13.08.2008 Georgia, Tbilisi. A soldier is seen in front of the building where a joint conference of the Presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland was held.
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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Saakashvili’s Sabre-rattling
// Georgia claims Russian forces destroy its military facilities
Yesterday Tbilisi made several charges against Moscow. Mikhail Saakashvili stated that Russia broke the reached ceasefire agreements and didn’t abandon its intention to topple the incumbent government. Then the Georgian authorities reported that Russia’s tanks passed Gori and moved in the Tbilisi direction destroying all military facilities on their way. Russia denied that data. Kommersant correspondent Vladimir Solovyov, who spent the whole day in Mr Saakashvili’s Tbilisi residence waiting for Russia’s tanks to arrive, thought that even if they existed, they would only help the Georgian leader.
Anti-soviet allies
Yesterday Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili lashed out Moscow once again. During a briefing in his residence he stated that Russia doesn’t stick to the ceasefire agreement. Moreover, it moved its heavy artillery in Gori.
“We tried to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with President Sarkozy, and we don’t fire any longer. But the Russians enter our towns and fire nonetheless. They sank our ships in Poti. There are cleansings in Georgian settlements,” Mr Saakashvili said.
Besides the journalists, the Presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Poland Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Valdas Adamkus and Lech Kaczyński, as well as Latvia’s Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis attended the briefing. They had come to Tbilisi the day before by car from Azerbaijan (they didn’t venture to get to Georgia by plane) to give their support to Mikhail Saakashvili. Ukraine’s leader Victor Yushchenko, who had also come to support his friend, departed in the morning.
“I don’t understand it!” President Saakashvili was perplexed.
The Georgian leader, who had negotiated a conflict settlement plan with his French opposite number Nicolas Sarkozy, really looked confused. Late on Tuesday it seemed that France managed to defuse the tensions. The six-point peace plan was approved of by Moscow and Tbilisi with a few amendments – a provision envisaging that after the end of the conflict the world community must begin discussing the status of the breakaway republics on the territory of Georgia was excluded on Georgia’s request. But no sooner had Nicolas Sarkozy returned home triumphantly than it got clear that the desired peace didn’t come.
The allies of the Georgian President had their own answers to the questions posed.
“It’s not the first time Russia demonstrates its real face. Why does it believe it can impose its will on everyone else?” President Kaczyński stated. “Who gave Russia the right of this kind?”
“The occupation forces must leave the territory of Georgia,” Valdas Adamkus insisted. “Europe must avert another Munich.”
The rest of Mikhail Saakashvili’s guests expressed similar views. Then they left Georgia together.
The Elusive Avengers
Meanwhile, the information we got from Gori was controversial. First journalists reported ten Russian tanks; then the number grew to fifty. Georgia’s TV channels broadcast armored machines in the city and on its outskirts. However, the distance was so long that it was impossible to distinguish who it belonged to. Suddenly Russia’s flag briefly appeared on the screen, but it was turned upside down for some reason. The West’s CNN and BBC, which also broadcast what was happening in Gori, showed the military very closely. One of them, a young swarthy soldier even said in Russian in the camera, “Russia wants no war.” However, despite the multitude of journalists in Gori, they seemed unable to follow the moving of Russia’s armored vehicles. It would appear near Tbilisi, and then it would return to Gori again.
In the evening the local media reported the tanks had gone away destroying Georgia’s military machines, which were located near the Orchossani settlement not far from Tbilisi. Simultaneously we received information that Russia’s forces acted the same way at the military base in Senaki. Allegedly, computers were taken away from that base, and the weapons were blown up.
“Russia doesn’t care about all these documents,” Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze claimed in despair. “They have no opportunity to topple the regime, and they decided to deprive us of the army. It was plotted to temporize and incur heavy losses upon us. But they shouldn’t celebrate their success – we’ll build everything anew, and it’ll be better than we had.”
The information about the invasion of Russian tanks into Georgia became the key news of the western mass media. Moscow denied this data however. Mikhail Saakashvili was on air all day long. During a live CNN broadcast he reiterated that Russia’s true aim is destroying the economy of his country, toppling the government and terrorizing the population.
“The Russians want the entire Georgia, why should they stop and follow the truce principles?” he wondered.
At the end of the interview the Georgian President was asked about Georgia’s assault on South Ossetia.
“We fired at the military who had fired at us. It was Russia’s bombs that destroyed Tskhinvali,” Mr Saakashvili claimed without batting an eyelid.
Vladimir Solovyov
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 14, 2008
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