Russia Cuts Georgia War Civilian Death Toll to 162 From 2,100
By Henry Meyer http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aL.FSDf.3P0U&refer=europe
Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) — A Russian investigation found that 162 civilians died during an August war with Georgia, not 2,100 as previously announced in Moscow.
Russia invaded U.S.-allied Georgia after the Georgian army tried to take control of South Ossetia, a Russian-backed breakaway region. Russian authorities accused Georgia of “genocide,” reporting in August that 2,100 South Ossetian civilians died from the Georgian military offensive.
The civilian death toll now officially stands at 162, state broadcaster Vesti-24 quoted the head of the Prosecutor-General’s investigative committee, Alexander Bastyrkin, as saying today in comments posted on its Web Site.
A criminal investigation is under way on charges of murder on ethnic grounds and genocide and it may widen to include other counts including the use of banned armaments and attacking sites under international protection, state news service RIA Novosti cited Bastyrkin as saying.
Russia had 48 soldiers killed, including 10 peacekeepers based in South Ossetia before the conflict, according to Bastyrkin. Georgia has said 215 of its soldiers died in the war.
Russia, spurred by Georgia war, plans arms upgrade
By Shamil Baigin http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc07/idUKTRE4BL3WT20081222
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia plans a massive increase in its weapons procurement for three years beginning in 2009, with 300 tanks, 14 warships and almost 50 airplanes on the shopping list, a senior government official said on Monday.
Vladislav Putilin, deputy head of the military-industrial commission, told journalists after a cabinet meeting the government planned to allocate 4 trillion roubles ($141.5 billion)in 2009-11 to bankroll equipment purchases to modernize its army.
He gave no comparative figure for previous years, but said the government “had been given the powers … to redistribute expenditure (on other items) within the budget” to upgrade the armed forces.
The move comes after Russia’s five-day war with tiny neighbor Georgia, triggered by Tbilisi’s attempt to retake its rebel South Ossetia region by force.
Russia won, but the conflict exposed a Soviet-style army with obsolete equipment, poorly coordinated command, outdated communications and a lack of spy drones and high-precision bombs.
Russian Defense Ministry Anatoly Serdyukov afterwards touted a military reform — Russia’s most radical since the end of World War Two — aiming to turn the army into a smaller, but more mobile and better-equipped force. (more…)
Russia blamed for monitor pullout
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7796154.stm
The European security body has around 200 staff in Georgia
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe says it will close its mission in Georgia early in 2009 because of Russian opposition.
Delegates said Moscow refused to back down during a row over the status of the breakaway regions of Georgia.
Russia insists that the disputed regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be recognised as independent.
US Ambassador Julie Finley described Russia’s resistance to reaching an agreement as “appalling”.
“There is only one party responsible for what has happened and what is about to happen with the shutting down of that mission – it is the Russian Federation,” she said.
The US and its European allies in the 56-nation grouping have not recognised South Ossetia as independent. (more…)
Russia starts missile delivery to Iran: Iranian MP
Reuters
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Russia has begun delivering S-300 air defense systems to Iran which could help repel any Israeli and U.S. air strikes on its nuclear sites, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.
“After few years of talks with Russia … now the S-300 system is being delivered to Iran,” IRNA quoted Email Kosari, deputy head of parliament’s Foreign Affairs and National Security committee, as saying.
Kosari did not say when the deliveries began. Iran’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the report. Russia’s Foreign Ministry also declined comment, saying it may react on Monday.
“After few years of talks with Russia … now the S-300 system is being delivered to Iran,” IRNA quoted Email Kosari, deputy head of parliament’s Foreign Affairs and National Security committee, as saying. (more…)
Russia riot police detain 100 at crisis protest
By Alexei Dovbysh http://uk.reuters.com/article/mideast/idUKTRE4BK0VL20081221
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – Russian riot police detained at least 100 people on Sunday protesting government measures linked to the economic crisis, a crackdown that highlighted official sensitivity to growing hardship.
Protests took place across Russia against car import tariffs, which are being raised to prop up car producers and discourage Russians from buying second-hand vehicles.
In the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, 6,000 km (3,750 miles) east of Moscow, riot police broke up an unsanctioned rally organized against the duties, kicked a protester as he was being held and hurled a cameraman’s gear to the ground.
Police used a loudspeaker to order demonstrators to go home as they gathered near the city center, and the OMON riot police with insignia suggesting they came from the Moscow region, started snatching people after an uneasy 30-minute standoff.
Local media said 100-200 of the 500 participants were detained, but authorities declined to confirm this figure.
Russia’s Far East is a major importer of used Japanese cars and analysts say the protests are the first serious challenge by Russians to measures directly linked to the financial crisis.
The global economic crisis has battered Russian financial markets and oil, a chief source of foreign currency revenue, has plunged from $147 to below $40 per barrel in six months.
Protesters want Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to reverse the tariff increase that they say will destroy livelihoods. (more…)
British Monitor Complicates Georgian Blame Game
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9069&Itemid=65
Observer Whose Reporting Supported Russian Claims About War Went AWOL, Lost His Job and Is Now Under Scrutiny
By MARC CHAMPION
Ryan Grist
TBILISI, Georgia — Since Russia invaded Georgia in August, Moscow has turned the tide of international opinion that initially put Russia squarely at fault in the conflict.
For that, the Kremlin largely has to thank Ryan Grist, a 47-year-old former British army captain in charge of international monitors when war broke out. But his objectivity is now being questioned by Georgia and some Western diplomats in Tbilisi.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he acknowledged for the first time that once war broke out he went AWOL across Russian lines on his own freelance fact-finding mission, which ultimately cost him his job.
Mr. Grist was in charge on the ground for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe when fighting erupted in Georgia’s separatist enclave of South Ossetia on the night of Aug. 7. Last month, he caused a stir when he told interviewers that his ceasefire monitors never heard Russian-backed provocations that Georgia says triggered the war.
He also says he repeatedly warned OSCE diplomats that Georgia might attack, but was ignored. Since giving his reports on the war, “I’ve been accused of working for MI6 and the KGB and I have been called a liar,” says Mr. Grist. “I just wanted to find out what was going on.”
Mr. Grist’s bona fides matter. When French President Nicolas Sarkozy eased off the European Union’s confrontation with Moscow over its role in the Georgia conflict, he cited news reports based largely on Mr. Grist’s account. Former allies of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili cited the reports as they called for early elections to oust him.
Mr. Saakashvili recently replaced the defense minister who conducted the war and the foreign minister responsible for selling Georgia’s version of events. Georgian leaders say they worry accusations that Georgia shot first will make President-elect Barack Obama unwilling to confront Moscow over Russian troops that remain in South Ossetia.
A veteran of military and diplomatic missions from Northern Ireland to Bosnia and Kosovo, Mr. Grist remains scathing about Georgian actions before and during the war. But he now says some of his comments have been over-interpreted. (more…)
Russia-Georgia talks on refugees, security resume
GENEVA: Russia and Georgia sat down for new peace talks in Geneva Wednesday after exchanging accusations about troops posted in and around the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The two sides discussed how to prevent shootings and other clashes that have been an obstacle to restoring stability since the August war that uprooted more than 160,000 people, a European diplomat told The Associated Press. He declined to be identified because the parties agreed not to comment before the end of the talks Thursday.
Russia on Monday accused Georgia of concentrating its servicemen in areas near Abkhazia and South Ossetia and unspecified “dangerous actions”.
Georgia responded by accusing Moscow of beefing up its forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, conducting ethnic cleansing and blocking access to international monitors.
Tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi have remained high since fighting broke out Aug. 7 when Georgian forces attacked to try to regain control of the two provinces.
Representatives from the EU, the U.N., the United States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also attended the talks, the third round since a French-brokered cease-fire.
Representatives from South Ossetia and Abkhazia were also there on an informal basis, EU spokesman Henri Duquenne said.
Ukraine’s NATO membership will be decided at referendum, says Tymoshenko
http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/32113
Kyiv, Dec. 17 (Interfax-Ukraine)- Whether or not Ukraine will join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will depend on the results of a nationwide referendum, said the country’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
“NATO accession will take place depending on the results of a nationwide referendum. There is nothing new here. This provision has been spelt out in our manifesto documents since 2004,” Tymoshenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
Having this matter resolved through a referendum will not contradict the manifesto documents of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYT), Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense or Lytvyn’s Bloc and will also be “consistent with Ukraine’s national interests,” she said.
“Our coalition is a coalition of forces which promote real democracy. And therefore the views and interests of our people are not a hollow sound for us. NATO is not an issue that could dismantle the coalition, we will remove any misunderstandings,” Tymoshenko said.
Russia May Purchase Israeli-Made Spy Drones
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ www.nytimes.com
MOSCOW — Russia is considering the purchase of an unspecified number of remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft from Israel, the head of the Russian military said on Tuesday, in what may be an attempt by the Kremlin to strengthen its intelligence-gathering capacity following the August war with Georgia.
A Russian purchase of such aircraft from Israel would be a significant expansion of military business between the two countries.
“We are working on this issue,” Gen. Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the Russian General Staff, told the Interfax news agency. We are talking about a test batch of Israeli drone planes.”
The announcement comes amid sweeping changes unveiled by the Russian Defense Ministry in recent months aimed at streamlining the country’s armed forces. The changes include thinning the officer corps, improving training and living standards for troops and purchasing modern weapons systems.
Talk of the purchase was likely prompted by intelligence-gathering failures by the Russian military during the August war with Georgia, which has Israeli-made spy drones, said Aleksandr Golts, an independent Russian military analyst.
“The war in Georgia showed us that we are frightfully lagging behind in terms of technical reconnaissance,” Mr. Golts said. “There were many failures of intelligence.”
(more…)
Terms of Use Police thwart Moscow opposition rally, arrest 25
MOSCOW (AP) — Police thwarted an anti-Kremlin protest organized by Garry Kasparov’s opposition group on Sunday, seizing demonstrators and shoving them into trucks. They detained at least 25 people including the group’s co-leader.
About 10 protesters also were detained in St. Petersburg, Russian media reported.
There was no sign of former chess champion Kasparov at the chaotic downtown Moscow square where he had vowed to hold a demonstration despite being denied permission.
Kasparov and his allies in the group Other Russia want to draw attention to Russia’s economic troubles and to protest Kremlin plans to extend the presidential term from four years to six. Kremlin critics say the planned constitutional change is the latest step in a retreat from democracy and is designed to further increase the grip of powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his allies.
Before the planned start of the Sunday demonstration, hundreds of police ringed Triumph Square, which was cordoned off with metal barriers and police trucks.
Police seized Kasparov’s Other Russia co-leader, Eduard Limonov, along with a handful of bodyguards as they approached the square. They were bundled into police vehicles.
Police roughly grabbed protesters who tried to enter the square. Officers could be seen detaining about 25 people and dragging several of them into a waiting truck. Some were members of a pro-Kremlin youth group that staged a counter-demonstration, dropping leaflets from a concert hall rooftop. (more…)
Russia Sends in 500 Troops to Disputed Village, Georgia Says
By Helena Bedwell and Denis Maternovsky georgiandaily.com
Russia sent in more than 500 troops to the disputed Georgian village of Perevi near the separatist region of South Ossetia, forcing the local police out, Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said.
Russian military deployed more troops in the village after ceding it to the Georgian police yesterday in a “premeditated provocative behavior,” which was witnessed by observers from the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement today.
“The agreements which Russians have signed for need to be upheld, I think the international community needs to focus more on human rights issues, on the issues of police officers who are being shot from across the lines, people who have been displaced against the law,” U.S. Senator John Kerry told reporters today in the capital Tbilisi after meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Russia routed Georgia’s army in a five-day August war over South Ossetia, and later recognized the region’s independence and that of another breakaway, Abkhazia, a move condemned by the U.S. and many European countries.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered the cease- fire that ended the conflict, called on Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in November to pull Russian troops out of Perevi and the Akhalgori valley near South Ossetia. Medvedev countered that the cease-fire had been “fully implemented” by Russia.
Georgia: European Group Attacked
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By ELLEN BARRY www.nytimes.com
Gunmen attacked an armored vehicle carrying unarmed monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Wednesday near the administrative boundary with the separatist region of South Ossetia, the organization said. No one was hurt. Georgia said the attack came from Russian-controlled territory, but South Ossetian officials denied the charge. The vehicle was monitoring Georgian-controlled villages outside South Ossetia, the group said. “This is another regrettable reminder of the urgent need to improve the security situation in the area,” said Ambassador Terhi Hakala, head of the organization’s mission to Georgia.
U.S. Says Russia Can’t Block Monitors
HELSINKI — A senior U.S. diplomat said Friday that Russia must stop blocking international monitors from going into Georgia’s separatist South Ossetia region to assess reports of human rights abuses.
The monitors have been unable to return to the Moscow-backed region since a war in August between Russia and Georgia, and human rights groups say that in their absence ethnic Georgians are being harassed by the separatists.
“There is, unfortunately, a silence and darkness with respect to the international monitors that has descended on South Ossetia,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told reporters at a security conference in Helsinki. “The solution is hardly to keep monitors out of South Ossetia. … Russia has an obligation, since it controls this territory, to let in international observers.”
Russia launched a counterattack in August after Georgian troops tried to retake South Ossetia, the Moscow-backed region that threw off Tbilisi’s rule in the 1990s. (more…)
Russia-Georgia War: Back to the Russian FM declaration of March 6, 2008
George Shengelaia http://georgiandaily.com
On 6 March 2008, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russia was withdrawing from the trade ban imposed by the Commonwealth of Independent States on Georgia’s breakaway provinces of Abkhazia in 1996. The Russian Foreign Ministry also urged the heads of the other CIS countries to take similar steps and withdraw from the regime of restrictions with regards to Abkhazia.
This unilateral decision, taken and announced without any consultation with Georgia or other CIS countries, was an alarming development for Georgia, the Black Sea region and thus the world.
The ban on military and economic, financial, and other ties was imposed on Abkhazia following one of the worst episodes of ethnic cleansing of the past decades. Over 300,000 ethnic Georgians and others were chased from their homes by separatist militias, supported by Russian mercenaries. Most remain internally displaced persons, eking out a difficult living in the rest of Georgia. (more…)
Disputes between Russia, West mar security meeting
By KARL RITTER
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — A trans-Atlantic security conference closed without a declaration of common goals Friday after it was unable to resolve disputes between Russia and the West.
Finland, which hosted the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, pushed for a statement that supported the group’s role in monitoring a cease-fire between Russia and Georgia. The statement also would have called for strengthening the OSCE presence in areas affected by the countries’ August war.
But Russia resisted pressure from the U.S. and other nations to allow international monitors into the breakaway province of South Ossetia, which has been controlled by Russia since the war.
“The differences on fundamental issues proved to be too wide to be bridged,” Finland’s Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said.
Negotiations also stumbled over a statement of support for the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which limits the number of conventional weapons across the continent, a Western diplomat said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to officially comment on the proceedings.
Russia suspended its participation in the 1990 treaty late last year, saying it became meaningless when nations in the former Soviet orbit joined NATO. (more…)
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