Russians put on 'peacekeeper' helmets?
Russian troops have begun a modest withdrawal from Georgia, but are "just changing hats" to make themselves look like peacekeepers, Georgia's Interior Ministry said Friday.Not enough attention has been focused on the failure of Russia's initial peacekeeping mission in south Ossetia. The Russian troops appear to have been there mere to protect the South Ossetia thugs who were attacking the ethnic Georgians in the region. They stood by while these thugs looted and burned Georgian homes after the invasion by Russia.Russia says its remaining forces are peacekeepers who will have pulled back into buffer zones outside two breakaway Georgian provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, by late Friday.
Russia also accused Georgia of violating a cease-fire, partly by conducting operations into South Ossetia earlier this week. Georgia denied the accusation.
Under the cease-fire agreement last weekend, the two sides agreed to establish peacekeeper buffer zones. But they are at odds over how far they should extend into Georgia from the provinces' boundaries.
Under previous agreements, Russian peacekeepers were stationed only inside the two provinces.
Russia's incursion into the former Soviet republic followed the launch of a Georgian campaign against the Russian-backed separatist territory of South Ossetia on August 7. Russian tanks, troops and armored vehicles poured into South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian territory, Abkhazia, the following day, advancing into Georgia across the administrative borders with those regions.
Watch more on Russia's withdrawal »
Georgia's Interior Ministry said Friday that Russian troops were no longer in control of Gori, a key city along the country's main east-west route.
A CNN producer outside the capital, Tbilisi, on Friday saw some Russian soldiers making slight changes to their military uniforms -- adding a white armband to appear as peacekeepers.
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The Georgian ministry said the Russian peacekeeper checkpoints were farther into the country than the peace agreement allowed.
The commander of Russia's land forces, Gen. Vladimir Boldyrev, said Russian peacekeeping troops would be stationed at posts that troops had been constructing since the invasion, some of them inside Georgian territory. Russia argues that it is allowed to expand its security zone under a 1992 agreement.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) believes the buffer zones should be 4 miles (7 km) wide.
Nogovitsyn confirmed Friday that the Russian military had suspended cooperation with NATO because of the rift over Georgia. He also questioned why ships from NATO nations had sailed into the Black Sea in recent days. He said German and Spanish ships were there.
Nogovitsyn said agents from Georgia's interior ministry used physical force to question two Ossetians about Russian forces on Monday. But Georgia denied the accusation, saying it had no presence in South Ossetia.
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It seems clear that the Russians' mandate as "peacekeepers" is suspect and should be withdrawn. They should be replaced by real peace keepers who do not have the conflict of interest that the Russians have demonstrated.
This is true.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the western journalist were not allowed to go into zones controlled by Russian troops (Reuters waited behind the check-point), Estonian journalist have always found the way have to get in "restricted area" and cover the situation.
International PK forces maybe a good idea, yet even the presence of the "biased and imposing" Russian military hadn't stopped Saakashvili & Co (the real "thugs", because they have resources) from launching a disgusting and "disproportionate" artillery barrage of the Osetian "thugs".
ReplyDeleteI think the right pick of the nationality (and even ethnicity) of the potential “international” peace keepers is crucial in the region. Americans, for example, would be a laughing stock and “pot shooting” targets. Nobody in sound mind respects them anymore. Légion étrangère could have been a more reasonable choice. But, alas, it’s not 1992, when the original agreement had been drafted to stop mad “southern“ bloodshed in the former USSR, when nobody in the West really cared, and oil was cheap.
Russia (circa 2008) definetely has resources to either:
1. Offer any Russian citizen residing in the region to relocate to Russia proper
2. Rebuild Tskenvali quickly and effectively, and pour billions of dollars into the region, (which Georgia simply doesn’t have.)
Being a bit familiar with Caucuses, I’d say that brutal force is the only thing many of those peoples really understand, be them Osetians, Abkhasians, Georgians, Armenians, Chechens, or Azeri.
Maybe rascals should be physcally punished if they start “acting up again“? Maybe that’s the only way to keep them in check? They do have that Balkan mentality, you know… What are you going to do?
There are several minor ethnic groups in that region. For example- ossetians fight against ingushes in early 90-s, to "clear up the territory". Ossetians came to the territory, where they live now, during the mongolian (Timur) invasion.
ReplyDeleteIn 19-th century during the Russian-Caucasus war the Tsarist authorities simply payed up the weak nobilty of ossetians. The difference is, that historically, for example, the abkhazians (another separist region in Georgia) have had their own state. Ossetians- never.
And in addition: the Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoitõ had high rank position in so called KOMSOMOL (Young communist League), worked in Soviet milita and in 1993 were published the documents, that he also worked for FSB ("heritage" of KGB)
ReplyDeleteurmas, what you wish to tell? You can designate any concrete point of view on a situation who from two countries, Russia or Georgia, have done more errors? I from Russia (the average inhabitant) and for this reason has come on a foreign resource more precisely to understand a situation. Because I know, that to our government to the full to trust it is impossible (also as quite probably and to Americans for the American government). But there are concrete facts and the fact that all has begun with Georgia, Georgia has started to solve problems in South Ossetia on means of the weapon and innocent people have suffered from it first of all. How in your opinion in this situation Russia should operate? Easier to stand aside?
ReplyDeleteurmas, what you wish to tell? You can designate any concrete point of view on a situation who from two countries, Russia or Georgia, have done more errors? I from Russia (the average inhabitant) and for this reason has come on a foreign resource more precisely to understand a situation. Because I know, that to our government to the full to trust it is impossible (also as quite probably and to Americans for the American government). But there are concrete facts and the fact that all has begun with Georgia, Georgia has started to solve problems in South Ossetia on means of the weapon and innocent people have suffered from it first of all. How in your opinion in this situation Russia should operate? Easier to stand aside?
ReplyDeleteurmas, what you wish to tell? You can designate any concrete point of view on a situation who from two countries, Russia or Georgia, have done more errors? I from Russia (the average inhabitant) and for this reason has come on a foreign resource more precisely to understand a situation. Because I know, that to our government to the full to trust it is impossible (also as quite probably and to Americans for the American government). But there are concrete facts and the fact that all has begun with Georgia, Georgia has started to solve problems in South Ossetia on means of the weapon and innocent people have suffered from it first of all. How in your opinion in this situation Russia should operate? Easier to stand aside?
ReplyDeleteI recon that no matter what is going to happen in the nearest future, Russians and Georgians at large have always been more than friendly and are going to be that way. Over a million Georgians are working in Russia, accounting for (don’t quote me on that – just a gossip from the press) about 25% of Georgia’s GDP in the form of “family support monies” sent back to Georgia’s relatives. Georgians died for the Russian Empire and the USSR, so did many Russians for Georgia. Saakashvili-boy is just a whip-snapping “young Turk” – he’s so history. He’s supported by far fewer Georgians than Putin & Co by the corresponding strata of the Russians.
ReplyDeleteThe Americans, with whom I had lived for so long and eventually came to HATE, are too naïve with their freaking “good intentions, little brains and information => tons of mess”, as a result of voting rights exercised by idiots. There’s nothing wrong in kicking some ass of a group of rascals of the delusional Georgians (less than 10%, by my account), who assembled a mob of “NATO/Israeli” trained little “army” with the crusaders’ crosses and little actual fighting ability.
It’s a FAMILY business. Bush so sucks in getting involved. “Hey, osafer! Nobody’s gonna get killed, okay? And if someone is – none of your … jurisdiction, moron. Fight terrorism with your 50K per annum ‘homelanders’, ok?”