A good fascist/commie is a DEAD commie? Trust them at your own risk?
Russia to Complete Troop Pullback in Georgia Today (Update1)
By Helena Bedwell and Lyubov Pronina
Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Russian officials said a troop pullback to the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia will be completed today, leaving a group of peacekeepers in Georgia proper, and allowed access to the central city of Gori.
Before withdrawing, Russia placed a line of eight peacekeeper posts along the edge of a security buffer zone about seven kilometers (4.4 miles) inside Georgian territory from the South Ossetian administrative border. About 10,000 Russian soldiers were sent into Georgia, state-run news service RIA Novosti reported. The posts will be manned by 272 soldiers, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, told reporters in Moscow.
Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council, said ``Russian troops have removed checkpoints outside Gori'' and are pulling out of the city, a major crossroads between east and west Georgia that is located 40 kilometers outside the Russian buffer zone. He said the Russians haven't begun to withdraw from the Black Sea port of Poti.
Russia's pullback into South Ossetia may not satisfy Western leaders, including President George W. Bush, who have called for the full withdrawal of all troops that entered Georgia on Aug. 8. A Russian official said yesterday that bringing those forces home will take 10 days. Russia's first major foreign military operation since the collapses of the Soviet Union in 1991 has opened a rift with the West, and NATO in particular, which has frozen contacts with Russia.
Buffer Zone
``Russia's decision to keep troops in a buffer zone outside of South Ossetia is arrogance aimed at the Georgians,'' Jan Techau, a European and security affairs expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, said in an interview. ``The Western states don't want any violation of Georgian sovereignty.''
In addition to the eight posts in the buffer zone, Russian troops have placed a second line of posts on South Ossetia's border with the rest of Georgia, which will be manned by 180 men, for a total of 452 peacekeepers, less than the 588 deployed before fighting began.
``The buffer zones are legitimate and were created within the framework of existing agreements,'' Nogovitsyn said.
Russian peacekeepers have served in South Ossetia under a 1992 agreement with Georgia. Russia also has 2,142 peacekeepers in Abkhazia, another Georgian separatist region, under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate, Nogovitsyn said.
EU-Brokered Cease-Fire
The Russians have repeatedly said they are observing a cease-fire brokered by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency. The agreement, which ended five days of fighting between Georgia and Russia, calls for the withdrawal of Georgian and Russian troops, renunciation of the use of force, an end to all military operations and a commitment to making humanitarian aid freely available in the conflict zone.
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in Tbilisi today that the cease-fire is ``very fragile.''
The OSCE will send 20 military observers and seven armored personnel carriers into the conflict zone by this weekend, Stubb said. He called for calm and said ``there's absolutely no room now for skirmishes.''
`Ice Age'
Techau said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union would be the key Western actors in the Georgian crisis in the coming months. The United Nations is likely to play a secondary role, he added.
``There's currently a little ice age between NATO and Russia,'' Techau said.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said today that more than Georgia's chances of joining NATO is at stake. ``It's about the future of NATO,'' he said on the British Broadcasting Corp.'s ``Today'' radio show. ``Basically if NATO fails to come up with a united response, nobody is safe, even if they are in NATO.''
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Aug. 19 that ``business as usual with Russia'' is impossible ``under present circumstances and ruled out NATO-Russia meetings ``as long as Russian forces are basically occupying a large part of Georgia.'' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday said Russia won't ``slam the door'' on relations with NATO.
The future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is becoming a bone of contention between Russia and the West.
Legal Status
Bush has insisted that the two pro-Russian regions must remain a part of Georgia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Aug. 14 that Russia will support the regions' decisions about their legal status, but stopped short of formally recognizing them.
Both houses of Russia's parliament will discuss whether to recognize the two regions in special sessions on Aug. 25. Vadim Gustov, chairman of the CIS committee in the Federation Council, said the upper house will back their independence bids, RIA reported. The lower house, the State Duma, may also vote in favor of statehood. Gustov said that under the Russian constitution, the final decision lies with Medvedev, RIA reported.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia have cited Kosovo's Feb. 17 declaration of independence from Serbia as a precedent for their aspirations. Russia, an ally of Serbia, opposed Kosovo independence as illegal, while the U.S. and many European countries supported it.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Sochi via the Moscow newsroom at 7732 or [email protected]; Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi [email protected]
Last Updated: August 22, 2008 10:15 EDT
Russia to Complete Troop Pullback in Georgia Today (Update1)
By Helena Bedwell and Lyubov Pronina
Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Russian officials said a troop pullback to the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia will be completed today, leaving a group of peacekeepers in Georgia proper, and allowed access to the central city of Gori.
Before withdrawing, Russia placed a line of eight peacekeeper posts along the edge of a security buffer zone about seven kilometers (4.4 miles) inside Georgian territory from the South Ossetian administrative border. About 10,000 Russian soldiers were sent into Georgia, state-run news service RIA Novosti reported. The posts will be manned by 272 soldiers, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, told reporters in Moscow.
Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council, said ``Russian troops have removed checkpoints outside Gori'' and are pulling out of the city, a major crossroads between east and west Georgia that is located 40 kilometers outside the Russian buffer zone. He said the Russians haven't begun to withdraw from the Black Sea port of Poti.
Russia's pullback into South Ossetia may not satisfy Western leaders, including President George W. Bush, who have called for the full withdrawal of all troops that entered Georgia on Aug. 8. A Russian official said yesterday that bringing those forces home will take 10 days. Russia's first major foreign military operation since the collapses of the Soviet Union in 1991 has opened a rift with the West, and NATO in particular, which has frozen contacts with Russia.
Buffer Zone
``Russia's decision to keep troops in a buffer zone outside of South Ossetia is arrogance aimed at the Georgians,'' Jan Techau, a European and security affairs expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, said in an interview. ``The Western states don't want any violation of Georgian sovereignty.''
In addition to the eight posts in the buffer zone, Russian troops have placed a second line of posts on South Ossetia's border with the rest of Georgia, which will be manned by 180 men, for a total of 452 peacekeepers, less than the 588 deployed before fighting began.
``The buffer zones are legitimate and were created within the framework of existing agreements,'' Nogovitsyn said.
Russian peacekeepers have served in South Ossetia under a 1992 agreement with Georgia. Russia also has 2,142 peacekeepers in Abkhazia, another Georgian separatist region, under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate, Nogovitsyn said.
EU-Brokered Cease-Fire
The Russians have repeatedly said they are observing a cease-fire brokered by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency. The agreement, which ended five days of fighting between Georgia and Russia, calls for the withdrawal of Georgian and Russian troops, renunciation of the use of force, an end to all military operations and a commitment to making humanitarian aid freely available in the conflict zone.
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in Tbilisi today that the cease-fire is ``very fragile.''
The OSCE will send 20 military observers and seven armored personnel carriers into the conflict zone by this weekend, Stubb said. He called for calm and said ``there's absolutely no room now for skirmishes.''
`Ice Age'
Techau said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union would be the key Western actors in the Georgian crisis in the coming months. The United Nations is likely to play a secondary role, he added.
``There's currently a little ice age between NATO and Russia,'' Techau said.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said today that more than Georgia's chances of joining NATO is at stake. ``It's about the future of NATO,'' he said on the British Broadcasting Corp.'s ``Today'' radio show. ``Basically if NATO fails to come up with a united response, nobody is safe, even if they are in NATO.''
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Aug. 19 that ``business as usual with Russia'' is impossible ``under present circumstances and ruled out NATO-Russia meetings ``as long as Russian forces are basically occupying a large part of Georgia.'' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday said Russia won't ``slam the door'' on relations with NATO.
The future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is becoming a bone of contention between Russia and the West.
Legal Status
Bush has insisted that the two pro-Russian regions must remain a part of Georgia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Aug. 14 that Russia will support the regions' decisions about their legal status, but stopped short of formally recognizing them.
Both houses of Russia's parliament will discuss whether to recognize the two regions in special sessions on Aug. 25. Vadim Gustov, chairman of the CIS committee in the Federation Council, said the upper house will back their independence bids, RIA reported. The lower house, the State Duma, may also vote in favor of statehood. Gustov said that under the Russian constitution, the final decision lies with Medvedev, RIA reported.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia have cited Kosovo's Feb. 17 declaration of independence from Serbia as a precedent for their aspirations. Russia, an ally of Serbia, opposed Kosovo independence as illegal, while the U.S. and many European countries supported it.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Sochi via the Moscow newsroom at 7732 or [email protected]; Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi [email protected]
Last Updated: August 22, 2008 10:15 EDT
