Posted on 08/10/2008 11:34:45 AM PDT by kellynla
TSKHINVALI, Georgia (Reuters) - Russian troops and tanks took the capital of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia on Sunday after a bloody three-day battle as Georgian forces retreated and offered a ceasefire.
Russia ordered in soldiers and bombed Georgian targets after Tbilisi attempted on Thursday evening to retake South Ossetia, a small pro-Russian province which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.
The United States, Georgia's main ally, condemned Moscow's military action and warned that any further escalation could have a "significant, long-term impact" on relations.
It called on Russia and Georgia to cease hostilities and return to their pre-conflict positions, under which Moscow acted as a peacekeeper in South Ossetia.
A Reuters photographer entering Tskhinvali with Russian troops saw the bodies of Georgian soldiers lying in the streets and the ruins of buildings devastated in the fighting.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry said it had told Russia on Sunday evening that it was ready "to immediately start negotiations" on a ceasefire and an end to hostilities.
Russia confirmed it had received the note but said Georgia had not stopped hostilities and continued to shell South Ossetia. Georgia accused Russia of again bombing a military airport on the outskirts of Tbilisi on Sunday evening, after the ceasefire offer.
In a possible opening of a second front in the conflict, Georgia accused Russia of starting a military operation earlier on Sunday in Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia to the west of South Ossetia. Moscow denied involvement.
The crisis has alarmed the United States, Georgia's main ally, and unnerved investors in Russia, who sold stocks and the rouble heavily on Friday on concerns the conflict could spiral.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Georgia will be assimilated by Russia. Resistance Is Futile. The Russian Federation is once again the Russian Empire.
I think we’ve paid (and continue to pay) Russia something like 750 million dollars to reduce/destroy their arms — maybe Washington should have been more specific how this should be accomplished.
I fear you may be right.
Seriously! And the US has absolutely no threat power right now. Putin probably laughed out loud at that!
I wonder if a good approach for Bush is to send American Troops to Gori.
When Russia complains say, no worries, we know that Russia doesn’t intend to invade Georgia proper, so they are safe.
Of course, if any of them were hurt, all your planes and ships are ours.
Kiss those tanks good by too.
We need to make it a tough choice for them.
Putin is hardly laughing. With oil prices and RTS (Russian stock exchange) stocks crashing, absolutely no support from the world including even his friends re Ossetia matter (it’s entirely internal to Russia, and distraction from their own issues), he wants this to be diffused as soon as he can - it’s a huge drain on [his limited] ground military resources (not to be confused with selling weaponry to the few “friendly” countries still left to buy them). Investment in Russia, not surprisingly, has been steadily drying up in the last two years because of government’s thuggish behavior (Yukos, BP etc. etc.) Just like his current gambit with Cuba, he is desperately trying to just hold on to some vestiges of Russian “empire” to have market / exports influence (beyond natural resources) which has seen significant shrinkage, most recently with Iraq and North Korea fallouts, and with a world-wide embarrassment of its protective systems in Syria.
And Putin understands he can’t “hold” part of the Georgian territory, separation of which is not and will not be recognized by any country or organization in the world, in another country. And he has nothing to gain from “having” it, it’s not early 19th century. He doesn’t need yet another weak “client” he needs to feed and support, with no strategic value whatsoever. He is doing this to show that he is ‘da man’ and that his “friends” can rely on him for support (native Ossetian language is a dialect of Eastern Iranian languages, not Farsi), but beyond that the last thing he needs is his own “hot” war, especially in areas with significant Muslim population. He also doesn’t want more native South Ossetians migrating north to Russia.
Chechnya, at least, is a part of Russia, and mostly Russian-speaking. While it has not been widely discussed, Putin benefited significantly in Chechnya from al-Qaeda having to shift most of their financial and personnel resources to the “war” in Iraq.
Despite all the natural and usual bluster, Putin knows he needs to extricate himself from South Ossetia situation. He can’t afford escalation, there is nothing for him to “win”, even if he wants and will try to portray it as that. Of course, he didn’t mind using this opportunity to bomb the pipeline to make his oil more precious.
Unfortunately, we shouldn’t expect anything decisive from President Bush. He is a lame duck, as he said, “I’ve only got a few months left.”
However, even if he had a few years left, I don’t think he would do anything to offend his “soul-mate” Putin.
Close the Roki Tunnel. Cut off the Russians. Put a Fighter Squadron from Turkey over Georgia to defend Georgias airspace, and send Airborne Troops to contain Russsians in Georgia. The Russians are out on a limb here. Lets chop it off.
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