Caucasus

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.

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 8 - 9, 2008

1. 16:35 Oni was bombarded by Russian aviation.
2. 16:15 Two Russian battleships are heading towards Poti port. By this time they are near Gudauta.
3. 16:05 Four Russian jets flew over Upper Abkazia.
4. 15:45 Abkhaz separatist leader Sergey Bagapsh announced the launch of bombardment of Upper Abkhazia.
5. 14:30 The Parliament approved ordinance of the Declaration on the State of War and full mobilization.
6. 14:00 Russian air force attack Upper Abkhazia (Kodori gorge) in several places, including the airdrome in the village of Omarishara.
7. 12:40 Kopitnari airdrome is bombed again.
8. 10:22 Russian air force continues to bomb Gori, located 60 kilometers northwest from Tbilisi and is outside the conflict zone.
9. 10:20 One more Russian military airplane is shot down in Gori, located 60 kilometers northwest from Tbilisi and is outside the conflict zone. The pilot has been captured.
10. 10:00 Russian air force bomb Kopitnari airdrome in several kilometers from Kutaisi.
11. The entire 58th Russian Army, located in the North Caucasus, enters the South Ossetia region. They are engaged in battle with the Georgian army in Tskhinvali, which is in the conflict zone and 92 kilometers northwest from Tbilisi.