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
yayyyyY!!!!!!! Commy will be pleased.
for the least they could possibly do
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.
Fuck the south! Go get 'em Russia!
-my dad after hearing Not for You for the first time on SNL .
Don't worry. I heard Chipper Jones is fending off the Ruskies with a billy club.
for the least they could possibly do
...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!!!
for the least they could possibly do
Peace
*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)
but this isnt good at all
Is it anything like Chechnya?
No kidding.
The Braves are in the middle of a pennant race.
for the least they could possibly do
Yeah .........Go Get Em Team America!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI&feature=related
I agree!
Funny Funny!
Seriously.....This is going to piss the Chinese off soooo bad! Upstaging thier coming out party!
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.
The US will handle this stupidly. We're going to make Russia our enemy in this situation, and that's a stupid idea.
-Enoch Powell
The history truly has a funny way of perpetuating itself.
In Ukraine the pro western government soon had trouble getting oil and gas from Russia, which had previously provided them with energy below the market price. Russia has used its' citizens living in the baltic states to cause trouble. Russians living there are often considered second class citizens so it's not completely one sided...
Georgia and USA are allies and South Ossetia is a state in Georgia trying to gain independence. They used to have a form of autonomy within Soviet Union, but after the collapse of the c.c.c.p it became a part of Georgia and they lost most of their special rights.
Russia doesn't like the way Georgia has been dealing with the U.S. behind its' back and has used the "rebel state" of South Ossetia to cause turmoil in Georgia. Recently South Ossetia claimed independence, which Georgia denied and sent troops to the state. Russia then announced that anyone within South Ossetia can apply Russian citizenship, which led to the situation that Russia now has it's "own" citizens in South Ossetia, therefore it's going there to defend Russian civilians.
Basically Georgia did a bold and stupid move by attacking South Ossetia and now Russia has a reason to interfere by force.
how is Georgia seperatist? it's a souvereign nation since the soviet union's breakup. actually Georgia is fighting the seperatists: in south ossetia, who are "backed up" by russia not the US.
so no: this is also not like Chechnya, because Chechnya is part of the Russian Federation...
in the new war two souvereign nations fight.
m.
"As an internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
I think you didn't read my post thoroughly. I implied that South Ossetia are considered "separatists" plus I didn't say a word about Chechnya:cool:
Georgia declares state of war with Russia
TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia's parliament Saturday approved a request by President Mikhail Saakashvili's to impose a "state of war," as the conflict between Georgia and Russia escalated, Georgian officials said.
A burning appartment building, damaged by a Russian airstrike is seen the northern Georgian town of Gori.
1 of 2 Saakashvili accused Russia of launching an unprovoked full-scale military attack against his country, including targeting civilian homes, while Russian officials insist their troops were protecting people from Georgia's attacks on South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgian region that borders Russia.
Separatist-backed South Ossetian sources reported that about 1,600 people have died and 90 have been wounded in provincial capital Tskhinvali since Russian forces entered the territory Thursday.
Russia's Interfax news agency said the death toll was at least 2,000 killed in the capital of South Ossetia and claimed the city has been destroyed.
Georgia said the overall death toll would be closer to 100.
Georgian officials said Russia has mobilized its Black Sea fleet off the coast of Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian province.
Meanwhile, President George Bush, speaking from Beijing, called for an immediate halt to the violence, a stand-down by all troops, and an end to the Russian bombings. Watch Bush express concerns over situation »
The Georgian "state of war" order is not a formal declaration of war, and stops short of declaring martial law, according to Georgian officials who described it to CNN.
It gives Saakashvili powers he would not ordinarily have, such as issuing curfews, restricting the movement of people, or limiting commercial activities, those officials said.
It places the government on a 24-hour alert, said Georgian National Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaia during a conference call with reporters.
Saakashvili asked Western leaders to pressure Russia to agree to an immediate cease-fire, which he said his country would willingly observe first.
"We are dealing with absolutely criminal and crazy acts of irresponsible and reckless decision makers, which is on the ground producing dramatic and tragic consequences," Saakashvili said Saturday afternoon.
A White House spokesman said President Bush spoke Saturday evening to Saakashvili and Russian President Medvedev.
The war, Saakashvili said, "is not about South Ossetia. It has never been in the first place. It is about destroying a small democratic nation aspiring to live in peace, freedom and liberty."
"This unprovoked, long-time-ago-planned invasion and aggression must stop," he said.
Russia, with a population of 146 million, is trying to destroy his country of 4.6 million people, he said, comparing it to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
"I think what is at stake here is the post-Cold War order," Saakashvili said.
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Inna Gagloyeva, spokeswoman for the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee, told Russia's Interfax news agency that Tskhinvali was being "massively shelled" with artillery guns. Watch images of crashed Georgian war plane »
It was unclear which side was in control of that city on Saturday. The Georgians said fighting raged, but the Russians said they had "liberated" the city.
"Battalion task forces have fully liberated Tskhinvali of Georgian armed forces and started pushing Georgian units out of the area of responsibility of the peacekeeping forces," said General Vladimir Boldyrev, commander of the Russian Ground Forces, in an interview with Interfax.
Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, told a news conference that the Russian paratroopers will "implement the operation of enforcing peace" on both sides.
Nogovitsyn also confirmed that Georgians had shot down two Russian aircraft. Saakashvili said his military has shot down 10 Russian bombers.
Russia said the troops were also reinforcing the Russian peacekeepers already in South Ossetia.
"Our peacekeepers, along with reinforcement units, are currently conducting an operation to force the Georgian side to accept peace," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the Kremlin. "They are also responsible for protecting the population."
Interfax said 15 peacekeepers were killed in the Friday attack by Georgian troops. Russia has opened a criminal probe into their deaths, Interfax reported.
Georgia, a former Soviet Republic, is a pro-Western ally of the United States intent on asserting its authority over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. which both have strong Russian-backed separatist movements. Watch Georgian minister describe fighting in South Ossetia »
Russia moved troops into South Ossetia early Friday after Georgia launched an operation in the breakaway region when its unilateral cease-fire was met with what it said was artillery fire from separatists that killed 10 people, including peacekeepers and civilians.
Russia charged that Georgia had targeted its peacekeepers stationed in the region.
Medvedev said Saturday that Georgia must be held responsible for the situation in South Ossetia.
"The people responsible for this humanitarian disaster need to be held liable for what they have done," Medvedev said. He said the humanitarian problems were caused by "the aggression launched by the Georgian side against the South Ossetian civilians and Russian peacekeepers."
Russian officials said more than 30,000 refugees have left South Ossetia and crossed into Russia over the past two days, since fighting began, Interfax reported.
Maia Kardava, a Red Cross spokeswoman in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi was unable to provide refugee or casualty figures Saturday morning because she said aid workers were still gathering information and visiting hospitals in South Ossetia and western Georgia.
Russian forces bombed several targets in Georgia on Saturday, according to Kardava and the British Foreign Office, which advised against all nonessential travel to Georgia.
Russian aircraft bombarded military and civilian targets the port town of Poti, on Georgia's Black Sea coast, Kardava and British and Georgian officials said. Eight Georgians were killed in the port town, Georgian officials said.
In the town of Senaki, just inland from Poti, Russian forces damaged a railway line, a military base, and a center housing civilians who fled from nearby Abkhazia.
Military bases at Vaziani and Marneuli also came under attack, the British Foreign Office said, and Russian aircraft bombed the Georgian town of Gori, about 35 miles northwest of Tbilisi, Georgian officials said.
Inside South Ossetia, civilians have been without water, electricity, and basic services for more than a day, Kardava said. She said the Red Cross was unable to reach colleagues based in Tskhinvali because their phones had lost power and they were huddled in bomb shelters.
Also Saturday, the commander of Georgian troops stationed in Iraq said the 2,000 soldiers there will be withdrawn from Iraq "very soon."
Colonel Bondo Maisuradze said the United States would provide the transport to get them out of Iraq. He said he had no time frame for the move.
Saakashvili told CNN Friday that the troops were needed in Georgia to defend against the Russian military.
Munich, Germany 2007
I read your post, and it said that the US backs up the seperatists...which is false...georgia isn't seperatist...and south ossetia, which could be considered seperatist is backed by russia...
and my chechnya remark wasn't directed to you...but to some other poster before, since for many it doesn't seem clear what's a country and what is not...
m.
"As an internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
I wrote in my earlier post By "we" I meant Russian army. And by "separatists" I meant South Ossetia as most of the reporters call this small piece of land.
Didn't say a word about Georgia either.