Russia calls halt to Georgia military operation
HONOR MAHONY
12.08.2008 @ 17:21 CET
Russian president Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday (12 August) announced that he had called a halt to his army's military operation in Georgia after five days of intense fighting, with casualty and refugee estimates running to the thousands.
"The goals of the operation have been achieved," Mr Medvedev said during a meeting with defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov shown on Russian TV. "The safety of our peacekeepers and the civilian population have been restored."
Italy and Germany are both constructing major natural gas pipelines with Russia (Photo: Gazprom)
But he attached two conditions to a complete settlement of the war with Georgia. "First, Georgian troops should return to their initial position and be partly demilitarized," he said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Second, we need to sign a binding agreement on non-use of force."
Georgia claims that military activity continued after Moscow's statement.
"Despite the Russian president's claims earlier this morning that military operations against Georgia have been suspended, at this moment, Russian fighter jets are bombarding two Georgian villages outside South Ossetia," Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told Reuters news agency.
The Russian announcement came just before French President Nicolas Sarkozy, currently representing the EU presidency, arrived in Moscow to negotiate a ceasefire.
After meeting Mr Medvedev, Mr Sarkozy said: "We do not yet have peace deal, we have a provisional cessation of hostilities but this is significant progress."
"It's perfectly normal that Russia would want to defend the interests both of Russians in Russia and Russophones outside Russia," he added. "It is also normal for the international community to want to guarantee the integrity, sovereignty and independence of Georgia."
The French president also suggested the EU would be willing to send peacekeepers to Georgia's separatist zones in future.
Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus took a harsher line on the Russian announcement, however.
"We cannot allow a second Munich," he said on Lithuanian radio, in reference to an incident in 1938, when the UK and France allowed Hitler to annex a part of Czechoslovakia. "Then, countries appeased Hitler and it led to World War II, to a colossal tragedy and millions of lost human lives."
Russia secures South Ossetia
The Russia-Georgia conflict started on Thursday night (7 August) when Georgia tried to retake the region of South Ossetia, where pro-Russian rebel forces achieved de facto independence in the 1990s. The next day Russia retaliated with tanks and warplanes.
Russia says casualties run to over 2,000 but this number has yet to be independently verified. Meanwhile, according to United Nations estimates, around 100,000 people have fled their homes.
Moscow's actions drew some strong criticism from Georgia's main ally, Washington. US President George W. Bush said it had "invaded a sovereign neighbouring state" something which was "unacceptable in the 21st century."
But Russia's move to halt its military operation may have saved Europe from what were likely to be embarrassing divisions on how to respond to the crisis, with EU foreign ministers due in Brussels on Wednesday (13 August) to discuss the matter.
While Italy, Germany and France called for an end to the fighting, they had not condemned Russia's actions.
"It would be negative for Europe if a sort of coalition against Russia develops, which could happen," Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said in Italian daily La Stampa. "[The EU] should be a bridge between the United States and Russia if it wants to have a political role with any weight."
Honest broker
"[We] ought to maintain a stance which gives us Europeans the capacity to be an honest broker between the two sides," a spokesman for Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told the IHT.
Ex-communist EU member states Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania wanted the bloc to take a tougher line. Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves openly urged the EU to suspend talks on a new partnership pact with Russia.
While Georgia is of strategic importance to the West due to a pipeline that carries oil from the Caspian Sea to Western markets, bypassing Russia, Italy and Germany are both constructing major natural gas pipelines with Russia - the South Stream and North Stream projects.