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Originally posted by inimalist
link?

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Later, a spokesman for the Georgian interior ministry told the BBC that there had never been Russian troops in Gori.

He said the Russian Army had taken up a position just outside the town after destroying a military base and admitted the Georgian army had fled the area without putting up a fight.

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Originally posted by shiv
lol-fest

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Originally posted by lil bitchiness
Just listening to Russia Today. 100 kilometar long column of Russian tanks entered South Ossetia.

Just to add to what you said about ceasfir, Saakashvili called for ceasfire (which he broke to begin with) only after Russians pushed all his forces out of Tskhinvali.

This attack on Russia's soverginity, Russian citizens will cost Saakashvili dearly.

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Originally posted by chithappens
I hate that it normally takes months for journalists to be able to take a somewhat objective viewpoint.

It's sad honest professionals can't give us the real scoop until after the devastation has occurred.

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Tbilisi woke on Sunday to the news that many had feared. Russian jets were in the sky over the city and had launched an attack near the airport.

People had gone to bed worrying about what would happen next, maybe not all were able to welcome sleep.

In the end, locals reported jets dropped two bombs near an aircraft factory on the edge of the city, not far from the international airport.

The damage was small but the message was massive. This was the Russians telling Georgia, nowhere is beyond our reach.

...

No one voices criticism of Mikheil Saakashvili, the president, and his decision to launch an assault in South Ossetia, or the sudden withdrawal of Georgian troops from the conflict zone. Everyone we stop talks of Russian aggression.

One woman pointed at our very tall cameraman, Ben.

"It's like if he suddenly attacked me. He is big and I am small. Russia is big and we are very small. It is not a fair fight," she tells us.

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Up to 300 hundred people gathered outside the Georgian embassy [in Moscow] for an emotional protest.

"Send Saakashvili and Bush to the Hague" they chanted, many waving Abkhazian and South Ossetian flags. In amongst the crowd, members of pro-government youth movements lending their vocal support.

Many Muscovites view South Ossetians as brethren kin.

...

The US embassy has also been the target of demonstrations. Ordinary Russian's feel that Tblisi would never have committed itself to a large scale conflict had it not been allegedly propped up by Washington.

There has been no anger directed at the Georgian people a vast number of whom live in the capital. Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, shared this sentiment, calling the Georgian people "brothers".

...

Russian media

The vast majority of Russian news coverage of events comes from state run television stations that focus heavily on the humanitarian situation. Many of them have amazing access and pictures from the heart of the conflict zone, somewhere western journalists are not permitted to go.

It's clear an information war is being waged as well as one on the ground. All channels follow the government line that Georgia has committed genocide.

Returning from refugee centres in southern Russia, Putin called for a tribunal to be set up to try those guilty of killing civilians on the ground.

"All crimes have to be fixed and be analysed later" agreed Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president.

...

Moscow insists that if any kind of ceasefire is going to hold Georgia must mount and unconditional withdrawal of troops, cease hostilities and agree to a number of obligations - namely not to launch attacks on its breakaway regions again.

While many in the capital believe Moscow is in the latter stages of a "strategic win" the reality is that the Russian government cannot imagine long-term peace without regime change in Tbilisi, an indicator perhaps that a resolution to the conflict is still far away.

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Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, has ordered the military to cease its operations in Georgia and the breakaway regions of South Osetia and Abkhazia, according to the Kremlin.

But Georgia's prime minister has said on Tuesday that Tbilisi would need to see a signed peace deal before it would acknowledge any ceasefire.

"We will need more evidence, everyone in this situation needs a signed binding agreement," Lado Gurgenidze told the Reuters news agency.

...

"The purpose of the operation has been achieved ... The security of our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been restored," [Russian President] Medvedev said.

"The aggressor has been punished and suffered significant losses."

...

Advance halted

Temur Yakobashvili, Georgia's reintegration minister, confirmed that the Russian advance had stopped, but he said troops were not withdrawing.

"The Russians have halted their advance. There is no movement of Russian forces, but they are staying at their occupied positions," he said in a televised statement.

...

"It is clear that the Russians were waiting for international pressure to raise to a certain level, that they were then going to make their own decision based on their own assessment," he [Michael Binyon, a Russia analyst with The Times UK newspaper] said.

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"I think the Russian have also made their point - that they are the big power in the region and no one can tell them what to do." [Binyon]

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'Provocation' warning

A senior Russian military commander said that the ceasefire did not mean that all operations would be scrapped.

"If we have received the order to cease fire, this does not mean that we have stopped all actions, including reconnaissance," General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of Russia's general staff, said at a briefing.

...

Anatoly also denied that Russia had bombarded the town of Gori on Tuesday morning. A Dutch TV cameraman was reportedly killled and several civilians were injured as the town, about 60km from the capital Tbilisi, came under attack.

However, Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher witnessed the bombardment, which he said went on at regular intervals for at least two hours and hit both the town centre and Georgian military positions.

Gurgenidze said in a televised statement early on Tuesday that the central square of Gori had been hit and university buildings were on fire.

...

He also called on Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, to step down because Moscow would refuse to deal with him.

"I don't think Russia will feel like talking with Mr Saakashvili after what he did to our citizens," Lavrov said.

...

Russia said 2,000 civilians had been killed.

The United Nations refugee agency has said that the conflict in South Ossetia has displaced 100,000 people since it started late on Thursday.

The UNHCR said numbers supplied by both the Georgian and Russian governments indicated that about 30,000 South Ossetians had moved into North Ossetia and up to 12,000 had been displaced within South Ossetia itself.

A few thousand have also fled south from South Ossetia into Georgia proper, while another 56,000 people from the Gori region in Georgia have been displaced,the UN agency said, quoting figures from Georgian officials.

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International opinion may have been a factor in its decision to end its operation. But Moscow was, in any case, convinced that the West had the wrong opinion of who was the victim, and who was the aggressor.

To the Kremlin, this was a mission launched to protect the lives of civilians, and Russian service personnel, from an aggressor.

Much of Russian public opinion seems to share that interpretation of events.

...

As it went on though, it seems to have settled on two main objectives: one military, and one political.

"The logical conclusion is to destroy the military capacity of Georgia," Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said of the aims of Russia's campaign.

Now, presumably, Russia feels it has dealt a strong enough blow to the Georgian military. That objective has been achieved.

...

The unspoken political objective is the weakening, or perhaps removal, of Mikhail Saakashvili.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has denied that Russia had any intention to depose the Georgian president, while adding: "It would be better if he went."

...

But even before agreeing to take part in any talks, Russia has, in effect, imposed conditions: no negotiations with Mr Saakashvili, and no Georgian troops in South Ossetia.

Moscow feels it can dictate terms. It feels strong. It hopes it has left Mr Saakashvili, the man with whom the Kremlin had quarrelled so bitterly even before this conflict, feeling weaker.

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Originally posted by chillmeistergen
Jesus, what a mental thing to do. I honestly can't see NATO coming to the rescue on this one, though.

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Originally posted by Jovan
Why would NATO join in on the fight? Georgia has been promised membership... they're not a NATO member yet. So why start a fight about a country that's not yet member of your organization? It would be something totally different if they already were in it....