NATO Chief, Envoys Visit Georgia to Show Support
September 15, 2008
Georgia’s president said Monday he hopes a visit from NATO’s chief will accelerate his nation’s drive to join the Western alliance, pressing for sustained international support following its defeat by Russia in a brief and bitter war.
Mikhail Saakashvili said Georgia and NATO should work hard to show that Georgia is on track to join what he called the “Euro-Atlantic family.”
That is Georgia’s proper and rightful place, he said.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, also speaking in Georgia’s capital, criticized Russia but spoke cautiously in remarks before a NATO-Georgia meeting.
De Hoop Scheffer and ambassadors from every NATO member converged on Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, in a show of support for the former Soviet republic. The U.S. strongly supports NATO membership for Georgia, but Germany and others dependent on Russian energy supplies have balked at taking an action sure to infuriate the Kremlin.
The NATO chief said the alliance will assess “how to further enhance” the partnership between NATO and Georgia.
The trip to Georgia, scheduled before the war, comes as Russia is strengthening its grip on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia, in a challenge to Georgia’s NATO hopes.
Russia, which borders Georgia to the north, objects strenuously to having Georgia join the Western military alliance — an opposition underscored last month when Russia crushed Georgia in a war over Georgia’s separatist, Russian-oriented province of South Ossetia.
As the ambassadors arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned the West that any sanctions imposed on Russia over the war would backfire.
“It’s senseless to pressure Russia with sanctions,” Medvedev said at a meeting with Russian business leaders. “They can shut a couple of sources of (revenue) to a banana republic and make its situation dramatic. It won’t work like that here.”
Without mentioning any specific nation, Medvedev warned that attempts to punish Russia would also hurt the West. “Sanctions is a weapon that will backfire,” he said.
And he dismissed calls by some Western diplomats to bar Russia from joining the World Trade Organization. Russia would like to join but will not be pressured into concessions, Medvedev said.
“WTO isn’t a carrot; it entails a lot of difficult obligations,” he said. “And if we do it, let us do it in a normal way without them trying to scare us.”
The two-day NATO visit is expected to include the first meeting of a new NATO-Georgia Commission set up to oversee future ties.
De Hoop Scheffer said last week that NATO wants to show support for Georgia after Russia’s use of “disproportionate force” against its much smaller neighbor. He has stressed NATO’s condemnation of Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
Following the war, NATO said it was making closer ties with Russia dependent on the withdrawal of Russian forces to the positions they held before the conflict, as required by a cease-fire agreement.
Russia has promised to withdraw from positions in Georgia proper next month. But it has said it will keep nearly 8,000 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, although the U.S. and European Union that would violate the cease-fire.
Saakashvili, a U.S. ally, has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership. In April, NATO declined to grant Georgia a road map — a detailed plan for achieving membership — but said Georgia would eventually join.
A review of Georgia’s request for a road map is scheduled for December.
The war has deepened NATO’s dilemma over Georgia — how to handle the membership aspirations of a country with large chunks of territory controlled by Russia and its separatist allies.
NATO members have been united in their criticism of Russia, but less so on Georgia’s future.
The United States has pushed for NATO to take a key step toward granting Georgia membership in April.
Russia seems confident that Georgia is not close to joining NATO.
“Georgia is much farther away from membership in NATO than it used to be,” Sergei Karaganov, a political analyst with close Kremlin connections, said in Moscow.
Anatol Lieven, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, said European countries and the United States would be unlikely to fight Russia on Georgia’s behalf, even if joined NATO.
“Georgia would be crushingly defeated and NATO would be humiliated,” he said.
The war began Aug. 7, when Georgian forces launched an attack to regain control of South Ossetia. Russian forces repelled the offensive and pushed deep into Georgia.
After a partial withdrawal last month, Russia pulled out of the Black Sea port of Poti and other positions in western Georgia over the weekend as part of an additional agreement reached by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered the original EU peace plan.
Moscow has pledged to withdraw all other forces now on Georgian territory outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia within 10 days of the deployment of EU monitors who are supposed to be in place by Oct. 1. But it is pushing to keep Western observers away from South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
At a tent camp housing more than 2,000 displaced people in Gori, a central Georgian city near South Ossetia, families wondered Sunday whether they would ever return home for good.
Nanuli Okroperidze, 45, who lives in Tent 85 with her mother, four children, two grandchildren and two other relatives, said her home is one of many in her mostly ethnic Georgian village in South Ossetia that were torched.
“It’s gone, burned to ashes,” she said.
Source: The Associated Press, September 2008
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080915/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_nato
Russian Forces Withdraw from Key Georgian Checkpoints
September 13, 2008
Russian peacekeepers are withdrawing from five checkpoints in western Georgia where they have been since the conflict between the two countries broke out last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday, according to the state-run Interfax news agency.
Russian troops
Russian soldiers pack up their gear at the Georgian checkpoint in Poti on Sept. 11.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said the peacekeeping forces will be withdrawn over the next seven days from five spots between the port city of Poti and the town of Senaki farther inland, Interfax said.
Nesterenko said the move was in line with Russia’s agreement this week to completely withdraw from Georgia, with the exception of the two disputed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The agreement came after French President Nicolas Sarkozy traveled to Moscow and met with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev.
The September 8 agreement also called for 200 international monitors to be deployed to South Ossetia.
Russia said Saturday, however, that its forces would remain in a “security zone” around South Ossetia and Abkhazia — a zone that is actually inside Georgia.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the goal of remaining in the zone is to prevent Georgia from launching any offensive in the territories, and that Russia expects the international monitors to take over responsibility in the zone once they arrive.
“If that is done, Russia will honor all of its obligations” and withdraw from the security zone, Putin said in an interview in the French newspaper Le Figaro. “But it is necessary that the European Union also fulfills its obligations.”
The conflict began in early August after Georgia’s military moved to secure South Ossetia, sparking the intervention of Russia, which pushed its troops deep into Georgia proper. Some Russian troops have remained in Georgia ever since.
Source: CNN, September 2008
edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/13/russia.georgia.withdrawal/index.html
New Deputy Chief of Army Staff Appointed - Some Key Army Officials Dismissed
September 13, 2008
Some senior military figures, including the deputy chief of staff, the commander of land forces and the chief of the national guard, have been dismissed from their posts.
The Georgian Ministry of Defense said on September 3 that Alexandre Osepaishvili, the deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, had been replaced by Devi Chankotadze. The latter was the commander of an artillery brigade of the land forces before his new appointment. He has been replaced in his previous post by Vakhtang Maisuradze.
Mamuka Balakhadze, the commander of land forces, has been replaced by Zurab Agladze.
Davit Aptsiauri, the commander of the national guard, has also been dismissed. The national guard is in charge of reserve troops. Many accounts - from reservists themselves and eyewitnesses - have been circulating about the chaos and uncoordinated nature of the mobilisation and deployment of reservists to Gori and other areas close to the frontline in the early days of the conflict.
“Those who have failed to fulfill their duties will of course be dismissed, or downgraded,” Batu Kutelia, the deputy defense minister, told Rustavi 2 TV on September 3. “Evaluation is ongoing following combat activities about how systems worked.
Davit Nairashvili was appointed as deputy chief of staff of the Georgian armed forces, the Defense Ministry said on September 12. Nairashvili, who was commander of the air forces, replaced Giga Tatishvili.
Also on September 12, President Saakashvili promoted Davit Nairashvili from Colonel’s rank into Brigadier General, the MoD said.
Source: Civil.Ge, September 2008
www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=19402
Russian Military Leaves Georgian Port
September 13, 2008
Russian troops have begun leaving some parts of Georgia.
Russian forces evacuated five posts in western Georgia today, which Moscow had promised to dismantle. Among the closures were military camps in Nabada and Patara Poti, outside the strategic Georgian port of Poti, as well as in Teklati and Pirveli Maisi, near the town of Senaki.
Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia has confirmed the withdrawal.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said today’s withdrawal from the Poti-Senaki line was taking place in accordance with a September 8 agreement between Russia and the European Union.
Russians Troops Pack Up, Leave Western Georgia
September 13, 2008
Hundreds of Russian forces packed up and withdrew from positions Saturday in western Georgia, and a Georgian official said Russia met a deadline for a partial pullout a month after the war between the two former Soviet republics.
Russian soldiers and armored vehicles rolled out of six checkpoints and temporary bases in the Black Sea port of Poti and other areas nearby, Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said.
“They have fulfilled the commitment” to withdraw from the area by Sept. 15 under an agreement European Union leaders reached with Russia last week, Lomaia told The Associated Press. But he stressed that Georgia — like the West — demands a full withdrawal to pre-conflict positions.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko confirmed the withdrawal.
“Right now the withdrawal of our peacekeeping forces is happening from these posts,” Nesterenko said in televised comments.
However, Lomaia said some 1,200 Russian servicemen still remain at 19 checkpoints and other positions, 12 outside South Ossetia and seven outside Abkhazia.
Russia said it would pull them out by Oct. 11 as long as a 200-strong delegation of European Union observers was in place by Oct. 1. However, OSCE documents seen by The Associated Press have raised questions over Russia’s true willingness to accept the monitors.
The presence of Russian troops dug in deep in undisputed Georgian territory more than a month after the fighting ended has deeply angered Georgians and been an enormous sore point between Russia and the West.
Russia’s military campaign in Georgia and its subsequent recognition of Georgia’s separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent nations has plunged its relations with the United States and Europe into their worst crisis since the Cold War.
An Associated Press television crew saw Russian soldiers pack military trucks before dawn Saturday with blankets and other supplies at a post by a road leading to Abkhazia province. Among the items taken down — the Russian tricolor flag.
Four trucks stood packed and ready to leave the post in the village of Pirveli Maisi, along with an armored personnel carrier. A Russian column about the same size rolled past on a road leading to Abkhazia.
Russian forces left the two posts they had maintained for weeks on the outskirts of Poti, one by a bridge on a main road leading into the city and one a few miles from Georgia’s main port and devastated naval base, Interior Ministry official Shota Utiashvili said.
“Russian forces have withdrawn completely from Poti,” he said.
A third Russian post established more recently by the port of Poti had also been vacated, Lomaia said. He said some 250 soldiers and 20 armored vehicles pulled out of their positions and headed toward Abkhazia.
Near the de facto border with Abkhazia, an Associated Press photographer saw several small columns of Russian armor crossing a bridge leading toward the breakaway region and military trucks heading across another bridge at a separate location.
The brazen presence in Poti had been particularly galling for Georgia because it is hundreds of miles from South Ossetia, where the war broke out and where most of the fighting occurred.
Under an additional agreement forged last week, the Kremlin promised to withdraw from Poti and other posts in western Georgia by Monday and from all its positions on Georgian territory outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia within 10 days of the deployment of EU observers.
But in Vienna, confidential OSCE documents revealed that Russian forces and their separatist militia allies were deliberately keeping international monitors out of South Ossetia, where large numbers of Georgian homes have been looted and burned down.
The documents obtained Friday by The Associated Press say Russian troops stopped some observers from entering South Ossetia as recently as two days ago.
Western governments also say Moscow’s plans to maintain 7,600 troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia for the long term violates a provision in the cease-fire calling for both sides to return to positions held before the conflict erupted.
Georgian troops tried to retake South Ossetia by force on Aug. 7, but were quickly repelled by Russian tanks, troops and warplanes. The Russian military then drove deep into Georgia, occupying large swaths of territory before an initial withdrawal in late August.
The five-day war killed hundreds of people and drove over 150,000 people from their homes.
Source: The Associated Press, September 2008
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080913/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_russia
Georgia’s Saakashvili warns NATO on Russia
September 12, 2008
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili urged NATO on Thursday not to push his country away in the wake of Moscow’s military campaign, warning that showing weakness would cause a “never-ending story” of Russian aggression.
In an interview with The Associated Press before a visit by NATO leaders next week, Saakashvili said Russia invaded Georgia to keep the ex-Soviet republic out of the Western alliance.
“If NATO sends a sign of weakness — and clearly this invasion was intended to deter, to scare NATO away — if NATO gets scared away, then this will be a never-ending story,” Saakashvili said.
Saakashvili has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership for Georgia. The alliance has promised Georgia will eventually join, and a review of its request for a road map to membership is scheduled for December.
He suggested that keeping Georgia out of NATO because of increasing Russian control over South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia, would be precisely the result the Kremlin intended — and a recipe for forceful intervention elsewhere.
“People are saying, ‘Georgia has conflicts, so maybe Georgia cannot be accepted, but maybe we can accept Ukraine.’ But if you put it this way, you automatically are going to get conflict in Ukraine.”
Saakashvili said NATO nations must stand together and expressed confidence that Russia’s use of what Western governments condemned as disproportionate force had strengthened support from some alliance members for Georgian membership.
He said Russia’s actions were aimed at “shaking the foundations of the alliance and their decision-making process.”
The Kremlin has accused the United States of encouraging Saakashvili to wage war against separatist South Ossetia and of moving to rebuild Georgia’s military following the fighting. Saakashvili said he is committed to peaceful solutions to Georgia’s territorial disputes and is not seeking robust military aid from the United States.
“We don’t expect to get anything from the U.S., we haven’t got anything recently from the U.S. and we will not be getting any large-scale hardware or military material assistance from the U.S.,” he said. “All this talk about Americans rearming Georgia, or others coming in and rearming Georgia has been just part of the propaganda.”
The U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday that it would send an assessment team to Georgia this week to help determine its needs as a way of showing U.S. support for its security.
Saakashvili denied Russian claims that U.S. military aid, which included training Georgian forces, was instrumental in emboldening Georgia to try to retake South Ossetia by force on Aug. 7.
“No matter what kind of theoretical assistance we could have got from anybody, there is no way Georgia can fight wars with Russia,” he said.
In Moscow on Thursday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin aggressively defended the invasion, saying Russia had to act when Georgia attacked South Ossetia. Russian forces repelled the offensive and drove deep into Georgia before withdrawing most of the troops and tanks late last month following a cease-fire deal.
Russia has pledged to withdraw its remaining forces still positioned outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia within a month, but says it will keep thousands of troops in the separatist regions themselves for the foreseeable future. It has also recognized them as independent nations, deepening the confrontation with Georgia and the West.
Saakashvili contends that Georgia was acting in self-defense amid increasing Russian support for the separatists and indications of imminent aggression.
“At a certain moment it was clear that the country was facing an existential threat,” he said.
He reiterated his promise that Georgia will gain control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but said it would rely on legal mechanisms and pressure from the international community to do so.
Source: The Associated Press, September 2008
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5geomtOYYynWwMbsvM1iu7rMBHruwD934QP7O0
Statement by the Ministry of Defence of Georgia
September 11, 2008
On September 6 the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published an article by Nikolas Busse titled “Soviet war of movement in Georgia” (Sowjetischer Bewegungskrieg in Georgien) .
The article claims that representatives of the Georgian General Staff have briefed NATO headquarters in Brussels about the war, and says: “The representatives of the Georgian Forces have reported to the allies that they were against a military attack on South Ossetia.” It adds: “diplomats at NATO say that the statements of the General Staff could be an attempt to wash itself clean and put the blame about the lost war to Saakashvili”.
The Ministry of Defence of Georgia hereby states that no representative of the Georgian General Staff have ever given NATO such a briefing. The General Staff of Georgia is under the civilian control of the democratically elected Government of Georgia, an arrangement whose effectiveness has been praised by numerous NATO assessment teams commenting on the success of the democratic reforms of Georgia’s military forces.
The position of the Georgian Government on the events leading to the War and explanations why and when decisions by the Government were taken can be found in the Government document Timeline of Russian Aggression in Georgia. This document has been distributed to all NATO capitals and to NATO headquarters days before the FAZ article was published. It is self-evident that this is also the position of the Georgian Ministry of Defence and its General Staff.
We are not aware of any briefings given by anyone formally connected with the Armed Forces of Georgia. Therefore, we hereby request that the NATO press office publicly respond to the false claims disseminated by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Source: The Ministry of Defence of Georgia, September 2008
www.mod.gov.ge/i.php?l=E&id=1055
Heads Roll in Georgian Army Shakeup
September 11, 2008
Georgia’s President Saakashvili has launched a massive clean up among senior officers of the Georgian army, in an attempt to find responsibility for defeat in the South Ossetian war.
Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said that the Georgian General Prosecutor’s office has also launched more than 4,000 cases against deserters.
He said that the troops were “demoralized” by the orders they received from their commanders and refused to shoot at peaceful civilians.
Source: Russia Today, September 2008
www.russiatoday.com/news/news/30276
Abkhazia Expects Deal On Russian Military Bases
September 11, 2008
Abkhazia will sign an agreement with Moscow establishing Russian military bases in the province following its decision to break away from Georgia, its leader has said.
President Sergei Bagapsh criticized Georgia’s efforts to join NATO, saying this would threaten the whole northern Caucasus region, and said Abkhazia might join the loose Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
“We will enter into a military agreement with the Russian Federation to protect ourselves against aggression,” Bagapsh told reporters in Sochi, a Black Sea resort in Russia. “It will be an agreement about the deployment of military bases on the territory of Abkhazia. After a political agreement we will sign a military agreement about bases, also in our sea ports.”
Russian Bombers Land In Venezuela for Drills
September 11, 2008
Two Russian strategic bombers landed in Venezuela on Wednesday as part of military maneuvers, President Hugo Chávez said, welcoming the unprecedented deployment at a time of increasing tensions between Russia and the United States.
Russian military analysts said it was the first time Russian strategic bombers have landed in the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War. The deployment appeared likely to anger Washington and add to the strain in U.S.-Russian relations over Russia’s war with Georgia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the bombers, supersonic Tu-160s, flew to Venezuela on a training mission and would conduct flights over neutral waters in the next few days before returning home, according to a statement carried by Russian news wires.
Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky refused to say how long the deployment would last or whether the planes were carrying weapons. Military officers have said Russian strategic bombers do not carry live weapons on patrol flights.
NATO fighter jets escorted the Russian aircraft on their 13-hour trip to Venezuela over the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, the ministry said.
The Russian deployment appeared to be a tit-for-tat response to the U.S. dispatch of warships to deliver aid to ally Georgia after its war last month with Russia. “This is a redux of Cold War games and a dangerous thing to do,” said Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. “It will only strengthen the hand of those in the United States who want to punish Russia for its action in Georgia.”
Meanwhile, NATO said Wednesday that it had ended a routine exercise by four naval ships in the Black Sea. Russia had denounced the exercise as part of a Western military buildup sparked by the Georgia conflict.
Source: The Washington Post, September 2008
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/10/AR2008091003524.html