Morphing to "buffer zone - no fly zone"
Not my usual media outlet, but some more in-depth coverage of the continued Russian legal offensive.
Quote:
Thursday, August 21, 2008
01:34 Mecca time, 22:34 GMT
Russia builds Ossetia 'buffer zone'
Russian troops are fortifying a "buffer zone" around the disputed South Ossetia region with eight military posts and a ban on Georgian aircraft, a senior Russian commander has said. Russia will also maintain a military presence around Abkhazia, another separatist region in the west of Georgia, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy head of Russia's general staff said in a televised news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/eu...346769471.html
Quote:
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
03:31 Mecca time, 00:31 GMT
Russia rejects UN draft resolution
Russia has rejected a UN Security Council draft resolution demanding full compliance with the Georgia ceasefire, saying the text did not fully reflect a peace plan agreed to on Sunday.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/eu...733542234.html
The full text of the Russian draft UN resolution seems simply to incorporate the text of the cease-fire agreement reported a while ago by the NY Times. So, there seems to have been some "interpretative" spin of the as-signed agreement by our side. Unfortunately, word games do not work well against a prepared adversary.
Quote:
TEXT-Russian draft Security Council resolution on Georgia
REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service
Aug 20, 2008 14:42 EST
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Following is the full text of a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Georgia circulated by Russia to council members Wednesday.
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=307562
Remember The Prague Spring?
It is the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Pact USSR led invasion of Czechoslovakia, which ended the Prague Spring, a human face to socialism. BBC Radio 4 is broadcasting some repeats of the news reporting, although I've yet to see any commentary in the main press / TV.
Note the similarities: small nation decides on a course of action and big neighbour disagrees. Uses force to end small nation's actions.
The 1968 invasion is one of my first political / history events that I followed and flew back from a holiday listening to live radio reports (when not in the air).
davidbfpo
Georgia "Buffer Zone" Updated
Quote:
Russia to keep 500 troops in Georgia buffer zone
REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service
Aug 21, 2008 07:29 EST
SOCHI, Russia, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Russia intends to keep 500 troops in a security zone surrounding Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.
"Tomorrow, 8 checkpoints will be established in the security zone in which 500 peacekeepers will be deployed, no more than that," Lavrov told reporters. "Other peacekeepers will be moved to South Ossetia, while other troops will be moved to Russia."
Lavrov did not specify how many troops Russia planned to keep in South Ossetia.
"I want to state this clearly and unequivocally that Russia is carrying out in full the six principles agreed between Medvedev and Sarkozy," he said. .....
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=308583
And, from the other side of the issue.
Quote:
Saakashvili says West must make Russia quit Georgia
REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service
Aug 21, 2008 15:37 EST
PARIS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The European Union and the United States should act to make Russian forces leave Georgia and stop further expansionism, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told a French newspaper on Thursday.
....
Saakashvili criticised the French-brokered ceasefire as "ambiguous and unclear" and said it left the Russians the room to do as they wanted on the ground.
"The result is that we now have to depend on the goodwill of Russia. The only forces on the ground are Russian. All we can do is make declarations," he said.....
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=309399
Hope is not a strategy. S's bottom line assessment is realistic given the totality of circumstances.
PS: "Hope" comment is not directed vs. Ron's discussion above. It is generally a comment on S's request to West, etc.
Poti, no doubt, is one of the foci ...
in the evolving story. Poti has a long history, which included the presence of significant Russian Black Sea Fleet elements until late 1998.
Quote:
On October 9, 1993, a war-torn Georgia had to legalize the Russian military presence in the country, and lease, among other military facilities, the Poti base to the Russian navy. However, Georgia continued, though fruitlessly, to claim the vessels formerly stationed at Poti as a part of a tripartite Russo-Ukrainian-Georgian dispute over the Soviet Black Sea Fleet shares.[14] By September 1998, the Russian military personnel had been withdrawn from Poti to then-Russian base at Batumi under a Russo-Georgian agreement signed earlier that year.[15]
[14] Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Newsline. Vol. 1, No. 42, Part I, 30 May 1997.
[15] Georgian Border Guards pressure Russian counterparts to leave. RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 2, No. 172 Part I, 7 (September 1998).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poti
While Poti became a depressed area post-1991, cracking an UAE invesrtment deal in May 2008 (hmm....) gave some future promise.
Quote:
Arab Times, Kuwait
Georgia lures Arab investors to build 'Black Sea Dubai'
POTI, Georgia, May 18, 2008 (AFP) - The port city of Poti has long symbolised Georgia's collapse, but President Mikheil Saakashvili sees potential for a Black Sea Dubai in its crumbling buildings and pot-holed streets -- and Arab investors are listening. ....
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/clien...=17042&ccid=18
Re: Poti, Abkhazia's proximity makes that area more important to Russia's Black Sea policy than South Ossetia (whose major import is as a salient to cut Georgia in two).
One might also keep in mind that Batumi to the south also has an autonomous history with Russian military links.
Quote:
Batumi was also host to the Russian 12th Military Base. Following the Rose Revolution, the central government pushed for the removal of these forces, and in 2005 an agreement with Moscow was reached. According to the agreement, the process of withdrawal was planned to be completed in a course of 2008, but the Batumi base was officially handed over to Georgia on November 13, 2007, ahead of planned schedule.[2]
[2] Russia Hands Over Batumi Military Base to Georgia. Civil Georgia, Tbilisi. 2007-11-13.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batumi
Finally, despite its limited lead, the following article from Bloomberg updates a number of different facets in the on-going Georgian political story.
Quote:
Protesters Chant `Russians Go Home' at Georgian Port (Update5)
By Helena Bedwell and Maria Levitov
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of Georgians chanted ``Russians go home'' at the Black Sea port of Poti today to protest checkpoints set up by Russian troops manning armored personnel carriers. ....
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...o&refer=europe
PS: Had problems with Arab Times link from this page (works fine from Google). Same story at
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.co...&news_id=33994