Russian armour breaches ceasefire

The Australian ^ | August 13, 2008

[Schnucki]

RUSSIA last night violated its ceasefire with Georgia, sending an armoured convoy deeper into the Western-aligned former Soviet republic less than a day after the deal was brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

About 60 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles left the key Georgian town of Gori and was headed towards the capital Tbilisi, 75km away.

Russian soldiers leaned out of the windows of the trucks shouting "Tbilisi! Tbilisi!'' and waving Russian flags, about 10km south of Gori, from where Georgian forces last Friday launched their offensive on the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

The move out of Gori is a violation of the truce requiring Russia to withdraw its troops to the positions they held before the conflict broke out last week.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accused Russian tanks of destroying buildings and shooting at people in Gori, the birthplace of Stalin.

"Russian tanks have moved into Gori. They have destroyed buildings, there has been looting by Russian troops. They were shooting people,'' he said.

``They were looting, taking furniture, toilet seats, computers, anything of value.''

Russia agreed on Tuesday to a ceasefire on terms that left Georgia and its Western backers weakened, and Georgia's borders potentially up for negotiation.

Declaring "the aggressor has been punished'', Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered his troops in separatist South Ossetia to hold fire, and agreed a six-point peace plan with Mr Sarkozy.

Russia and Georgia proclaimed a day of mourning for the dead after five days of fighting over South Ossetia, before the difficult task of fleshing out details of the EU-brokered peace plan.

The provisional peace pact agreed to by Mr Medvedev and Mr Saakashvili would see troops withdrawn to the positions they occupied before the fighting broke out. But the deal throws open for discussion the future of

[mgc1122]

A well placed and devastating arty and air strike on those Russians OFFICIALLY NOT there should put a pucker in Pooty Poot.

[Hazwaste]

Obviously Baghdad Bob is giving PR advice to the Russian government.

[The_Victor]

``They were looting, taking furniture, toilet seats, computers, anything of value.''

Toilet seats are an item of value?

[AppyPappy]

There are no Russian troops in Georgia. They are busy defending the brave people of Ossossopeepee from the Georgian storm trooping, baby eating infidels.

[Red Badger]

Sounds like the left hand doesn’t know what the farther left hand is doing.............

[RedEyeJack]

Yes, but... Where is the outrage? The liberals in this country are unconcerned. The conservatives are exhausted and gun-shy. This is a great opportunity for a 4th generational warfare attack but the press in this country seem to be OK with the “Ruskies” attack. They appear to be unwilling to accept Georgian claims of attacks on civilians... completely the opposite of the way they treat such claims by the Palestinians... I guess the Russians are the “good guys” for the MSM and the Israelis are not. Looks that way anyway.

[clamper1797]

The "Messiah" asked for a cease fire and ... of course ... we are honoring it.

[SampleMan]

Its clear that you are being pillaged by barbarians when they loot the toilet seats.

[Swiss]

Some Freeper with good graphic skills should take scenes from the movie “Mars Attacks!” and impose the Russians on it.

I am thinking of Putin’s face on the Martian leader. The part of the movie where the French try to negotiate a cease fire with the Martians would also work.

But the real killer would show the scene where the Martians are carrying the translating device telling the public that Martians want peace while they are shooting everything in sight.

Just a suggestion to our artists.