion on another country's territory. We have Russian tanks on our territory, jets on our territory in broad daylight." He ordered a full-scale mobilization of military reservists.
Russia's benchmark equity index fell more than 4 percent to a 14-month low, while the rouble lost over 1 percent against a basket of 0.45 euros and 0.55 dollars.
NATO, the European Union and the United States, a vocal Georgian ally, all urged a halt to the bloodshed while Moscow vowed to respond after it said several Russian peacekeepers were killed by Georgian artillery fire.
"Some shells directly hit (their) barracks in Tskhinvali," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a peacekeepers' spokesman as saying.
Andrei Chistyakov, a correspondent for Russia's Vesti-24 television station, said at least 15 civilians had been killed in Tskhinvali, where thousands of people took refuge in cellars.
"These are the people whose bodies were seen in their yards and in the streets," he said by telephone.
Medvedev vowed to defend Russian "compatriots" in South Ossetia, whose separatist administration is supported by Russia, and where most people have been given Russian passports.
"We will not allow their deaths to go unpunished," Interfax quoted him as saying.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged the two sides to set up a "humanitarian corridor" to evacuate civilians and the wounded.
Georgia said its operation, launched after a week of clashes between separatists and Georgian troops in which nearly 20 people were killed, was aimed at ending South Ossetia's effective independence, won in a 1991-92 war.
The majority of the roughly 70,000 people living in South Ossetia are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, visiting Beijing, said Georgia had used heavy armor and artillery.
"The Georgian leadership has resorted to very aggressive actions, he said. "There are casualties, including among Russian peacekeepers. This is very sad and this will incur a response."
EMERGENCY U.N. SESSION
A senior Georgian security official, Kakha Lamaia, told Reuters that heavy military equipment and armored vehicles were entering South Ossetia through the Roki tunnel from Russia.
"Our intelligence didn't detect any regular Russian units, but detected heavy equipment and armored military vehicles coming through the tunnel," he said.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said government forces had also fought mercenaries who had entered South Ossetia from Russia.
Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said the operation would continue until a "durable peace" had been reached.
The Kremlin said Medvedev had summoned his top security advisers to discuss how to restore peace and defend civilians "within the peacekeeping mandate we have."
At an emergency session of the United Nations on Thursday night, Russia failed to push through a statement that would have called on both sides to stop fighting immediately.
Council diplomats said a phrase calling on all sides to "renounce the use of force" had been unacceptable to the Georgians, backed by the United States and the Europeans.
Saakashvili, who wants to take his small Caucasus nation into NATO, has made it a priority to win back control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebel region on the Black Sea.
The issue has bedeviled Georgia's relations with Russia, which is angered by Tbilisi's moves towards the Western fold and its pursuit of NATO membership.
Copyright 2008, Reuters
2008-08-03 03:30:03
SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
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Well then, as "defenders of the free world" we should mobilize the troops and do some air strikes...the Minions0
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the Great Red Menace is coming back! Soon all of eastern Europe will be crushed beneath soviet tank treads.
yayyyyY!!!!!!! Commy will be pleased.0 -
Jimmy Carter is going to be pissed.everybody wants the most they can possibly get
for the least they could possibly do0 -
puremagic wrote:Russian Forces Invade Georgia
Damn those Reuters headlines! Everybody knows of course that each side gives its own version of the story.
All I can say is that georgian troops according to our news channels finish off Russian peacekeepers with the total number around 10 and Saakashvili is a motherfucking lying asskissing pro-Bush bastard.Don't go messing with machoes!0 -
i have friends in Atlanta, i hope they are alright.0
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Why the hell isn't this getting more attention??? Fuck the olympics...this could get very ugly very fast"Well, I think this band is incapable of sucking."
-my dad after hearing Not for You for the first time on SNL .0 -
MrSmith wrote:i have friends in Atlanta, i hope they are alright.
Don't worry. I heard Chipper Jones is fending off the Ruskies with a billy club.everybody wants the most they can possibly get
for the least they could possibly do0 -
slightofjeff wrote:Don't worry. I heard Chipper Jones is fending off the Ruskies with a billy club.
...and Garnet Exelby will hit them with blind-side elbows to the head and hits from behind:D0 -
NMyTree wrote:...and Garnet Exelby will hit them with blind-side elbows to the head and hits from behind:D
Holy shit ... just spring Michael Vick from jail, like Hancock. Let his dogs go apeshit on those damned Russians!!!everybody wants the most they can possibly get
for the least they could possibly do0 -
PLanned timing on the Russians partSomethingCreative wrote:Why the hell isn't this getting more attention??? Fuck the olympics...this could get very ugly very fast0 -
I can bet we are going to back Georgia.
Peace*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)0 -
i see alot of jokes...
but this isnt good at all0 -
I don't really understand this situation at all.
Is it anything like Chechnya?My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.0 -
in all seriousness i have no idea whats going on. Eastern Europe isn't my field of fake expertise.0
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my2hands wrote:i see alot of jokes...
but this isnt good at all
No kidding.
The Braves are in the middle of a pennant race.everybody wants the most they can possibly get
for the least they could possibly do0 -
Strangest Tribe wrote:Well then, as "defenders of the free world" we should mobilize the troops and do some air strikes...
Yeah .........Go Get Em Team America!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI&feature=relatedVan 92.07.21 / Van 98.07.19 / Sea 98.07.22 / Tor 98.08.22 / Sea 00.11.06 / Van 03.05.30/ Van 05.09.02/ Gorge 06.07.22 & 23 / EV Van 08.04.02 / Tor 09.08.21 / Sea 09.09.21 & 22 / Van 09.09.25 / Van 11.09.25 / Van 13.12.04 / Pem 16.07.17 / Sea 18.08.100 -
NMyTree wrote:
That's the best line of the week. Probably ....the month:D
I agree!
Funny Funny!
Seriously.....This is going to piss the Chinese off soooo bad! Upstaging thier coming out party!Sacramento 10-30-00, Bridge School 10-20 and 10-21-01, Bridge School 10-25 and 10-26-01, Irvine 06-02-03, Irvine 06-03-03, San Diego 06-05-03, San Diego 07-07-06, Los Angeles 07-09-06, Santa Barbara 07-13-06, London UK 06-18-07, San Diego 10-9-09, San Diego 2013, LA 1 20130 -
NMyTree wrote: That's the best line of the week. Probably ....the month:D
Uh-huh, considering that Georgia is not Eastern Europe at all, but a part of Middle Asia.
OK, how I get it is that media coverage is pretty much the same from Georgia and those countries backing them up in the UN. Today (August, 9th) georgians are gonna shut off all Russian channels, I guess so that their own citizens won't know what's actually happened there.Don't go messing with machoes!0
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