F***ing Saakashvili.
Hey, Americans you can be proud your stinking pet dog got your lesson how to respect the international law very well.
They are killing Russian civilians and peacekeepers right now. This is an act of war. So, F*** you Misha.
Hey, Americans you can be proud your stinking pet dog got your lesson how to respect the international law very well.
Today, Georgia officially acknowledged regional Russian peacekeeper's HQ about starting of military actions against South Osetia. That was report from captain Vladimir Ivanov, PR aide of Joint peacekeeping forces commander in Georgian-Osetian conflict zone. He also mentioned that in current time peacekeeper's blocks are taking fire from Georgian troops.
Fiercest Fighting in Years Near Georgian Border
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: August 7, 2008
MOSCOW — Fighting in the border region between the former Soviet republic of Georgia and a breakaway Georgian enclave escalated sharply Friday morning to its highest level in years.
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NTV, via Agence France-Presse
Soldiers from South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgia enclave, on Thursday near Tskhinvali, where heavy fire was reported.
Georgian officials said their troops had made a significant incursion into the breakaway region, South Ossetia, in response to what the officials contended were provocations from over the border, including shelling. The Georgian officials said they had taken up positions outside the capital of the enclave, Tskhinvali.
At least 25 civilians and troops were killed in the fighting that started Thursday, officials from both sides said.
The move by the Georgian troops followed a day of attacks by both sides, as well as an offer from the Georgian president to agree to a cease-fire.
The Georgian side suggested that its troop movements were not intended as the beginning of an all-out push to retake the enclave, but were rather a defensive effort to prevent shelling from the other side.
The deaths were part of an intense, new round of fighting that has continued sporadically since last weekend, when six people in South Ossetia, the breakaway enclave, were killed and more than 20 were wounded on both sides.
South Ossetia has reported evacuating women, children and the elderly from the conflict zone, sending them north into Russia.
The United Nations Security Council called an extremely rare nighttime emergency session Thursday to discuss the situation after a request from Russia, according to Peter Van Kemseke, a spokesman for the Belgium mission, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month.
The recent violence has been the worst in the region since June 2004, shortly after President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia came to power vowing to reassert the country’s control over South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia.
The regions are internationally unrecognized but gained de facto independence from Georgia after wars in the 1990s. The regions settled into a tenuous peace monitored by Russian peacekeepers.
Upon taking power, Mr. Saakashvili challenged Russian pre-eminence in the region by seeking NATO membership and stronger ties with the West. His government has accused Russia of training and supplying separatist forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia under the auspices of its peacekeeping mission — accusations Moscow has denied.
Tensions escalated when Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February and was subsequently recognized by several Western countries. Russia, an ally of Serbia, had vowed to increase its support for Abkhazia and South Ossetia — a poor, mountainous territory between Georgia and Russia’s southern border — in retaliation.
Georgia and South Ossetia blame each other for starting the current violence.
“It does give off the appearance that the violence is linked to strategic moves by one or both sides to improve their positions,” said Ana Jelenkovic, an associate at the Eurasia Group, a political risk analysis consultancy.
In the violence this week, separatist fighters from South Ossetia used rocket-propelled grenades to blow up a Georgian armored personnel carrier, killing two soldiers and wounding six others, said Shota Utiashvili, a Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman. As many as eight Georgian civilians were killed Thursday in a mortar attack on Avnevi, a village in the border region, he said.
On the South Ossetian side, about 15 people were killed, according to the South Ossetian separatist government Web site. Another 20 were wounded when villages came under fire from Georgian positions, said Tamara Keleksayeva, a spokeswoman for the separatist government.
Potentially complicating matters, about 300 volunteers from Russia have arrived in South Ossetia to aid in the fight, she said.
A Russian diplomat on Thursday said envoys for Georgia and South Ossetia would negotiate on Friday to seek an end to the violence, the Interfax news agency reported.
Anne Barnard contributed reporting from Moscow, and Neil MacFarquhar from New York.
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: August 7, 2008
MOSCOW — Fighting in the border region between the former Soviet republic of Georgia and a breakaway Georgian enclave escalated sharply Friday morning to its highest level in years.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
NTV, via Agence France-Presse
Soldiers from South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgia enclave, on Thursday near Tskhinvali, where heavy fire was reported.
Georgian officials said their troops had made a significant incursion into the breakaway region, South Ossetia, in response to what the officials contended were provocations from over the border, including shelling. The Georgian officials said they had taken up positions outside the capital of the enclave, Tskhinvali.
At least 25 civilians and troops were killed in the fighting that started Thursday, officials from both sides said.
The move by the Georgian troops followed a day of attacks by both sides, as well as an offer from the Georgian president to agree to a cease-fire.
The Georgian side suggested that its troop movements were not intended as the beginning of an all-out push to retake the enclave, but were rather a defensive effort to prevent shelling from the other side.
The deaths were part of an intense, new round of fighting that has continued sporadically since last weekend, when six people in South Ossetia, the breakaway enclave, were killed and more than 20 were wounded on both sides.
South Ossetia has reported evacuating women, children and the elderly from the conflict zone, sending them north into Russia.
The United Nations Security Council called an extremely rare nighttime emergency session Thursday to discuss the situation after a request from Russia, according to Peter Van Kemseke, a spokesman for the Belgium mission, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month.
The recent violence has been the worst in the region since June 2004, shortly after President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia came to power vowing to reassert the country’s control over South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia.
The regions are internationally unrecognized but gained de facto independence from Georgia after wars in the 1990s. The regions settled into a tenuous peace monitored by Russian peacekeepers.
Upon taking power, Mr. Saakashvili challenged Russian pre-eminence in the region by seeking NATO membership and stronger ties with the West. His government has accused Russia of training and supplying separatist forces in South Ossetia and Abkhazia under the auspices of its peacekeeping mission — accusations Moscow has denied.
Tensions escalated when Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February and was subsequently recognized by several Western countries. Russia, an ally of Serbia, had vowed to increase its support for Abkhazia and South Ossetia — a poor, mountainous territory between Georgia and Russia’s southern border — in retaliation.
Georgia and South Ossetia blame each other for starting the current violence.
“It does give off the appearance that the violence is linked to strategic moves by one or both sides to improve their positions,” said Ana Jelenkovic, an associate at the Eurasia Group, a political risk analysis consultancy.
In the violence this week, separatist fighters from South Ossetia used rocket-propelled grenades to blow up a Georgian armored personnel carrier, killing two soldiers and wounding six others, said Shota Utiashvili, a Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman. As many as eight Georgian civilians were killed Thursday in a mortar attack on Avnevi, a village in the border region, he said.
On the South Ossetian side, about 15 people were killed, according to the South Ossetian separatist government Web site. Another 20 were wounded when villages came under fire from Georgian positions, said Tamara Keleksayeva, a spokeswoman for the separatist government.
Potentially complicating matters, about 300 volunteers from Russia have arrived in South Ossetia to aid in the fight, she said.
A Russian diplomat on Thursday said envoys for Georgia and South Ossetia would negotiate on Friday to seek an end to the violence, the Interfax news agency reported.
Anne Barnard contributed reporting from Moscow, and Neil MacFarquhar from New York.
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