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EU Demands an Immediate Stop to the Violence, U.S. Wants Russia to Stop It
The European Union is extremely concerned about the development of events in South Ossetia and is calling on all sides in the conflict to stop the violence in the region immediately, Reuters reports. “We are following this very closely, we are very concerned by how the situation is evolving,” an EU official told the information agency, who added that the EU is in contact with all interested international parties, including the United States, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
An American senator made a similar appeal earlier, although his interpretation of the events had a twist. Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) called on Russian peacekeepers to put an end to the military action. The world is watching Russia’s actions, and so Moscow should take immediate action to restore peace in South Ossetia, Biden said.
Biden also praised Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili for urging calm and restraint in the region. Clearly Biden, like many other American politicians, prefers to believe the official position of Tbilisi that South Ossetia began the military actions by attacking Georgian villages and Russian peacekeepers are helping the separatists.
Georgia informed the leadership of the Russian peacekeeping forces of the start of military actions in relation to South Ossetia on the night of August 7, calling the actions “an operation to restore the constitutional order in the Tskhinvali region.” At present, a fierce battle is underway in Tskhinvali. In the course of the military actions, Russian peacekeepers’ positions have been strafed. Preliminary information indicates that there are deaths and injuries among them.
www.kommersant.com
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