|
|
 |
Georgia Says It’s on Frontline of Cold War
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili addressed his nation last night and declared that, from now on, events in his country are not a Russian-Georgian conflict, but a conflict between Russia and the civilized world. He spoke on live television after calling a special meeting of Georgian Security Council. “What happened is the first case since Stalin and Hitler of a large country trying to annex the territory of a small neighboring state,” Saakashvili noted. “Russia has made a mistake that casts doubt on its role in the world. It is clear to all that this is not an internal conflict, not a question of Georgia’s relations with Russia. From now on, Georgian is the future of the entire civilized world.”
Saakashvili did not mention retaliatory measures in his speech. They did think about breaking off diplomatic ties yesterday, however. “That step is one of the protest measures in interstate relations,” said chairman of the Georgian parliament international affairs committee Lasha Zhvania. “Georgia has a legal base of that step.” He said that parliamentary consultations would be held first, and the parliament’s recommendations sent to the Georgian Foreign Ministry. Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told Kommersant that step may be taken very soon. “Moscow has missed its chance to resolve conflicts in a civilized manner,” he said. “If we don’t respond to Moscow’s challenge, the day after tomorrow, we’ll wake up to a world that no one likes, not even Russia.” He also expressed confidence that Georgia’s accession to NATO will be speeded up.
Meanwhile, Georgia is concentrating on restoring its combat-readiness. If Kommersant’s sources in the country’s defense ministry are reliable, the blow to the Georgian armed forces has been relatively minor. The ministry says that 130 people lost their lives as a result of military actions and about 700 were wounded. In the first days of the war, the Georgian forces were concentrated around South Ossetia. Tbilisi did not expect Russia to open a second front by sending troops through Abkhazia toward Senaki. During the active phase of the conflict, about 10,000 soldiers and officers were pulled out from Tskhinvali to Gori and, after the first strikes with Iskander missiles against that city, the Georgian forces were withdrawn to the approaches to Tbilisi.
“An oral gentleman’s agreement was reached between the commands of the Russian and Georgian armies,” recounts a source in the Georgian defense ministry, “that our forces would leave Gori and would not resist the advance of Russian forces from the west on Senaki, and Russian forces promised not to bomb or fire on those inhabited areas and not to move in the direction of Tbilisi, but to restrict themselves to confiscating the arms and ammunition remaining at the military bases of Gori and Senaki.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 27, 2008
|
|
|
