1.

U.S. SAYS RUSSIA USES 'DISPROPORTIONATE' FORCE
By Sue Pleming

Reuters
August 9, 2008

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN09481523

WASHINGTON -- Russia has used "disproportionate" force in the South Ossetia conflict with Georgia and must immediately agree to a cease-fire with Tbilisi, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.

Russia and Georgia came into direct conflict over South Ossetia this week after Tbilisi launched an offensive to regain control over the breakaway separatist region.

"The response has been far disproportionate from whatever threat Russia was citing," the senior American official told reporters in a conference call. "We are calling for an immediate cease-fire and a stand down of all troops."

The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record by the Bush administration, said Russia was using a giant strategic bomber capable of carrying 54,000 pounds (24,500 kg) of bombs and had launched ballistic missile attacks on Georgian territory.

"I cannot for the life of me imagine how that could be a proportional response," he said. "The only winning option for Russia is to cease the attacks."

President George W. Bush urged Moscow to stop bombing immediately, saying it marked a dangerous escalation.

The senior U.S. official said Russia, which would be isolated by its allies because of its behavior, must accept international mediation, which could include the United States.

"It is simply not acceptable to reject an offer of a cease-fire and international mediation," he added.

CEASE-FIRE CALL

Georgia called for a cease-fire on Saturday after Russian bombers widened their offensive to push back Georgian troops seeking control over South Ossetia.

However, the Kremlin said Russia had yet to receive any cease-fire proposal from Georgia. "The Georgian president has not sent any proposals to the Russian president though any channels," a Kremlin spokesman said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told reporters Moscow was ready to discuss the situation, including a cease-fire, with the Georgian leadership but named two conditions.

"One is the withdrawal of all Georgian forces from the conflict zone," he said. "And the second is an immediate signing of a binding agreement on the non-use of force . . . After that we could discuss all further issues."

Washington plans to send an envoy to join other international mediators in the region to help end the crisis, but the senior U.S. official said it was unclear when the American diplomat would leave.

Georgia is a close ally of the United States and has relied on military aid and training from Washington. Asked whether Washington would offer military assistance in the crisis, the U.S. official said: "We are not talking about anything beyond diplomacy at this point."

The United States has cautioned U.S. citizens over travel to Georgia and the breakaway regions and dependents of U.S. Embassy staff in the Georgian capital Tbilisi were being given help to leave, the official said.

The United States has pushed hard for Georgia to become a member of NATO despite the misgivings of many European allies and strong opposition from Russia.

"Many people speculate one of the reasons Russia has used this disproportionate force against Georgia is precisely because it does not want to see Georgia move towards NATO," the senior U.S. official said.

"That is an understandable perspective by Russia but it is totally unacceptable to us."

(Additional reporting by Oleg Shchedrov in Moscow; editing by Chris Wilson).

2.

HUNDREDS DIE AS GEORGIA WAR ESCALATES
By Mark Franchetti

Times (London)
August 10, 2008

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4493970.ece

MOSCOW -- The war over South Ossetia, the breakaway region of Georgia, appeared to be widening last night. Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, flew into the area from the Beijing Olympics as his forces seemed to be gaining the upper hand.

After another day of fighting in the rebellious province -- and Russian air force attacks that killed civilians in Georgia itself -- there were reports of fighting in Abkhazia, Georgia’s other separatist region.

Abkhazian leaders said they had launched air and artillery strikes on government forces with Russian air support.

In South Ossetia itself, separatist leaders claimed 1,500 had been killed, including many civilians, in the initial Georgian assault on Friday. They said tens of thousands had been displaced. Moscow claimed to have pushed Georgian troops from Tskhinvali, the region’s heavily damaged capital.

Russia admitted that two of its aircraft had been shot down; Georgia claimed 10. There were bodies in the streets of Gori, the Georgian town 25 miles from South Ossetia where Josef Stalin was born, after an attack by Russian warplanes.

Putin flew directly from Beijing to North Ossetia, on the Russian side of the border. There he made it plain that Moscow’s armed confrontation with Georgia is not simply about South Ossetia but also about its switch of allegiance to America.

“Georgia’s aspiration to join NATO . . . is driven by its attempt to drag other nations and peoples into its bloody adventures,” Putin said during a meeting in Vladikavkaz, the North Ossetian capital.

Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia’s pro-American president, accused Russia of launching a full-scale invasion.

In Gori, Russian air force jets bombed military installations but also hit civilian buildings. Western journalists saw apartment blocks in ruins, some still on fire. One reported scores of bodies and bloodied civilians. Elderly people, women and children were among the victims.

“I can’t understand their logic. Why are they bombing civilians?” said Nick Kipshidze, a local doctor. A Red Cross official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters news agency that he had counted 17 bodies at a local morgue.

President George Bush urged Russia to stop bombing immediately and last night Britain joined a diplomatic mission of European Union, US and Nato staff that was travelling to Georgia to try to broker a ceasefire. Officials, however, said options were limited.

3.

GEORGIA AND RUSSIA NEARING ALL-OUT WAR
By Michael Schwirtz, Anne Barnard, and C.J. Chivers

New York Times
August 9, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/world/europe/10georgia.html

--This article was reported by Michael Schwirtz, Anne Barnard and C. J. Chivers and written by Ms. Barnard.

GORI, Georgia -- The conflict between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia moved toward all-out war on Saturday as Russia prepared to land ground troops on Georgia’s coast and broadened its bombing campaign both within Georgia and in the disputed territory of Abkhazia.

The fighting that began when Georgian forces tried to retake the capital of South Ossetia, a pro-Russian region that won de facto autonomy from Georgia in the early 1990s, appeared to be developing into the worst clashes between Russia and a foreign military since the 1980s war in Afghanistan.

Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, declared that Georgia was in a state of war, ordering government offices to work around the clock, and said that Russia was planning a full-scale invasion of his country.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, eclipsing the authority of President Dmitri A. Medvedev, left the Olympics in China and arrived Saturday evening in Vladikavkaz, a city in southern Russia just over the border that is a military staging area. State-controlled news broadcasts showed Mr. Putin meeting generals, suggesting that he was in charge of the operations on Georgian soil.

Mr. Putin made clear that Russia now viewed Georgian claims over the breakaway regions within its borders to be invalid, and that Russia had no intention of withdrawing. “There is almost no way we can imagine a return to the status quo,” he said, according to Interfax.

Russian armored vehicles continued to stream into South Ossetia, and Russian officials said that 1,500 civilians had been killed in South Ossetia and that 12 Russian soldiers had died.

A Georgian government spokesman said that 60 civilians had been killed in airstrikes on the city of Gori. Each side’s figures were impossible to confirm independently.

Attending the Olympic Games in Beijing, President Bush directly called on Russia on Saturday to stop bombing Georgian territory, expressing strong support for Georgia in a direct challenge to Russia’s leaders.

“Georgia is a sovereign nation, and its territorial integrity must be respected,” Mr. Bush said in a hastily arranged appearance at his hotel in Beijing. “We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for the end of the Russian bombings.”

He said the United States was working with European allies to seek an international mediation. He noted that administration officials had been in contact with officials in both countries “at all levels of government,” though neither side has so far showed a willingness to compromise.

Mr. Bush referred particularly to attacks spreading beyond South Ossetia, a reference to the Russian airstrikes in parts of Georgia itself. “The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia,” he said. “They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis. The violence is endangering regional peace, civilian lives are being lost, and others are in danger.”

He discussed the fighting with Mr. Putin during a social lunch at the Great Hall of the People on Friday and again at the opening ceremonies. The White House did not disclose the details of what they had said.

The fighting, and the Kremlin’s confidence in the face of Western outcry, had wide international implications, as both Russian and Georgian officials placed it squarely in the context of renewed cold war-style tensions and an East-West struggle for influence on Russia’s borders. The East and West were stuck in diplomatic impasse, even as reports from both sides of heavy civilian casualties indicated that the humanitarian toll was climbing.

Georgian officials said their only way out of the conflict was for the United States to step in, but with American military intervention unlikely, they were hoping for the West to exert diplomatic pressure to stop the Russian attacks. The United Nations Security Council was meeting Saturday to discuss the crisis.

Civilians came under fire on both sides. Georgian troops shelled the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, with heavy artillery. Russian warplanes struck at least five Georgian cities. Witnesses said they struck a train station in Tsenakhi, two apartment buildings in Gori, and a port area in the Black Sea city of Poti. Each side said it was acting in self-defense.

President Medvedev said Russia was acting to restore peace in the Caucasus and protect its citizens and peacekeeping troops who had come under Georgian attack in South Ossetia.

Russian officials said that strong ties to the United States had emboldened Mr. Saakashvili, who wants to make Georgia part of NATO, into sparking the conflict by trying seize back South Ossetia. But there were signs that Mr. Saakashvili was feeling the limits of how much American help he could expect after signing up as an ally in Iraq.

Pentagon officials said late on Friday that the Georgian government had officially requested assistance in airlifting home the approximately 2,000 Georgian troops now in Iraq. The request was under review, and standard procedures would indicate that the United States government would honor the request, officials said.

Alexander Lomaya, secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, said only Western intervention could prevent all-out war. “We still believe that a unified and consolidated Western pressure and Western opinion can bring some fruit,” he said.

Mr. Lomaya said conflict arose because Russia sought to “thwart its neighbors’ movement toward Western society and Western values.”

“Russia has clearly decided to redraw the borders of the Eastern Europe map of the post-Cold War situation,” Mr. Lomaya said. “If the world is not able to stop Russia here, then Russian tanks and Russian paratroopers can appear in every European capital.”

In the early 1990s, he said, Russia began cultivating separatist movements along the outer limits of its territory -- in Moldova, Georgia, and the Baltic states -- in an attempt to consolidate its sphere of influence. Russia has funneled military and financial support to large ethnic-Russian populations in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russian officials, too, blamed outside meddling for stoking the conflict. In a news conference, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia said Georgian attacks on Russian citizens in South Ossetia “amounted to ethnic cleansing,” and reserved some of his harshest language for Georgia’s allies, referring at one point to “Mr. Saakashvili and his Western friends.”

He said Moscow had been working intensively with foreign governments, including Ukraine and, in particular, the United States. “We have been appreciative of the American efforts to pacify the hawks in Tbilisi,” he said. “Apparently these efforts have not succeeded.”

Georgian officials acknowledged they were taken by surprise by the intensity of the Russian response. “What we didn’t expect was that Russian troops themselves would enter Georgia, that Russian military equipment would bomb our cities in various parts of the country, that Russian soldiers would be shelling villages and positions of Georgian forces,” Mr. Lomaya said.

But Russia, too, found itself facing effective resistance from Georgia’s antiaircraft guns. A close ally of Mr. Saakashvili’s, Gigo Bokaria, a Parliament member, said Georgia was shifting its tactics to focus on air defenses.

In Gori, people cheered as they watched a Russian pilot eject from an airplane that was shot down. Georgian television later showed a pilot’s bloody helmet and said a pilot had been captured.

Georgian officials said that Russian warplanes had attacked the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, operated by British Petroleum, that carries oil to the West from Asia, but that the pipeline had not been struck.

Russian warplanes struck two apartment buildings in the city of Gori and clogged roads out of the area with fleeing refugees. Refugees also flowed out of the pro-Russian enclave of South Ossetia into Russia, where officials said 30,000 people had taken shelter.

Mr. Medvedev said that “those responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe in South Ossetia should be brought to justice, including before international law."

Russia acknowledged that Georgian forces had shot down two Russian warplanes, while a senior Georgian official said the Georgians had destroyed 10 Russian jets. The Russian Defense Ministry said 100 planeloads of airborne troops would be brought to southern Russia and marched into the “zone of hostilities.” Georgian officials said at least 2,500 Russian troops were already in South Ossetia.

On Saturday, Russia notified Western governments that it was moving elements of its Black Sea fleet to Ochamchire, a small port in the other disputed enclave of Abkhazia, a senior Western official said.

A senior Western official said that Russian ships were moving toward Georgia’s Black Sea coast to land ground troops, and that 12 Russian jets were bombing the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia.

The de facto government of pro-Russian Abkhazia asked United Nations peacekeepers to leave their posts in the Kodori Gorge, a small mountainous area that Georgia had reclaimed by force in 2006. The peacekeepers withdrew, and aerial bombardments of the gorge began soon after, the official said.

“The record is crystal clear,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Russia has launched a full-scale military operation, on air, land and sea. We have entered a totally new realm -- politically, legally, and diplomatically.”

Mr. Lomaya, the Georgian security official, said that 50 Russian warplanes had flown over Georgia on Saturday, a tenfold increase over the number of sorties seen Friday.

The Russian authorities said their forces had retaken the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, from Georgian control during the morning hours, while Georgian officials said they had withdrawn from the area voluntarily. But heavy fighting resumed there later Saturday, with Georgian tanks and heavy artillery attacking the city from the south, Russian television reported.

Twelve Russian troops were killed, according to Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a colonel general in the Ministry of Defense. General Nogovitsyn was asked whether Russia was in a state of war with Georgia, but he denied that. Russian officials said their forces had entered Tskhinvali to aid Russian peacekeepers based there who had come under sustained fire from Georgian troops on Thursday.

He said Russia had 12 servicemen dead, about 150 wounded, and 22 evacuated to a military hospital, and that 15 of the casualties were Russian peacekeepers. He denied that Russians had hit civilian targets. “We don’t carry out hostilities against populated settlements and civilian objects,” he said. “I know this information and statements of the Georgian side but we currently don’t confirm it.”

Along a military highway entering Georgia from Russia, military transport vehicles were backed up for several miles; witnesses saw armored personnel carriers, truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns, and tanks stretching as far as the eye could see. They were flying both Russian flags and plain red flags, and the mood was buoyant.

“I am going to help our people,” said Zelimkhan Gagiev, 27, an irregular fighter in a maroon four-wheel drive who said he had family trapped in Tskhinvali. “If I can I’ll fight to the death.”

The columns were headed to the Roki Tunnel, cut through a ridge of mountains to give access to South Ossetia. Asked whether Georgia and Russia were headed for war, a soldier from Rostov, who gave his name as Alexei, grinned. “If there is, it won’t last long.”

Refugees flowed in the other direction along the single road connecting Tskhinvali to Vladikavkaz, in southern Russia.

Zema Vazhenina, 26, described three days spent stuck in her home while the walls and ceiling shook from shelling. When she finally emerged, she said, “it looked like the end of the world.”

--Michael Schwirtz reported from Gori, and Anne Barnard from Moscow. Reporting was contributed by Ellen Barry from Moscow; Andrew E. Kramer from Tbilisi, Georgia; Matt Siegel from Vladikavkaz, Russia; and Steven Lee Myers from Beijing.