The Amboy Times

Bush warns Russia, negotiations begin

Bush talks, Russia listens?

President Bush consulted Tuesday with fellow leaders in Eastern and Western Europe about the crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia while aides scrambled to evaluate a Russian promise to stop attacking its neighbor. The White House also rejected a Russian call for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to step down.

Earlier, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered a halt to its military action in Georgia, saying the campaign had brought security in its South Ossetia region that is close to Moscow.

According to my atlas, Moscow is over 1000 miles from South Ossetia, about the same distance as Berlin, another former Soviet satellite.

"The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. Its military has been disorganized," Medvedev said in a nationally televised statement.

His order came just hours after Bush's strongest statement on the fighting since it began at the end of last week. He demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from Georgia, end what he called a "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence, and accept international mediation to end the crisis. Bush said Russia's actions had "substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world."

With Georgia insisting that Russian forces were still bombing and shelling, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Tuesday it was too early to comment on Medvedev's move. "We are trying to get an assessment of what a halt means and whether it is taking place, of course," the spokesman added.

The Telegraph has excellent coverage of the Russian advance.

Now Russia wants to be rewarded for their aggression, and not with just South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia wants a buffer zone around these enclaves, from which all Georgian forces will be excluded, and is demanding that Georgia give a signed pledge never to use force in the regions again.

With his Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, Mr Sarkozy will now place these terms before President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia. After suffering five days of Russian onslaught, Georgia's beleaguered leader may have little choice but to agree.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Mr Sarkozy, the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, insisted his forces would remain in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "That has been the case and that will continue to be the case," Mr Medvedev said.

President Medvedev said the EU peace plan contained "good principles to settle the problem," but that Russia would also add proposals and that it was "up to Georgia now". He said that President Saakashvili, whom he described as a "lunatic," had lied about his side's respect for a ceasefire during the conflict.

Ceasefire?

However, over half an hour after Mr Medvedev gave his ceasefire order, The Daily Telegraph saw three Russian helicopters fire nine missiles at targets 25 miles north of Tbilisi. It was not immediately clear what they were shooting at.

"Despite the Russian president's claims earlier this morning that military operations against Georgia have been suspended, at this moment, Russian fighter jets are bombarding two Georgian villages outside South Ossetia," the Georgian government said.

Now the question remains, if Russia succeeds in it's quest for Georgian territory today, what's to stop the hungry bear from gobbling up more 'buffer zones' tomorrow?

Georgia Seeks US Help

The Russian blitz continues.

Times of London-As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”

A similar sense of betrayal coursed through the conversations of many Georgians here yesterday as their troops retreated under shellfire and the Russian Army pressed forward to take full control of South Ossetia.

Smoke rose as Russian artillery fire exploded less than half a mile from the bridge marking South Ossetia’s border with Georgia. A group of Georgian soldiers hastily abandoned their lorry after its wheels were shot out and ran across the border.

(...)

President Saakashvili of Georgia has ordered a complete ceasefire and offered talks to the Russians. Despite this, the sound of gunfire and shelling could be clearly heard along the border zone last night.

Terrified civilians have fled in their thousands, convinced that Russia will not stop at the border but sweep into Georgia. Some fear that the Kremlin is intent on establishing a buffer zone to guard South Ossetia against future incursions.

(...)

The Georgian Government is recalling its 2,000 troops serving in Iraq to confront the threat at home. Many Georgians will be reluctant to send them back after this war ends. Their despair was in sharp contrast to the confidence on the other side. At a base near the border, Russian peacekeepers appeared sure they would soon be joined by comrades from the regular army. “We are operating normally; nobody has disturbed us at all,” said one.

In Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, refugees from the fighting told how Russian helicopters bombed homes in Tshkinvali and neighbouring villages. Some spent days in basements before emerging to discover that their communities had been obliterated. Mzia Sabashvili, who hid for three days, said: “I know that lots of my neighbours are dead. I have no idea who is left.”

Bush Expresses Concern.

"I've expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia," Bush said in an interview with NBC Sports.

In turn, Putin criticized the United States for airlifting Georgian troops back home from Iraq on Sunday at Georgia's request.

"It's a pity that some of our partners instead of helping are in fact trying to get in the way," Putin said at a Cabinet meeting. "I mean among other things the United States airlifting Georgia's military contingent from Iraq effectively into the conflict zone."

Putin Continues to strike beyond South Ossetia.

The Georgian president said Russian warplanes were bombing roads and bridges, destroying radar systems Monday and targeting Tbilisi's civilian airport Sunday night. One Russian bombing raid struck the Tbilisi airport area just a half-hour before the EU envoys arrived, he said.

Georgia said another hit Friday near the key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which carries Caspian crude to the West. No supply interruptions have been reported and Russia denies targeting the pipeline.

While not addressing reports of the incursion near Gori, Nogovitsyn, the Russian general, said Russia had no intention to move deeper into Georgia. "We aren't planning any offensive," he said.

Previous, Georgia's president calls for Ceasefire, Russia Invades Georgia.

Michelle Malkin: Is Georgia in 2008 like Hungary in 1956?

GSGF is all over it, 'Completely Unacceptable' and Blitz Bear.

Georgia's President Calls for Ceasefire

The Russians claim they just want to help the separatists in South Ossetia. But if you look at the map, the attacks cover much of country, including pipelines that supply 1% of the world's oil supply.  It's hard to believe the Russia's superior forces couldn't secure South Ossetia without crippling the entire Georgian economy.

Daily Mail-Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili called for a ceasefire and accused Moscow of mounting an unprovoked invasion that put ‘the entire post-Cold War order of Europe and the world at stake’.

But Moscow said that the conflict could not be resolved unless Georgia withdrew from its breakaway region of South Ossetia. The alarming developments followed a second day of drama and bloodshed in the pro-Western country in which:

• Russian jets widened the offensive by bombing the central Georgian town of Gori – Joseph Stalin’s birthplace – in an attack on military targets that Georgian authorities claimed killed 60 civilians, and attacked the port of Poti.
• Georgia claimed that Russian troops had opened a new front by moving into another disputed province, Abkhazia, which has also suffered from ethnic tensions.
• Georgia declared a state of war, recalled all its 2,000 troops from Iraq and ordered a mass call-up with reservists being sent to the war zone to ‘defend the motherland’.
• Russia claimed that it had ‘completely liberated’ the capital of South Ossetia Tskhinvali – a claim denied by Georgia – after flying in elite troops in an operation Moscow said was intended to force Georgia into a ceasefire.
•  Georgia claimed to have shot down 12 Russian combat aircraft – but Moscow confirmed that only two planes were missing.
•  Georgia may pull its 35-strong Olympic team out of the Beijing games because of the Russian military attacks, the country’s National Olympic Committee said.

The Russians are asking the Georgian government to withdraw from their own territory.
(click to enlarge)


As you can see, the air strikes in Poti are about as far from South Ossetia as one can get, and Georgia's tiny military is grossly over matched.

Russia's invasion of Georgia strikes a blow to the West on many levels. In addition to the aforementioned oil pipeline, support in Iraq of 2000 troops, and attempts to join NATO make the tiny former province of the USSR an irresistible target for Putin.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has announced the recall of the country’s entire contingent in Iraq to return home to fight against Russia.  The Georgian President made the remarks at a Tbilisi meeting with members of the Georgian opposition.   Reports says Russian jets have bombed a Georgian town amid the deepening crisis over the breakaway South Ossetia region.

(...) the Georgian parliament has approved a presidential decree declaring a state of war for 15 days against Russia.

Meanwhile, at the Olympics...

In Beijing, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was seen to approach President Bush in the Olympic stadium, where they were attending the opening ceremony.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he witnessed a heated discussion between the two leaders.

‘The President and Mr Putin were in an animated conversation two seats in front of us and I imagine they had a few things on their agenda,’ he said.

Mr Putin later accused Georgia of seeking ‘bloody adventures’ and trying to drag other countries into a military conflict in South Ossetia.

‘Georgia’s aspiration to join Nato... is driven by its attempt to drag other nations and peoples into its bloody adventures,’ Mr Putin said during a meeting in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, some of which was shown on TV.

It appears the Russians are using a divide and conquer strategy to restore it's USSR borders.

Global Security-The military actions in South Ossetia are not just a confrontation between Georgia and its breakaway republic, says Viktor Mizin, a political analyst from the Institute of Strategic Assessment in Moscow. “What we see here is not just a confrontation of minor republics but probably the confrontation between, I am sorry to say that, Moscow and the entire West because now Russia is basically protecting its clients and its own citizens. Up to 80 per cent of South Ossetian population have Russian passports,” Mizin says.

GS also has background on Abkhazia.

Strategypage has more background and an update on the Russia/Georgia conflict.