Moscow

(Washington, DC) Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) and Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Co-Chairmen of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), made the following statement on Russia’s assault on the Republic of Georgia:
“Russia’s intervention into Georgia is a clear violation of Georgia’s territorial integrity and Principle Four of the Helsinki Final Act,” said Co-Chairmen Hastings and Cardin. “We urge Moscow to cease its military operations immediately.”

Chairman Hastings noted, “The Russian Federation has departed from its commitment to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) guiding principles of refraining from the threat of or use of force in the settlement of disputes; respect for the inviolability of borders and the territorial integrity of states; and the peaceful settlement of disputes.”

Co-Chairman Cardin commented, “Georgia and Russia have accused each other of responsibility for this military confrontation. But Moscow’s rejection of arbitration by the international community clearly demonstrates its indifference to cooperation and ending the hostilities, which have been building.”

Response of the Press and Information Department to a question of the Georgia-News Agency concerning the possible ethnic persecution of Georgian citizens and ethnic Georgians in the Russian Federation

Question: How would you assess reports by Russian mass media sources about the possible ethnic persecution of Georgian citizens and ethnic Georgians in the Russian Federation?

Answer: We all keep a vivid memory of the immoral campaign launched by the Russian Authorities in autumn of 2006 aiming at violation of basic human rights, including the right to life, of the citizens of Georgia and ethnic Georgians (actions of the Russian Authorities then claimed the lives of a number of people)

Timeline by 12th of August 14:50

12 August

14:50 Village Sakoritno in Kaspi region and village Ruisi in Kareli region are bombed by Russian aviation

14:00 In village Agara (Khashuri region) Russian military jets bombarded an ambulance vehicle

13:25 Three Russian airplanes dropped bombs on the village of Orchosani near Gori.

12:30 Vasiani base nearby Tbilisi has been bombed by Russian planes.

12:25 Oil pipeline 5 km from the city of Rustavi has been bombed.

10:15 Russian planes bombed Gori. The territory around administration building and city market have been bombed.

In the morning ours of 12 August Russian airplanes bombed the village of Tkviavi near Tskhinvali once again.

03:25 Russian envoy to the UN Churkin announced on the press conference that Russia will not support the resolution. Georgian envoy Alasania announced that suggested resolution is acceptable to Georgia.

02:15 Emergency meeting of the Security Council of the UN started. The resolution about cease-fire prepared by France was discussed.

02:05 Russian aviation bombarded Kaspi 30 Km from Tbilisi out of conflict zone. 3 bombs were dropped near the Heidelberg Cement factory (one from the two cement factories in the country). No damage was reported.

Minister Frattini continues to follow the situation in Georgia with close concern

Rome 10 August 2008

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, continues to follow developments in Georgia with close concern. He is liaising with the Premier, Silvio Berlusconi and staying in constant contact with his colleagues in the major EU and Atlantic countries.

Minister Frattini exchanged views today, 10 August, with the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, and the Finnish Foreign Minister, Alexander Stubb, in view of their mission to Tbilisi and Moscow in their roles as, respectively, President of the European Union’s Council of Ministers and current Chairman of the OSCE.

During their talks Minister Frattini stressed the need for the greatest possible cohesion between the countries of the EU on the lines proposed by the French Presidency. He also underscored the timely need for close coordination between the European countries in the United Nations Security Council, and Germany, in order to establish a common position in view of the forthcoming discussions in New York.

11.08.2008

The United States of America:

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, told the U.N. Security Council that a Russian-backed military operation in Abkhazia was under way;

The European States/ The European Union/ The European Council:

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb are planning to travel to Moscow Monday after spending more than a day meeting Georgian officials searching for a way to end the conflict; Stubb said they had put together some elements of a "forceful way forward" to a cease-fire and withdrawal plan; Sources close to the delegation said the two ministers, along with their Georgian counterpart, would visit the Georgian city of Gori Monday afternoon to see first-hand damage caused by Russian airstrikes;
French President Nicolas Sarkozy would visit the capitals of both Russia and Georgia on Tuesday in an effort to end fighting between the former Soviet republics; Sarkozy's office has confirmed that he plans to travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev;

UN

Reuters

08.10.08, 2:26 PM ET

RUSSIAN FEDERATION - (Recasts with U.S., Russian and Georgian envoys)

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The United States suggested on Sunday that Russia was interested in "regime change" in Georgia after Moscow rejected Tbilisi's offer of a cease-fire in the separatist region of South Ossetia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the president of Georgia "must go," the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the Security Council.

Khalilzad then looked straight at Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and asked if Moscow was looking for "regime change."

"Is the goal of the Russian Federation to change the leadership of Georgia?" he said.

Churkin did not directly address the question but said there are leaders who "become an obstacle."

"Sometimes those leaders need to contemplate how useful they have become to their people," Churkin told reporters later.

"Regime change is purely an American invention," he said. "We're all for democracy in Georgia."

In Moscow, Lavrov said the departure of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was not a must to solve the crisis but that Russia no longer saw him as a partner.

Paul Goble

Vienna, August 10 – The war that has broken out between the Republic of Georgia and the Russian Federation calls attention to two features of that region which Western governments have been loathe to recognize and which, having failed to acknowledge, have led those governments to make statements that help explain and are compounding a looming tragedy.

On the one hand, the conflict over South Ossetia shows that Russia is not the status quo power the United States and the Europeans have wanted to believe that it had somehow become and that it cannot be transformed into one simply by constantly suggesting that it is and including it in various institutions intended for countries who want to make the current system work.

Instead, Moscow in recent years thanks in large measure to the rise of Vladimir Putin has emerged as a revisionist power ready, willing and increasingly able to challenge the 1991 settlement, especially when any of the governments of the former Soviet republics such as Georgia has just done act in ways that open the door to Russian aggression.

And on the other hand, precisely because the U.S. and its allies take their wishes about Russia for facts, Washington and to a lesser extent the European capitals routinely have made statements to the non-Russian governments that suggest the West will back them up in any dust up with the Russians.

August 9th.

According to the existing information, the following Naval and Air military assets of the Russian
Federation Black Sea Fleet are moving to direction of Georgia from base Sevastopol:

Large landing ships "Jamal" and "Saratov", with marine and military nlachinery on board;
Small anti-submarine ships "Suzdalets", "Kalimov", ":Povarino";
Large landing ship "Caesar Kunikov";
Reconnaissance ship "Ekvator";
Minesweepers "Zhukov", "Turbinist";
Small rocket boat "Mirage";
Rocket boat "Breeze";
Medium size transport "Koida";
Towboat MB-31;
G-uard ship "Smetlivyi";
Rocket cruiser "Moscow";
4 SU-24 aircrafts;
1 AN-26 aircraft.