United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced "the decision to end the operation to force Georgian authorities into peace" on Tuesday, though the situation on the ground remained unclear.[1] -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Medvedev in Moscow and then continued on to Tbilisi to meet with Georgia's president — Georgia rallied international support, as "NATO ambassadors meeting in Brussels blasted Moscow for 'an excessive, disproportionate use of force,' and renewed their support for Georgia to ultimately join the military alliance," and "the leaders of Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states travelling to Tbilisi where they addressed a mass rally." -- Bloomberg News reported that unnamed "senior U.S. officials" told a reporter that "NATO should affirm the potential of Georgia and Ukraine to become alliance members in the face of Russia's incursion into Georgian territory."[2] -- As for the settlement under discussion to end the conflict, Russia's foreign minister said that "an absolutely binding condition" is "that the Georgian side is to pull back its forces not only from South Ossetia, but also from other areas of Georgia from which they can shell and bomb the region," Reuters said.[3] -- An Al Jazeera correspondent said that on Tuesday Moscow became "a hotbed of diplomatic activity", with "traffic [coming] to a standstill [on Moscow's boulevards] as official cars screamed by at high speed."[4] -- Neave Barker said the Russian media were propagandizing the public. -- An early Wed. morning Moscow Times report said that the Russian and French presidents agreed on "a six-point legally binding document that Georgia will have to sign for an international peace plan to work."[5] -- "'If the Georgian side will really be ready to sign this and withdraw troops to their initial positions [and] follow through on everything that is stated in these principles, then a path to the gradual normalization of the situation in South Ossetia will be open,' Medvedev said at a joint news conference after the talks [with French President Sarkozy]." -- The Medvedev-Sarkozy talks, in which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also participated, went on longer than expected, Anatoly Medetsky and Anna Smolchenko reported. -- "When asked why the talks went so long, a senior Russian diplomat who participated in the meeting said only that the leaders had agreed on everything long before they emerged to speak with reporters and had in the remaining time 'told jokes about women.' The diplomat did not smile as he spoke, and it was unclear whether he was joking." -- "Sarkozy headed for Tbilisi where he was prepared to spend the night talking to Saakashvili. 'The night is young,' he said." -- But Russia is refusing direct talks with Georgian President Saakashvili. -- "'Saakashvili can no longer be our partner, and it would be better if he stepped down,' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday." ...

MOSCOW -- President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to Russia's military onslaught against Georgia, but the Tbilisi government reported new attacks as it gathered international support to curtail Moscow.

In announcing the move, Medvedev declared that "the aggressor has been punished and suffered significant losses."

"I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian authorities into peace," Medvedev told defense chiefs at a meeting on the South Ossetia conflict, though he warned any attacks by Georgia would be "liquidated."

Russian troops and tanks poured into Georgia on Friday after the Georgian army launched an offensive last week to regain control of South Ossetia, the Moscow-backed region which broke away from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

But NATO ambassadors meeting in Brussels blasted Moscow for "an excessive, disproportionate use of force," and renewed their support for Georgia to ultimately join the military alliance.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Russia's decision to stop its military advance in Georgia "is important but it is not enough," urging both sides to withdraw to their pre-conflict positions.

Georgia said several villages were bombed after Medvedev's announcement. Russia's military angrily denied the claim and said Georgian soldiers were still firing at its troops.

Russian troops and artillery also moved into Georgia's Mestia region near another separatist province, Abkhazia, in the west of the country, the secretary of Georgia's National Security Council told AFP.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Russia that the United States "stands for the territorial integrity of Georgia" and backs its democratically elected government.

But she said the top priority was that "those military operations really do, now, need to stop because calm needs to be restored," she said in Washington.

Before Medvedev's announcement, warplanes bombed the city of Gori, Georgia's security council said. The city's central square was hit and a Dutch cameraman and a Georgian journalist were killed, officials said.

Russian forces moved briefly into the western city of Senaki on Monday and destroyed a military base, officials said. They also entered Georgia's main Black Sea port of Poti.

In a show of defiance to the Russian attacks, 100,000 people packed the main Rustaveli avenue of Tbilisi, where a sea of red-and-white Georgian flags waved above the crowds.

President Mikheil Saakashvili told a rally that Georgia would quit the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet states, and urged Ukraine to follow suit.

Georgia has received strong support from other former Communist states with the leaders of Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states travelling to Tbilisi where they addressed a mass rally.

"Our visit is a sign of the solidarity of our five countries with the Georgian nation, which has been a victim of aggression," Polish President Lech Kaczynski told reporters en route to Georgia.

Georgia issued a statement saying it wanted to take Russia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for "alleged acts of ethnic cleansing" between 1993 and 2008, starting with the period when Russian peacekeepers entered Georgia's breakaway regions.

Efforts to find a diplomatic way out of the crisis were led Tuesday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who travelled to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart about a European proposed peace plan.

Sarkozy told Medvedev his announced ceasefire was "good news" but that it had to be implemented.

Russia and France agreed on the need for international talks on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as one of six principles for ending the conflict, Medvedev said after his talks with Sarkozy, who is now in Tbilisi to meet with the Georgian side.

A halt to military action and a return of Georgian and Russian troops to their positions before the conflict erupted were also pre-conditions, the two leaders agreed, according to Medvedev.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said all sides must look to a long-term solution to prevent future tensions.

"We cannot continue with a situation where hostilities are likely. We must bring them to an end by having a permanent solution to the problem," Brown said.

Russia claims the conflict has left more than 2,000 civilians dead, while the United Nations estimates some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes.

The Georgian health minister Tuesday put the death toll in Georgia at 175 people, mainly civilians.

British energy giant BP said it has closed two oil and gas pipelines -- the Baku-Supsa and South Caucasus gas pipeline -- in Georgia because of the conflict.

Georgia accused Russia of targeting the key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which BP operates and runs through Georgia. Moscow denied the claim.

WASHINGTON -- NATO should affirm the potential of Georgia and Ukraine to become alliance members in the face of Russia's incursion into Georgian territory, senior U.S. officials said today in Washington.

Russia shouldn't regard the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's consideration of Georgia and Ukraine a threat, according to the Bush administration officials, who spoke to reporters on the condition they not be identified. The prospect might even help focus attention on resolving ethnic divisions such as those that prompted the conflict in Georgia, they said.

NATO adopted a statement at its April summit in Bucharest, Romania, eyeing the two former republics of the Soviet Union as future members. That fell short of a U.S. goal to overcome objections by Russia, which isn't a member of the alliance, and put Georgia and Ukraine on a fast track to entry.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN today that his government is dissatisfied that the U.S. has been "propping up" Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in the past few years and selling his government arms.

A NATO exercise planned with Russia is unlikely to occur because of the crisis in Georgia, the American officials said.

Russia promised to pull back troops from Georgia under a European Union-mediated peace plan after President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt today to a five-day offensive in the former Soviet neighbor. Fighting and Russian troop movements continued for hours after Medvedev's early afternoon announcement.

Russia may feel pressure from other countries to return its forces to their positions on Aug. 6, before the armed conflict broke out, while deferring the issue of Russian and Georgian peacekeepers in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the officials said.

Diplomats in contact with Russia say Moscow has said it doesn't want to stay in Georgia, the U.S. officials said. Russia hasn't sent troops into the capital Tbilisi as the Soviet Union did in Prague and Budapest during the Cold War probably because the Russian government is more concerned than in the past about its standing in world bodies such as the Group of Eight industrialized nations, the officials said.

Russia must stop treating its neighbors as "subordinate provinces" and should draw a lesson from China, which is building its power in Asia "carefully and patiently" and with a partnership approach to other countries, former U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski told Bloomberg Television.

The U.S. officials said that once violence stops in Georgia, the mediators and all sides in the conflict can discuss what kind of international peacekeeping forces might be established in the separatist regions, the officials said. They added that Russia must recognize Georgia's territorial boundaries and sovereignty as part of any resolution of the underlying conflicts.

--To contact the reporter on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net

MOSCOW -- Moscow will agree to peace with Georgia if it removes its troops far beyond the borders of South Ossetia and signs a legally binding promise not to attack it, Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- in Moscow to mediate -- agreed on principles aimed at putting a stop to five days of conflict over Georgia's tiny separatist province.

They included a ceasefire, a pledge to renounce force, free passage for humanitarian aid, and the withdrawal of troops to their bases. The need to determine the future status of South Ossetia, which seeks full independence, was also mentioned.

"These principles either reflect Russia's demands to the Georgian leadership or its intentions concerning the pace and aims of its peacekeeping operation in South Ossetia," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after they were announced.

Lavrov made it clear that Moscow sought tough terms -- the non-use of force and a troop pullout were core demands, he said.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's pledge not to attack the province, made after talks with the French and Finnish foreign ministers in Tbilisi on Monday, was not enough, Lavrov added.

"So far this has only been fixed in an informal political form," he said. "It requires the signing of a legally binding treaty on the non-use of force. This is a key point."

Georgian troops, which pushed into South Ossetia to restore Tbilisi's control after 16 years of self-proclaimed independence, should leave the border zone, he added.

"This is an absolutely binding condition that the Georgian side is to pull back its forces not only from South Ossetia, but also from other areas of Georgia from which they can shell and bomb the region," Lavrov said.

Lavrov was confident that Sarkozy, who flew to Tbilisi in the evening, would persuade Saakashvili to back the plan.

But he said Russia, which ordered its troops in the province to halt fire on Tuesday, was ready to be firm.

When asked what would happen if Georgia failed to back the plan, Lavrov said: "We will be forced to take other measures to prevent any repetition of the situation that emerged because of the outrageous Georgian aggression."

[Russia's president has halted a five-day military operation in Georgia as EU representatives flew to Moscow to propose a peace agreement. -- Al Jazeera's Neave Barker was in Moscow, as Russian media conveyed the president's ceasefire order.]

The Russian capital is a hotbed of diplomatic activity as E.U. delegates and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, convey Brussels' call for a brokered peace.

Along Moscow's boulevards, traffic came to a standstill as official cars screamed by at high speed.

Pre-empting a squeeze from the international community, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, announced an end to hostilities in Georgia.

Russian State television channels are awash with reports about the humanitarian crisis in southern Russia, as thousands of refugees spill over the border.

It has been hard for us to get independent information directly out of South Ossetia as many non-Russian journalists were denied access early on in the conflict, but as our colleagues at news agencies and elsewhere make bold attempts at crossing the border, it's becoming more and more apparent that there has been a devastating loss of life.

Other Russian TV reports, in what is an obvious information war, struggle to remain relevant.

On one Russian Channel a journalist analysed Saakashvili’s body language -- slowly dissolving an image of the president into one of Adolf Hitler.

The report showed a graphic of the Georgian president's head. The flare of Saakashvili's nose, the journalist said, showed a lust for money, the glare in his eye, a hunger for power.

It's hard to see how a phrenological interpretation of the leader's face will add to our greater understanding of the violence.

However, the report is a clear sign of the intense suspicion with which many Russians view -- or at least are encouraged to view -- the Georgian leadership.

SARKOZY CLINCHES A 6-POINT PLAN FOR PEACE
By Anatoly Medetsky and Anna Smolchenko

Moscow Times
August 13, 2008 -- 1:11 a.m. Moscow time [Aug. 12, 9:05 p.m. GMT; 2:05 p.m. PDT]

MOSCOW -- President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that Georgia should agree to a cease-fire, the return of its troops to their bases, and the continued deployment of Russian peacekeepers in its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The conditions were part of a six-point legally binding document that Georgia will have to sign for an international peace plan to work. The document was agreed upon by Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who made a lightening visit to the Kremlin to mediate the talks, and presented to reporters after more than four hours of talks.

Sarkozy then left for Tbilisi to ask Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to agree to the deal.

"If the Georgian side will really be ready to sign this and withdraw troops to their initial positions [and] follow through on everything that is stated in these principles, then a path to the gradual normalization of the situation in South Ossetia will be open," Medvedev said at a joint news conference after the talks.

Under the other three conditions, Georgia must agree not to use force, to allow humanitarian aide into the conflict zone, and to agree to the start of international talks on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Sarkozy, who in his usual manner gestured heavily during the news conference, said the plan they had come up with might not seem like much but that the most important task was to stop the fighting and bloodshed.

"It's not that I wasn't brave enough. It's much easier to write an editorial than to bring people closer," he said.

Medvedev defended Russia's use of force and said many more people would have died if Russia had not intervened. "Our peacekeepers are continuing to perform their duties and will continue to perform their duties because they are a key factor for upholding security in the Caucasus," Medvedev said.

He reverted to the tough rhetoric usually heard from his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, using the words like "bastards" and "hoodlums" at the news conference. (A recent public opinion poll found that Putin remains hugely popular because of his earthy language.)

Sarkozy said Europe was ready to send peacekeepers to Georgia if all involved parties agreed. "Could Europe get involved in a peacekeeping mission? Europe is available to do that, of course," he said.

Sarkozy took pains to be seen as a fair arbiter, saying he sent his Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to meet refugees in North Ossetia. Before his visit to Moscow, Sarkozy met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and he said the two of them see eye to eye. Medvedev is scheduled to meet with Merkel later this week in Sochi, where he is scheduled to go on a working vacation.

Medvedev said the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be allowed to decide themselves whether they want to be part of Georgia. "The Ossetians and the Abkhaz must respond to that question taking their history into consideration, including what happened in the past few days," he said.

Sarkozy and Medvedev had been scheduled to address reporters after two hours of talks, but a Kremlin spokesman announced that it had been delayed because the talks were continuing. A member of the French delegation said soon after that Putin had arrived for lunch with Medvedev and Sarkozy. The two presidents addressed reporters two hours later, while Putin chose not to attend.

When asked why the talks went so long, a senior Russian diplomat who participated in the meeting said only that the leaders had agreed on everything long before they emerged to speak with reporters and had in the remaining time "told jokes about women." The diplomat did not smile as he spoke, and it was unclear whether he was joking.

From the Kremlin, Sarkozy headed for Tbilisi where he was prepared to spend the night talking to Saakashvili. "The night is young," he said.

France holds the European Union's rotating presidency and is leading mediation efforts between Russia and Georgia. Shortly before meeting Sarkozy, Medvedev ordered a halt to fighting by Russian troops.

France is well-positioned for the mediation effort because it was one of the countries that resisted U.S. calls to put Georgia and Ukraine on track to join NATO by giving them a Membership Action Plan in April.

Complicating the situation, however, Moscow has turned down the idea of direct talks with Saakashvili. "Saakashvili can no longer be our partner, and it would be better if he stepped down," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. "He didn't even think about remorse and constantly says he's right in killing our citizens and peaceful people and ordering women and children be run over by tanks."

Lavrov said there were many people in Georgia other than Saakashvili with whom Russia could negotiate.

Also Tuesday, Medvedev called E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana to thank the E.U. for its role in trying to return peace to the region.

The U.S. envoy to the region, Matthew Bryza, welcomed the end of military action in Georgia, saying at a news conference in Tbilisi that it marked a "return of common sense and genuine concern for humanity."

U.S. President George W. Bush earlier accused Russia of trying to topple Georgia's government and demanded that Russia stop the fighting, which he said put its relations with the West in jeopardy.

"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," Bush said.

Lavrov, who has several times in recent days declared that Saakashvili must go, said Tuesday that Russia would not try to topple him.