Georgia October 2008 Daily Chronology
Tuesday 28 October 2008
Russia says it opposes the deployment of European Union monitors inside two Georgian breakaway territories that Moscow now recognizes as independent countries. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov outlined his country's view in St. Petersburg, alongside his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner. Lavrov said security in South Ossetia and a second Georgian breakaway territory, Abkhazia, will be guaranteed by thousands of Russian troops now deployed in the territories.
Russia's foreign minister warned Georgia that its refusal to attend Geneva talks along with South Ossetian and Abkhazian representatives would threaten regional security. Sergei Lavrov was asked by reporters to comment on remarks by Grigol Vashadze, a Georgian deputy foreign minister, that Tbilisi was ready for discussions in Geneva, scheduled for November 18, but opposed the participation of representatives from the separatist Georgian republics. "If Georgia really refuses to participate in the Geneva discussions while South Ossetian and Abkhazian representatives attend, this is sad. It is an outright challenge to all those concerned about regional security," Lavrov said following Russia-EU talks.
Russia says Georgia should not be allowed to use billions of dollars in aid from the EU to upgrade its military. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov brought the issue up at a meeting with representatives from the European Union in St. Petersburg. Diplomats also discussed ways of reviving talks on a new Russia-EU partnership, postponed in the wake of the South Ossetia conflict.
Russia will keep an eye on the countries that supplied weapons to Georgia, supporting Mikhail Saakashvili's regime in August 2008, President Dmitry Medvedev said at today's meeting of the presidential Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation with foreign countries. "We know how zealously some countries delivered weapons to Mikhail Saakashvili's regime, spurring it to aggression; and currently they are actually re-loading this regime with new arms supplies," Medvedev emphasized. "We will not forget it, shaping our policy accordingly, and I would like everyone to know that," he added.
Monday 27 October 2008
Reports from Georgia say President Mikheil Saakashvili has fired reformist Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze. Mr. Gurgenidze, a 37-year-old technocrat and former banker, became prime minister late last year, with the primary task of attracting foreign investment and maintaining a high rate of economic growth. The five-day military conflict with Russia in August has since eroded investor confidence and slowed what otherwise was widely seen as a healthy economy. The move comes amid growing tensions between President Saakashvili and his former ally, the ex-speaker of parliament, Nino Burdzhanadze. She has announced she's forming an opposition party and is accusing the Georgian leader of preventing the formation of a democratic society.
Abkhazia doubts the ability of EU observers in Georgia to play a constructive role in preventing further conflict, Abkhazia's foreign minister said in a letter to the UN Security Council president. "The replacement of the CIS Collective Forces in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone with European Union observers will not resolve the security problems in the region," Sergei Shamba told Zhang Yesui in the letter.
Sunday 26 October 2008
The leader of Georgia's pro-Russian breakaway Abkhazia region has ordered Abkhazian military forces to retaliate against what he calls all "provocations" from the Georgian side. The warning from Abkhaz separatist leader Sergei Bagapsh is the latest volley in a war of words pitting Abkhazia and another pro-Russian separatist region, South Ossetia, against the Georgian government. An explosion has destroyed a key bridge linking Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia with the rest of the country.
Friday 24 October 2008
Georgian officials and Abkhazian authorities blamed each other for the blast. Residents of Abkhazia's Gali district had used the bridge to reach Georgia's Zugdidi region. Georgian authorities have called the explosion an effort by separatist and Russian officials to cut off Abkhazia and another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia, from the rest of the country.
The EU observers' mission is failing to curb Georgian violations of the peace plan, Russia's Foreign Minister has said. Sergey Lavrov has accused the European Union of "playing with fire". "The Georgian side is not fulfilling its obligations to return its troops to their military bases," he said. He added that Georgia "regularly sends special forces and other armed units to the areas bordering South Osetia and Abkhazia". "We are especially worried by the fact that the European Union observers pay too little attention to these actions. We should not forget that the European Union acts as a guarantor of the non-use of force against South Osetia and Abkhazia," he said.
Thursday 23 October 2008
Georgia said Russia deployed 2,000 additional troops into South Ossetia in the past week and was preparing "provocations" in the breakaway territory. "In the past week, Russia increased the number of troops by 2,000, to 7,000 staff," Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told a news conference. The Kremlin has said it would station 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia to provide security.
Georgia has not lived up to its commitment to return troops to their bases after the armed conflict over South Ossetia in August, Russia's foreign minister said. "Georgia has not fulfilled its obligations to redeploy troops to their permanent positions of deployment," Sergei Lavrov said. He said Georgia occasionally sent commandos or other military units to areas adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian republic. "We are worried that European Union monitors have so far been paying little attention to such matters," Lavrov said. Russia's top diplomat also dismissed claims by the Georgian Foreign Ministry that the number of Russian troops stationed in South Ossetia had increased from 2,000 to 7,000. "It is difficult to comment on statements by Georgian representatives because they contain little truth, and, unfortunately, this recent method of throwing out false information has been used regularly," Lavrov said. He said Russia had deployed around 3,700 troops in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia under friendship and cooperation agreements with the two republics.
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA writes that a meeting of U.S. and Russian military top brass has achieved more in the sense of repairing bilateral relations that suffered during the conflict in the Caucasus than several meetings of the two nation's diplomats. The paper says at the meeting in Helsinki, the Chief of the Russian military's General Staff General Nikolay Makarov and Admiral Michael Mullen and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed on a plan of normalisation of bilateral military contacts, and there is a hint that they also decided to attempt to return relations between Russia and NATO to the format of the NATO-Russia council by the end of this year.
The US Northrop Grumman Electronic System Corporation's delegation offers its service to Georgia in the air system improvement. This topic was discussed by the Northrop Grummen representatives at the meeting held in the Defence Ministry. Four-person delegation was received by the First Deputy Defence Minister, Batu Kutelia. The meeting was attended by the Deputy Chief of JS, Brigadier General Davit Nairashvili, Commander of the Air Forces, Col. Zurab Pochkhua and Head of Communication Department - J6, LTC Mamuka Liparteliani. Representatives of the corporation presented its production and introduced technical information to the Georgian side. Technical details of TV, radio, air communications and electronic systems was discussed as well. Prospects of bilateral cooperation between Georgia and Northrop Grumman will be considered during the Bilateral Defence Consultations which is going to be hold in Washington next week.
Wednesday 22 October 2008
International donors have offered $4.5 billion in aid to Georgia. The money is expected to be spent on rebuilding the country's economy and infrastructure damaged after the conflict between Georgia and Russia last August. The amount is a billion and a half dollars more than the figure initially estimated by the World Bank. On Wednesday, 67 states and financial institutions met in Brussels to discuss the financial aid for Tbilisi. According to the global corruption watchdog Transparency International, this is more than the Georgian government budgeted to spend in 2009. It is also the equivalent of almost $1000 for each of the country's residents.
NATO will continue patrolling Baltic airspace until at least 2011, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff has told the Latvian president. U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen discussed defense and NATO issues with Latvian President Vladis Zatlers, Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins and Defense Minister Vinets Veldr. NATO fighters guard the Baltic nations' airspace and perform the peacetime air defense and air policing function. U.S. Air Force F-15 aircraft based at Lakenheath, England, currently have that mission as part of NATO. "It is a NATO mission that many nations have stepped up to in the past and will continue, certainly through 2011," Mullen said.
Tuesday 21 October 2008
The world doesn't need a new confrontation with Russia and anyone wanting one is irresponsible. That was the clear message conveyed by French President Sarkozy to the European Parliament as he outlined the outcomes of last week's summit in Brussels. Speaking in Strasbourg, Sarkozy declared, "We do not believe the world needs a crisis between Europe and Russia. It would be irresponsible. We can defend our ideas about the respect for sovereignty, the integrity of Georgia, human rights, the differences that we have, and so on. But it would be irresponsible to create conditions that would lead to a conflict, of which we have no need."
Russia is being made to pay for the financial blunders made by the US as it fights the effects of the global financial crisis, according to Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian President was speaking at the opening of the Square of Russia in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. "We have an open economy now and we feel the impact of the global economic crisis," he said. "In fact, we're paying for the blunders made by a number of countries, including the US, since the American market exerts a weighty influence on the international market."
NATO fighters started exercises aimed at policing the airspace over the Baltic countries as part of the Baltic air-policing mission. The Baltic air-policing mission is a NATO air defense Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) in order to guard the airspace over the three Baltic States - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The current exercise involves up to 15 NATO aircraft from the Baltic States, the U.S., Poland and Denmark. Overall supervision of the exercise will be carried out from a NATO Combined Air Operations Center in Germany.
Monday 20 October 2008
A senior U.S. official has said the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave could be resolved within the next two months. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL's Armenian Service correspondent Ruzanna Stepanian, said that "there are hard decisions that have to be made on both sides. If this conflict were easy to resolve, it would have been resolved already."
NOVAYA GAZETA says that the financial crisis made everyone so busy at the EU summit in Brussels that there was no time left to discuss Russia and the aftermath of the Georgia - South Ossetia conflict. European leaders, writes the paper, one after another spoke of change and reform. The most energetic of all was the president of France Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants a totally new 'market socially-oriented model of capitalism'.
Sunday 19 October 2008
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says a large number of people displaced by violence in Georgia have returned to their villages in the buffer zone around the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. UN refugee agency spokesman Ron Redmond says monitoring teams report more than 20,000 people have headed home since Russia withdrew its troops from the buffer zone on October eighth. "Out of the 133,000 internally displaced people registered by the Georgians in August, we estimate that more than 78,000 have returned to their homes across Georgia," UN refugee agency spokesman Ron Redmond said. "And, we are carrying out a winterization program for those people who are unable to go home and who are living in various collective centers around the country, getting those buildings into shape for winter."
Friday 17 October 2008
A U.S. guided missile destroyer docked in the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti for a goodwill visit, the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi said Thursday. The USS Barry (DDG-52) will be met by Georgian government officials, including representatives of the Defense Ministry and the local administration. The warship is expected to leave the South Caucasus country on Monday.
The war between Georgia and Russia in early August drove more than 130,000 Georgians from their homes as they fled bombing, shelling and looting. Two months later, most of them have been able to return, but tens of thousands are still living in shelters or with relatives because they cannot go home. Elene Khaduri, age 69, comes from the village of Kurta in South Ossetia and tells a harrowing tale of having to flee with other older people. "All the Georgian villages in the territory of South Ossetia were destroyed by fire. Then we had to escape. The older couple asked me to take them along and another 63 year old man came also. We were hiding and went through the forest and we slept in the forest," she said.
The parliaments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have been given permanent observer status in parliamentary sessions of the Russia-Belarus Union State. Now the lawmakers of the two new-born republics will have the right to address parliamentary assembly sessions of the union state.
TRUD, under the headline 'Russia won the war with Georgia. What for?' is trying to look into the positive and negative sides of victory in the 'Five day war'. The paper cites as positive factors the strengthening of Russia's strategic position in the Caucasus, the clear demonstration that Russia is serious about defending its interests, the push forward that the war gave to Russia's sluggish armed forces reform and the unprecedented unity of people and government in Russia. As for the negative ones, the paper names the damage done to Russia's international image, the decline in foreign investment (which could have been caused not by the war but by the financial crisis), an emergence of another 'hot spot' on Russian borders and the new necessity for Russia to come to terms with the occasionally erratic political behaviour of the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Thursday 16 October 2008
A delegation of Pentagon officials is still in Georgia trying to understand why the U.S.-trained and equipped Georgian army was defeated in just two days last August. Some in-depth analysis on how the U.S. could have prevented Russia from flattening the Georgian army was presented last week by the former Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, Michael W. Wynne. "We could have flown Global Hawks or U2s on the Russian-Georgian border to signal our watchfulness to the Russians. We could have escorted these assets with F-22s, which fly at a high enough altitude to operate in defence of unmanned assets, or can operate to defend key assets in Georgia," Wynne told online defence journal DoD Buzz.
The European Union's "Georgian camp" scored a small victory, forcing the EU to delay resuming talks on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Russia by at least another month. A final summit declaration adopted by EU leaders says the bloc's foreign ministers will revisit the issue on November 10, by which time the European Commission will also have completed an "audit" of the EU-Russia relationship. Poland, Britain, Sweden, the three Baltic states, and the Czech Republic had wanted the talks -- suspended on September 1 to protest Russia's military action in Georgia -- to remain on ice until at least November 14, when the next EU-Russia summit is scheduled. However, France, Germany and Italy are promoting a speedy relaunch of the talks after Russia complied with the ceasefire deal to withdraw its troops from security zones in Georgia. Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi went a step further. "I feel that Russia is a Western nation. My project is that, in the coming years, the Russian Federation can become a member of the EU," he said.
Wednesday 15 October 2008
Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, at a press briefing at the US Mission Geneva, said "Russia is not yet in full compliance with all of the ceasefire of August 12th. As you remember, that ceasefire, particularly point five, sentence one, calls for all Russian forces to be pulled back to their lines prior to the outbreak of hostilities on August 7th/8th. The only Russian forces that are supposed to remain in South Ossetia and Abkhazia are the peacekeeping forces in the numbers previously set. So this requirement has not yet been met but we hope it will be."
Russia chose to shift the focus to the international deliberations scheduled to start in Geneva on the future of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on October 15. Foreign Minister Lavrov openly courted controversy by saying Russia insists representatives of both provinces be granted "full representation" at the talks. "The document signed by both the Russian and French president states that international discussions on the conflict will start on October 15th. The participants in the talks are not listed in the documents, but we have made it clear that both South Ossetia and Abkhazia must have fully-fledged roles in the discussions. The security and stability of the region are set to top the agenda," Lavrov said.
"On October 15, there must no longer be a single Russian soldier on positions beyond where they were before August 7," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in Tbilisi on 09 September 2008. "Either it is done, and in that case each side has kept its word, or it is not done, and then five days later Europe will draw the consequences." The agreement signed by Medvedev and Sarkozy did not contain any stipulation that Russia withdraw to preconflict positions, a demand previously mentioned by Western states.
Russia plans to raise the issue of imposing an arms embargo on Georgia at talks scheduled for October 15 in Geneva, the Russian foreign minister said. "We will discuss, above all, ways to prevent aggression, and most importantly, the task of the demilitarization of Georgia," Sergei Lavrov said at a Valdai Discussion Club meeting in Moscow. Russia circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an embargo on arms sales to Georgia, after the United States announced measures to rebuild the South Caucasus country's military.
Talks aimed at easing tensions between Georgia and Russia have broken down. But international sponsors say they have just hit a snag and will resume next month. Everybody is putting a brave face on these short-lived talks. The United Nations, European Union and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which are mediating, adamantly reject any suggestion of failure. Johan Verbeke speaks during a press conference after a closed meeting of the Caucasus talks in Geneva, Switzerland, 15 Oct 2008 They prefer to call the walkout by the Georgian and Russian delegations a procedural snag. Special U.N. Representative to Georgia Johan Verbeke says no one should dramatize what happened.
The major sticking point, which led to the breakdown, appears to have been over Georgia's two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Georgian and Russian delegations differed over the role they should play in the negotiations. Russia, which recognizes both territories as independent states, objected to the exclusion of the South Ossetian and Abkhaz representatives from the talks.
The International Court of Justice ordered Russia and Georgia to defend civilians in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The UN's highest court called on both sides to protect the population from ethnic violence. The court's orders are binding, but it has no way of enforcing them. Georgia had asked the court to order Russia to protect ethnic Georgians, but the judges ruled that South Ossetian and Abkhazian civilians were also at risk. Court President Rosalyn Higgins said ethnic Georgian, South Ossetian and Abkhazian populations remain vulnerable.
Friday 10 October 2008
The world's stock markets lost 15 to 18 percent of their value in the past week. The paralyzed credit markets and warnings of a global recession led to panic selling in markets around the world. The G7 nations pledged to take decisive action to support systemically important financial institutions and prevent their failure, provide robust protection for retail bank deposits, and assure financial institutions are able to raise needed capital. This was a G7 meeting, of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, without Russia. Later in the day, finance officials from the G7 nations met with their counterparts from Russia, China, India, Brazil and a number of developing countries.
President Medvedev said he supports the idea of calling an urgent G8 summit to discuss measures to overcome the world economic crisis. The meeting could be attended by China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and "maybe, several more nations," he said.
Russia has fulfilled all its commitments under the ceasefire deal for Georgia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said. "We have done all that was expected of us, we have fulfilled all the commitments we undertook," Medvedev said in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Georgia claims that Russia will not be in compliance with the ceasefire deal until it pulls its troops back to positions held before August's five-day war. Moscow, which plans to station some 7,600 soldiers in the two rebel regions, says its withdrawal from the buffer zones means it is already in compliance with the terms of the ceasefire.
Thursday 09 October 2008
The full withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the buffer zone between Georgia and South Ossetia has been completed, with all Russian checkpoints closed. The peacekeepers left the territory within seven hours in broad daylight so that European observers could witness the process. There were two hundred of them at the territory adjacent to South Ossetia. Their mission is to maintain peace and stability in the area. According to Tbilisi, Georgian police will also be patrolling the territory.
Sunday 05 October 2008
Russian peacekeepers are dismantling more of their checkpoints on the Georgian side of the security zone on the Georgian-South Ossetian border. Moscow had promised to complete the withdrawal by the October 10 as part of the Sarkozy-Medvedev plan agreed by all sides involved in the conflict. They include the post in Nadarbazevi, about 50 kilometres north-west of the capital Tbilisi. The peacekeepers have apparently been seen taking down their flags and loading military equipment into trucks. The Georgian Interior Ministry says Russian forces have also fully pulled out of the village of Ali, near the town of Gori. Russian forces on the Georgian side of the buffer zone are set to be replaced by European monitors.
Thursday 02 October 2008
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe started discussions on whether to refuse Russia the right to vote at the January session unless it annuls its recognition of Georgia's rebel regions. PACE resumed on Thursday discussions on the consequences of the mid-August war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. Russia recognized the republic, along with Abkhazia, as independent states after the conflict. A draft PACE resolution has been drawn up, and is set to be adopted after several amendments have been proposed. The vote will be held later. One amendment, submitted by Cypriot parliamentarian Christos Pourgourides, proposes that the assembly "deprive the Russian and Georgian delegations of their right to vote at the January session if the countries do not implement recommendations put to them." Georgia would have to pull its troops back to pre-conflict positions, and Russia would have to annul its recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Senior German and Russian officials are meeting in St. Petersburg, with Russia seeking to show business is back to usual in the wake of the Georgia crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier are participating in the talks, as is Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Germany is Russia's leading European trade partner, with exports to Russia jumping more than 20 percent in the first half of this year to reach $22.3 billion. Russia exports to Germany reached $23.5 billion during the same period.
Merkel and Medvedev are discussing Russia's initiative of a new legally binding treaty on collective security in Europe, which was put forward by President Medvedev in Berlin in June. The idea of a new European collective security policy is largely a result of U.S. plans to base missile interceptors in Poland, which, according to Russia, will harm the balance of power in Europe.
There will be no new Cold War - the statement was made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the St Petersburg Dialogue Forum in Russia. He said it is as impossible as bringing back the Berlin wall. NATO countries have sent a message signalling their deteriorating relations with Russia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters after his meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in St. Petersburg. There are certainly no grounds for a new Cold War, Medvedev stressed. "But in terms of the overall worsening of the international atmosphere, the worsening of bilateral relations, this is of course possible, and NATO nations have given us a certain signal in this respect," he said.
Wednesday 01 October 2008
The European Union has begun deploying civilian monitors in Georgia, despite earlier threats by Russia to bar them from buffer zones near Georgia's two breakaway regions. The 200-plus-member peacekeeping team deployed Wednesday, entering the Russian-declared zone around South Ossetia at several points. Russia has agreed to withdraw all its forces from Ossetia, as well as those near a second breakaway territory, Abkhazia, by October 10. Initally Russia said it would bar the monitors from entering the buffer zones. Witnesses later said monitors were allowed into the Ossetia zone after being stopped briefly at a Russian checkpoint.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the government would allot an extra 80 billion rubles ($3.13 billion) next year to buy new weapons and partly offset Moscow's losses during a brief war in Georgia. The Caucasus events once again demonstrated the importance of our work on strengthening the combat-readiness of armed forces," Putin told a government meeting. "It is envisaged to allot an additional 80 billion rubles to purchase new military equipment and weapons and to deploy our troops where we consider it expedient to do so.... The talk is also about partial compensation of the losses caused by military actions in the Caucasus and... the purchase of new equipment. These losses must be offset by... new capabilities of our defense industry."
NATO bases in Ukraine and Georgia, if deployed, would threaten Russia's strategic military and economic infrastructure, the Russian Security Council secretary said. In an interview published in the Izvestia newspaper Wednesday, Nikolai Patrushev described the U.S. and NATO policy of increasing their military presence in Eastern Europe as seeking strategic military superiority over Russia. "Georgia and particularly Ukraine could, if they joined the alliance, become a suitable foothold for large ground, air and naval units equipped with high-precision and tactical nuclear weapons," Patrushev said.
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