Georgia reports that the Russians haven’t stopped fighting, despite the accord. If so, so much for their protestations that they are there because they had to intervene to stop the killing in South Ossetia. It’s important to note that reports concerning their intentions in continuing toward Tbilisi conflict. (This update makes the Russians’ statements about what they think they’re doing appear ever less credible.)
News agencies reported that a column of Russian tanks had left Gori and was on the road toward Tbilisi, the Russian capital, although these could not be independently confirmed.
“As I speak, Russian tanks are attacking the town of Gori,” Mr. Saakashvili said. His claims of attacks could not be verified but Russian tanks were on the outskirts of the city, blocking a main road from Tbilisi….
Mr. Saakashvili said Russian forces had all but established an economic blockade of Tbilisi and criticized Western countries, including the United States, suggesting that they had appeased Russia and let Georgia down.(NYT)
Other former Soviet countries are understandably worried as well. Leaders of some of them are in Tbilisi to show support for Georgia and to join their protests to Georgia’s.
Valdas Adankas, the Lithuanian president, said: “Let the world finally wake up and take action, and provide security for the region. We are creating a situation that could get out of hand.” (NYT)
What will the Russians say now? That they lost their way?
Well, no.
Outside of Gori, black smoke could be seen rising from the city from the direction of a Georgian military base.
Inside the city, there was the sound of small-arms fire, and two tank rounds were fired, but the firing later died down.
The Russian tank commander bragged that his troops were ready for another head-on confrontation. “It all depends on what Saakashvili is going to say. If he doesn’t understand the situation, we’ll have to go further. It’s only 60 kilometers to Tbilisi,” the commander said, speaking at a checkpoint on the Gori-Tbilisi road. “He doesn’t seem understand that the Russian army is much stronger than the Georgian army. His tanks remain in their places. His air force is dead. His navy is also. His army is demoralized.” (NYT)
Here’s a somewhat different account.
More than a dozen tanks roamed the center of Gori, a strategic city in the center of the country about 40 miles from Tbilisi, the capital. Separately, news agencies reported that a column of Russian tanks had left Gori and was on the road toward Tbilisi, although these reports could not be independently confirmed.
“We are still occupying Gori,” said the battalion commander, who would not give his name. Russia soldiers were letting civilians leave Gori but were preventing anyone from entering the city.
The commander said that the Russian soldiers were looking for Georgian fighters who were violating the ceasefire agreement. Occasional gunfire could be heard around the city. (NYT)
The Russian troops outside Gori say “they were stationed there to protect the population from irregular fighters who were reported to be stealing cars in the area.”… (NYT) “Stealing cars”?
But the commander of two tanks outside Tbilisi said they were there to prevent harassment of the population by either side. (NYT) He said that locals, thieves, and pro-Russian irregulars from Ossetia were shooting at each other. “White smoke rose from behind a nearby hilltop and some gunfire could be heard,” says The New York Times. (NYT)
There are other reports as well. In the western Georgia town of Senaki on Wednesday, “[F]ive Russian personnel carriers and a tank were parked inside a military base, from which they had previously withdrawn. Residents and a police official said Russian troops had looted refrigerators and food. One Russian tank had crashed, apparently accidentally, through a fence and was sitting in the front yard of a house as soldiers fixed it.” (NYT)
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN Russian troops have not broken the cease-fire. He said the column from Gori was deployed as part of an effort to “demilitarize the nearby zone to South Ossetia” and they were planning to remove “a number of tanks ready for battle” that were discovered outside Gori. He said they had no plans to head for Tbilisi. He said he wasn’t aware of incidents of looting or ethnic cleansing by South Ossetian irregulars, adding those reports need to be “double-checked.” He also said a group of residents in Gori had appealed to the Russian troops there for help since the local authorities had abandoned the town. “The Russian military is doing whatever is possible to supply Gori’s population with food, water and whatever,” he said.
Some residents of Gori say that the Russians are looting everything.
Thick black plumes of smoke rose from Gori as panicked residents — including the doctors and patients of the local hospital — fled to Tbilisi in packed cars and minivans. Most locals had already abandoned Gori after it was heavily bombarded by Russian forces on Tuesday…..
The Russians are looting everything in sight. The whole city is full of marauders,” said Roland Bochiashvili as he left Gori. (WSJ)
But one Georgian said that it isn’t the Russian Army doing the looting.
The Russian army itself is taking no part in the looting, said Georgian National Guard Lieutenant Guja Bichashvili, who fled the city after donning civilian clothes. “It is the [Russian] cossacks and the Ossetians that are causing mayhem. The local population is actually relieved to see regular Russian troops in Gori, hoping that the soldiers will protect them from the marauders,” he said. (WSJ)
Russia denies that there are any tanks in Gori, “but did say that some Russian soldiers went into Gori.”(WSJ)
Russia’s deputy chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said Wednesday that no tanks were in Gori. He said Russians went into the city to try to implement the truce with local Georgian officials but could not find any. An APTN television crew in Gori saw some Russian armored vehicles Wednesday morning near a military base there. (WSJ)
UPDATE: The Guardian’s correspondent says that the idea that there is a ceasefire is ridiculous. The idea that the Russians are keeping the peace appears to be as well.
See this post by Joe Windish on the current cyberwar and the questions surrounding its source.
More to come, I assume….
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