Sunday, August 17, 2008

Cosmopolitan with Shakira in Russia


Finally Shakira appeared on the cover of Russian magazine Cosmopolitan!
The new magazine in August sales at stores from 15 July!
Shakira is presented under the heading "A person with the cover": Eternal Beloved Shakira: about themselves, dancing and respect for Beyonse.

Shakira will perfomed in Columbia

Shakira will speak July 20 (Independence Day of Colombia) at a concert in support of the hostages who are still in the hands of Colombian rebel FARC. Her personally invited the President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe. At the concert will also be the presidents of Brazil and Peru. The concert will be held in the town of Leticia, Colombia, on the border with Peru and Brazil. It is expected that Shakira will appear on the peace march in Paris on July 20, in support of the liberation of Ingrid Betancourt, but Shakira said she will go better in their native Colombia. On the same day she departure back to Bogotá, and then in London, where continue to work on the new album.

Shakira on Rock in Rio

Last night lit Shakira Music Festival at the Rock in Rio in Madrid, Spain. This is the second appearance of the singer at the festival after 2006. She presented an updated period play and a number of repertoire, including a Las De La Intuición and Hay Amores (recently on his release from the Colombian rebel FARC former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt)!

Shakira performed:
Te Dejo Madrid
Inevitable
La Tortura
Si Te Vas
Suerte
Band introduction

Hay Amores
Pies Descalzos
Ciega Sordomuda
Don't Bother
Las de La Intuición
Ojos Así
Hips Don't Lie

Shakira on radio Betankur

Shakir said Betancourt from Madrid, as she is happy as the people pleased, what a great president, great spasatelanya operation without the passage of blood, she is proud that kolumbiyanka, the world they looked different eyes, Shakira very dlagodarna, appealed to all to renounce the resistance that they lay down their arms boron for the ghost of the past, if you ingrid me, I hear you voshishayus, for the point you do not believe has lost weight for those years, was given in the jungle of children, I am proud that Ingrid Betancourt kolumbiyka, that person colombia women's struggle, peace in the We looked at another, I think the world should support us in this fight brotherly countries, France and Colombia Ingrid osedinilis this speech, she reminded us that the jungle kidnapped in 3000, many died, she urged not to stop until all is not free, people know ingrid and colombia I am with you and all the people willing to fight for peace, (Ingrild appears on the phone), I love you shakira said, Shaikra her reply that admire you very much, you chmoy children (bad Heard) Ingrild govrit that wants to embrace her when nibut,

Shakira learned from palizzi when rehearsed, there was bart Fernando Achoa all radovali wept nemogli believe zamechatlenaya operation, nor odnyo kolumbiysokoy drop of blood is not shed, so I voshishayus president, those who planned, Army

Colombia people should not forget the stolen 3000, with the help of Ingrid, should they wish vozvrasheniya is the most important thing now, the world looks at us differently, we have begun to act, we are very close to peace, to budushemu on kotorm so I wanted to, us, this past Colombia peace our future.

Colombia is most important, when I began to go on the market for vsyaikm markets and Anglo drugimpomnyu when they uzanvali that I kolmubiyka they became funny, you triple on the importance of the product after kokoina colombia, is now looking for another, the economy rises, foreigners are not so afraid of colombia, developed Official helped us but left us with a unified samymmi major problems with poverty, children nemechtayut be guerrillas and criminality onimechtat be a doctor and must be done so that these dreams performed, I think vozvrashenie INgrid should inspire us to put the seeds of peace, we must board with poverty, and now when Kolmubiya France splochilis so, I think they may be to help us to make colombia prosperous fair.

New album

MTV will follow the Shakiroy the studio.
According to information available at some sites in Spanish, MTV wants to do with reality Shakiroy, where he was shown the writing process would be a new album the singer.

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In addition, the information came from Sony BMG, that the new album Shakira will be in English, although it is possible that will be included and a few songs in Spanish.

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The new album should appear in mid-2009 - the first year.

Shakira about Rock In Rio

The publication El Tiempo reported that tickets for Shakira concert at Rock in Rio festival in Madrid (4 July) completely sold.

El Tiempo: What we see at the concert?
Shakira: Shaw will last one hour and 10 minutes. I changed a little repertoire, the order of songs and costumes, that is my most hateful occupation.

El Tiempo: Why?
Shakira: If I could, I would have sung without clothes. Of course I do not dare do so, because I am stesnitelnost in all that relates to my body, although you and I do not believe it. Sing without clothes, it would be much easier, because working on costumes for me very much. Selection of wardrobe for the concert is not the same thing, that the selection of clothing for a hike in film. Costumes at the concert are an important component. It is a wardrobe and I worked before coming here [in Madrid], to slightly change their appearance.

El Tiempo: And how you will look like?
Shakira: More or less the same (laughs)

El Tiempo: What do you felt when learn that your tickets for the show were sold out faster than at the show The Police?
Shakira: I said at that time that I have to change wardrobe. Similarly in Spain, my tour took place in many cities, and people to see me several times. Therefore required a change of wardrobe.

El Tiempo: And what do you say that you will sing at one stage with Amy Winehouse and Jamiroquai? Shakira: Rock in Rio Festival has a high reputation, and these artists have achieved a lot, and it is an honour to be with them on one stage. I never stop to respect the talent and beauty that people can create. I love the voice of Amy and songs Jamiroquai.

Shakira & Antonio - all they have exellent!

Late last week, marked by dirty insinuations of dirty deeds stronu eternal bridegroom Shakira, Argentine Antonio de la Rua, allegedly captured in photographs Antonio in explicit poses with another woman he did something immoral in relation to Shakire. Press learned that this name is razluchnitsu Melina Betancourt, and Antonio something with it gently said in a romantic atmosphere in a bar in New York. Nevertheless, people from the entourage Antonio de la Rua said that this is all speculation for selling photos. Photos captured with Antonio mysterious woman, only with pictures of the birth of something where there were a lot of friends Shakira and Antonio. They were lifted in a dark corner, at the time of farewell, and all this specially then sell them for reckless money, as alleged fact of treason. So the stuff on which Antonio in the insoles drunk, the will gives his hands, this woman puts itself to its knees, just ...
"There is no Melina Betancourt, as written. Shakira and Anthony have been all day yesterday in Miami, but this morning arrived in Spain ", - told people this pair. U Shakira July 4 speech at the Rock in Rio festival in Madrid, and Antonio at the head of finances Shakira always next to it.

Legend of Spain

In September this year, the magazine People en Espanol is going to release a book called "Legends of Spain".
In this book will include the 100 most prominent Hispanics from different spheres of activity.
Among the artists in this book will be marked: Ricky Martin, Julio Iglesias, Celia Cruz, Selena and Shakira.

Best of MTV Unplugged

Soon, Sony BMG is going to release a double CD c best songs with acoustic concerts "MTV Unplugged".
In this collection will include songs such artists as Ricky Martin, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Cafe Tacvba, Mana, Alejandro Sanz, Shakira, i Soda Stereo, Maldita Vecindad and others.
Also on this double album will be added bonus DVD disc.
Shakir, speaking on "MTV Unplugged" in 1999 - year, pointing to a CD with his song "Inevitable".

Friday, August 15, 2008

Ossetia Conflict Stays Out of Moscow


Oksana Onipko / MT
Slava Tsakagov, right, and Khugayev unloading humanitarian aid near Moscow's Ossetian center on Thursday.


The South Ossetia conflict has not spilled over into hostilities between Moscow's Georgians and Ossetians, who are busy collecting clothes and medicine for their compatriots and seem united in their dislike for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Georgians and Ossetians living in Moscow said they were united by grief.

The two diasporas are preparing to stage a joint rally on Pushkin Square on Friday to mourn the 1,600 civilians that Russia says died in the fighting, said Zemfira Tsakhimova, deputy head of Moscow's Ossetian community.

"We hope that time will heal the wounds, and the peoples of Georgia, Ossetia, Abkhazia and Russia will build their lives as good neighbors," the Union of Georgians in Russia said in a statement. "Rulers like Saakashvili leave, but there will always be fraternity, faith and love between us."

Moscow's Ossetian community numbers some 50,000 people, while there are about 300,000 Georgians in the city, spokespeople for the communities said.

Most Georgians and Ossetians interviewed for this report said they had no enmity toward each other and blamed Saakashvili for the conflict.

Since last Friday, an Ossetian community center outside the Novoslobodskaya metro station has been turned into a transfer point for dozens of carton boxes and plastic bags of humanitarian aid. A dozen Ossetian, Russian and Armenian volunteers, mostly young men and women, hustled around the main room and up and down narrow stairs to the second floor on Wednesday afternoon, packing boxes and bags and carting them out into the street, where they loaded them into a truck.

The volunteers said many had not slept for two or three days as they sorted through donations for South Ossetian refugees.

A member of the community's council, Irina Dambegova, said the fighting had drawn the Ossetians and Russians closer together.

"Now, we are one people," Dambegova said. "Russians understand that if Russia gives away Ossetia, it will start losing territories up to the Rostov region."

Ossetians had sent four trucks with medicine, clothes and bed linen -- things that the refugees needed most -- to South Ossetia by Thursday, she said.

Dambegova was among a few Ossetians interviewed who voiced a negative attitude toward ordinary Georgians. "They greeted this fascist!" she exclaimed, referring to a rally of tens of thousands of Georgians in Tbilisi on Tuesday in support of Saakashvili. "The people have the ruler they deserve."

Ossetian volunteer Levan Gagiyev, 21, lashed out at Saakashvili: "This was done by a certain ruler, not the Georgian people."

Another Ossetian volunteer, Alan Khugayev, 18, said he had a negative attitude toward the Georgian people. "There are certain Georgian youth groups in Moscow and Tbilisi that support Saakashvili," he said.

The Union of Georgians in Russia has collected 270,000 rubles ($11,110) to buy medicine for people who suffered in the conflict, said Igor Gvritishvili, a member of the union's council.

"The source of the conflict is not Saakashvili's actions but some shortsighted leaders of small groups of people ... who decided to take advantage of the troubled times after the fall of the Soviet Union by becoming leaders of separatist republics," Gvritishvili said, speaking at the union's headquarters outside the Sukharevskaya metro station.

Few of Moscow's Georgians seemed to share his views. In the union's statement, union president Mikhail Khubutiya called Saakashvili "a little fuhrer."

"We curse the Georgian leadership that used the slyest way to hoist deadly weapons on a peacefully sleeping Tskhinvali," he said.

An unknown group of activists proposed holding an unsanctioned rally in support of Georgia in Red Square on Wednesday, but the Union of Georgians refused to take part.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Day of mourning in Russia

The Governments of Russia announced on August 13, 2008 a day of mourning.

Sorrow for those who died in South Ossetia

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Chronicles of War


In Tskhinvali | © Reuters / Scanpix


Residents of Tskhinvali hid in the basement of the school | © Reuters / Scanpix

Tskhinvali: hospital in the cellar



© Reuters/Scanpix



© Reuters/Scanpix


© Reuters/Scanpix


© Reuters/Scanpix


© Reuters/Scanpix


© Reuters/Scanpix


On the streets of Tskhinvali | © Reuters / Scanpix


Georgian tank hit on the streets of Tskhinvali | © AFP / Dmitry Kostyukov


Nana's house and Givi Mamukashvili in Gori suffered during yesterday's bombing | © AP Photo / Scanpix

Georgian soldiers killed in the streets of Tskhinvali | © Reuters / Scanpix



Tskhinvali: evacuation of civilians | © Reuters / Scanpix



Residents fleeing the Georgian village | © AFP / Dimitar Dilkov


South Ossetia militias | © AP Photo / Scanpix

Historical facts

Against the backdrop of emotional, but often "not factual" outposts, it is necessary to reveal to interested curtain over the history problem of South Ossetia. I have to intervene in the information war, waged against Russia and South Ossetia media disinformation and West Georgia.

History

Modern Georgia - a multi-ethnic state; Armenians, Jews, Azeris, Greeks, Kurds lived in these lands and to this day, but until recently the list could fill up the Ossetians and Abkhazians, but ... until recently. According to Greek and Roman historians Ossetians, Abkhazians, Armenians lived here since time immemorial, like the Georgians. I will not turn historiographical essay in the certificate, will show only road futility, which stood at the Georgian science - it is impossible to excerpt from Pliny, Strabo, Martsellina, Tacitus justify their existence at the exclusive disputed lands and deny that right to other peoples. It is very difficult to hunt for evidence of their own "right" to those lands and ryskat on parchment in the search for "certificate of ownership." First, it is meaningless. Secondly, your luck may vis. The challenge has no solutions. To cite only a few historiographical extracts, which showed at least on the right Ossetians live in this land.

The pipe, not only Gazprom

I recall, in prehistoric times tribes and peoples of different emergency mobility. Migrated not only people but also the names, toponyms, a specific geographic region for centuries evolved unthinkable changes. There were no Ossetians in their current form, did not exist, and Georgians in the modern notion, but over the centuries as he. e. and to Mr.. e. in the history of accumulated numerous written testimony presence in the disputed territory ancestors of modern Ossetians. Range of military-political and economic spread of the Sarmatians-Alans is wide enough both on the northern side of the Main Caucasian Ridge, and on the south. The importance Sarmatians-Alans play in the lives of empires of Rome and Byzantium, Asian and East predetermined almost nothing of their limited mobility. Figuratively speaking, high combat capability was constantly in demand, "contract" followed "contract". Of the steppes of southern Russia today in the South Caucasus and beyond, the space Asia Minor and the Mediterranean basin countries could go three ways: Derbent (on the coast of the Caspian Sea), along the shore of the Black Sea and through the passage Daryalsky (at the very heart of the Main Caucasian Ridge). And if, over time, a western passage in the Transcaucasus and east were inhabited and "zastolbleny", the central left for the Sarmatians-Alans. Now imagine: go-go military units here, figuratively speaking, in-home raids, in-home invasions, and the road from the Caucasus in the Transcaucasus, otherwise the "tube", as time passes through the territory of modern Ossetia, from North to South and vice versa . Over time the land controlled by Alans usohli to two small areas on both sides of the Main Caucasian Ridge, but always the center of education Ossetian lands remained Daryalsky passage - testimony was power. As in the territory south Ossetia emerged and developed settlements? Very simply - with frequent military crossings on both sides of the ridge occurred, figuratively speaking, "Laced base" (fodder, food), developed infrastructure, has spread its distinctive way of life. So guests Ossetians on the southern side of the ridge or Aborigines?

South Ossetian tribe Twaltæ (ed. h. twal, adj. Twallag - so far south Ossetians, saying the origin, referred to as such, the adjective "tualsky", "I - tualsky") with documented in VII. in the forms Dowalk '(Ashharatsuyts) and Tūlās = Tuwal-Ăs (Ibn-Rusta and Hudud al-Alam), in Dvaletskom ways "(gza Dvalet'isa = Daryalsky passage) chronicles Kartlis Tshovreba and Duelli John III of the Sultan. This ethnonym, etymology of which is unknown, its origins, apparently, to the Georgian form with a blank dentalnym sound, given the assumption that a branch of Alans populated the area close to the Caucasian people Dval-, and borrowed its name. In South Ossetia, in the upstream river Liahva Most still live Ossetians, who are known as Ūrstwaltœ "white tualy."
Of Kartlis Tshovreba, Georgian chronicles learn that Ossetian kings (Ovst'a mep'eni) Bazuk and allies acted Anbazuk arshakidskih Kings Kartli / Iverii Azorka and Armazela (Vahusht he 87-103.) Against the Armenian king Artashana (MART Artašēs); the same episode of "Stories of Armenia" Movses Khorenatsi interprets as the invasion of Alans (Alank '), which supported "Iveriyskoy half of the country."
It may be continued for a long time, but it is clear - the historical evidence does not talk about anything, except that on the retirement side of the Main Caucasian Ridge has long been the light of both peoples, long enough to fall for centuries in historical chronicles. Letopis not perpetuate the exclusive right for any one people to the ground, throwing another marginalized stories. Most likely, the truth lies somewhere in between, Georgians are on their own land, at its Ossetians.

The first wave of genocide

In the past, the Georgian historians and chronicler wrote about their land as a garden, which grow and skew different cultures. But those blessings century long gone.
Menshevist Government N. Zhordaniya years beginning in 1918-1921 to pursue a policy of displacement of "aliens", one after another was followed by punitive expeditions, Ossetians and Abkhaz have become evict, burning houses, killed while trying to resistance. Again, the existence of the state border is not postulated fact Championship at the designated territory of any ethnic group against another, even more so if the issue goes to a gray antiquity, that the truth of concealing haze centuries. Fact same compact residence in the territory Ossetians YUO successfully survived the era and get on the MTNet historians and ethnographers. The Georgian government for its bloody games "to play until", the Bolsheviks bayonets XI - Army, led by SM Kirov and Sergo Ordzhonikidze entered into Georgia from North Ossetia and Menshevist overthrew the government. Since filing the Bolsheviks won YUO cardboard autonomy, actually, hence the modern plyashet South Ossetian statehood. But the Georgians had "nice" walk - Government troops Menshevist dumped into the abyss of children, the elderly, pregnant vsparyvali stomachs. Burned dozens of villages and towns, deliberately massacred five and a half thousand people, tens of thousands of refugees fled in JI. As a result, nearly three-week killing, fires and murders YUO virtually empty. Here is what he wrote nachshtaba Menshevist Guard B. Dzhugeli: "I look with a calm soul of the ashes and clubs smoke. I am quite calm, so calm ..." I do not know whether to write examples of atrocities? As in the eyes of the sons of mothers of childbearing authorities cut off hapless women and forced them are ... The pair were forced to watch as their mothers middle of winter, stripped naked and water through the streets of the village ... Do Hitler and Goebbels were good teachers.
The second wave of genocide. Shida Kartli, Samachablo

So Georgians called South Ossetia.

Zhili everything together, not to make an effort at a very conditional borders until a new time with their celebration formalism and normativizma. Hard to consolidate the border, declare, documented, and where you caught the end of redistribution of the world, therefore, in those borders and live. At first glance, correctly, that little, fairly and humanely, but only at first. Here Georgian historiography, the history and propaganda in government circles servants do zidanovsky fint - argued that these lands have always been a Georgian. Only Georgians - aboriginal people, all the rest came to be evicted. Sense the subtle substitution of concepts - fixing borders, shape does not define the limits of state for economic and other necessary life, and postulated someone's priority and primacy in the designated territory, which might say independent historians and other letopisnye certificate. For this bizarre logic of Swaziland and Lesotho simply do not have the right to autonomy, because on all sides surrounded by another State, and, therefore, external border of South Africa clearly shows that the Aborigines Lesotho and Swaziland - strangers, and came good to allow them go out.
Will laugh, in the late eighties "Demographic healing the nation" in Georgia announced almost a national strategy, in modern terminology - National Project. In 1988, Professor Kvanchilashvili published demographic work, which proposes to limit the birth rate in non-Georgian families simple reproduction. Another "scholar", Chkaanava, offered to evict negruzin with more than two children in the family.
Understandably, all this is an extreme and as the official rate is unlikely to be proclaimed (however, all could be), but the fact that this has occurred, said monstrous "brittle" Georgians for external attributes of statehood - coat of arms, flag and most importantly -- if possible with impunity, without looking back to Moscow samolyubie own illusions. Hence the forced assimilation - you do not obtain a passport and citizenship and forget about normal life until you change the name and in the infamous fifth column did not write "Georgians." That's living on the territory of Georgia numerous - shvili, which often turned Ossetians. So Tedeyev becomes Tedeshvili, Gazzaev - Gazashvili, and so on. About Svans and adzhartsev not write, is a separate topic and let it cover those who "owns matter."
The two provisions, one derives from another, determine policies with regard to Georgia's neighbours are already nearly century: more of us (hence, we older), and from here - we have the superior right to make that wish. Please take account of the game case, Leer fate - Georgia border, coinciding on the misfortune in its northern border with northern same YUO, "collects" only way of managing, which is south side of Main Caucasian Ridge is somewhat different from that on the northern side. By way of commonality and cultural landscape has emerged, which limits and closed in the state border, the then distinguish Caucasian winegrowers Oykumenu - similar to the agricultural cycle, the overall shopping centers, roads, calendars and home church. Take into account whether that outline the true meaning - defined territory and population, employed a similar life, in which Georgians merely quantitatively more? Now that you, much easier way to declare their designated, and neighbors - importing "the Georgian way of life", nahlebnikami and newcomers. Coming soon will begin to take royalties for growing grapes and closed icon © the word "grapes". The natural boundary lies on the livelihood of ridge, and it is difficult to say that it would be, if the Main Caucasian Ridge just north. South Ossetia has become a little more, if on the south side of Chechnya or Dagestan ... As you can imagine the rhetoric of Tbilisi in this case? Ventured to Gamsakhurdia, and now Saakashvili meryatsya piskoy with the Chechens and dagestantsami for those older? Tiny South Ossetia - like a bone in the throat, I can not swallow, soon stuknet potugam this century, soon hlynut tears, and there Chechens and dagestantsy ... I though fiction, but from such alternativki krovischey too bad, of course, recognize the infallibility of Georgia if the principle of "us more, then, we have ancient, but you never stood here." At the request of friends can write, but do not feel like. Much easier to write: "... and then on Shakespeare - all died."
Like the Baltic countries, Georgia to the limit sore for decades carried out under the Bolsheviks and the fifth since independence in a new time is rapidly catching-up for lost time to quit. We can not say that South Ossetians were all happy Bolsheviks - kutsaya autonomy "pulls no" against the bold piece that won Georgia - Tbilisi but for all that much resembles rabies, when the wolf comes poisonous saliva and biting everyone.
May 26, 1989 in Georgia announced a popular holiday - the anniversary of another outbreak of the Georgian democratic republic and throughout the country ... Menshevist display flags. South Ossetia is not subordinated. The word "guests" in the then (and today's) rhetoric of official Tbilisi did not contain anything brighter, the stereotype of "Georgian hospitality" better not to remember. The article "What Will Save Georgia", dated June 29, 1989 newspaper Ahalgarazda Komunisti ", signed by Revaz Mishveladze publishes the text read:" As for Satan mastered our consciousness, for centuries protected hardly found inch for inch fold, to cede land filled with blood all -- Bezrodnomu whether dervish with the Caucasian mountains, beskulturnomu tribe, which had no previous Lyubymi activities ... we should try to percentage of the Georgian population from 61 (at that time) would have risen to 95. " This sounds until January, when at 87 - by the buses, 20 - ty spetsmashinah in Tskhinval raided "Georgian Falco" - Ministry of Internal Affairs officers and militia volunteers, among whom were amnestied on the occasion of criminals and drug addicts. Comicality looked Georgian "police", on which no thick belly shirts converge uniforms issued hastily.
It was everything - the shelling of cannons and heavy machine guns, a siege. Residents of Tskhinvali cut off access to the cemetery, and had to bury those killed in the courtyards. The courtyard of a school has become a real military cemetery. Polosovali lead children in the streets. Gamsakhurdia at a meeting with the Ossetian public figures at the Institute of Georgian literature to splash saliva: "No Ossetians will not remain on the ground Samachablo."
Four days kept a small village Helchua. Men fought to the last, and when ammunition ran out, took the women, children, elderly and capable of moving gone through mountains and forests in Tskhinval. Several elderly people left, upovaya at the ancient tradition of Montagnards honor their old age. Guess what was next? Seniors Nina Bestaevu, Sergei Hugaeva, Herman Kisieva were brutally beaten, tortured and shot. Village looted (remember, criminals amnestied) and burned. One of the fighters saw the finger at 95 - years Tekle Kazievoy golden wedding ring. Once on a thin finger graceful maiden husband put his hands. For eight years, tens of work-worn hands so nabuhli mozolyami that if vroslo in the ring finger. Banda knife cut off from living together with Tekle ring finger ...
"Charm" stories with Ossetians that in this case, Georgia was unable to do tishkom and molchkom. The noise came out loud, Ossetians were not silent. But such adventures from Georgia, unfortunately, already passed by silent scenario. Suddenly, the Dukhobors, through two centuries all at once suddenly "remembered" on their historic homeland and "unanimously" expressed a desire to leave in the Tula region. Five thousand Avars, lived a few centuries on the southern side of GKH, "suddenly prozreli" and as a query in Russia in Dagestan.
The third wave of genocide
I begin to describe, but caught myself thinking: A need it? Not enough? All this reminds bad dream, circles of hell. Wait whether Ossetians fourth wave?
A few words in the end.
News show almost crying women and men are not visible, to me about something said. Any information daily sample one way or another, pulling a few nebrityh persons, but they are not in the picture read, and if occasionally appear, the impeachment dark. Of course, dvenadtsatikratnoe superiority in manpower and technology formidable gaze not kompensiruesh, support the regular army invaluable, just trying to look in the shadow, that will never be covered by mass media, but that, surely, poimeet place (so has been in the past Georgian entry). What will then ...
To begin abrisny potret southern Ossetians: independent, slightly dikovat right in the sense that nature around him and it very very much. Zlopamyaten and very strong. Duhovity small, used to rely only on themselves and in communion with nature without intermediaries in the form of excesses of civilization. It (civilization) in YUO, of course, is, but I am not on the water, and Internet phones. All the problems that arise outside (podkidyvayut nature or neighbors) decides on the ancient and the only correct algorithm: + I am working tool = strength. Whether on the clearing house in the mountains (in winter sometimes so much snow falls that have been instances when the roof prolamyvalo under its gravity), or visit Unasked neighbour. Incidentally, on shovels: in the early nineties with patsany cherenami of shovels faced on the road from the Georgian ryazhenyh zekov. This is not a bike, alas, it was.
After that war, when the case was not in YUO, the usual way has been destroyed, many filed with the JI. It was all, hot head, the demolition of the roof of idleness, but still let it remain within the boundaries Ossetia - internal affairs. The nature of handwriting - on the need for strong shoots. Many vykosili disassembly, someone donkey, borrowed affair, but recent cases vskolyhnuli Ossetia, and Montagnards potyanulis back. Meshal them, I think, now no one will. Now let's prikinem that will be in YUO when guys got weapons. What future ugotovil Mishiko own compatriots residing in the Georgian villages? The world does not know and tenth of that happening "gamsiki" last war, it is unfortunate, but does not know and tenth of what became of the Georgians in that war. The above-mentioned "working tool" - that's what you need to southern Ossetians. This is the Caucasus. Eye for an eye, blood for blood. Three episodes of genocide Ossetians not forgive nor forget. Vector Georgian sentiment quite clearly delineated, direct nowhere. Now ask themselves what is vyholoschennaya Western democratic rhetoric "take to the negotiating table", "everything possible to negotiate" ... With whom to negotiate? About what? With Russia Ossetia more than two hundred years and never looked down "on the side." For Ossetians service in the imperial army was considered an honour and a privilege, may wish to see it themselves. The Treaty of Amity for Ossetia - not just words. This means full participation in social, cultural life. At an all misfortune and a joy, whether a war with arms or sports battles, swords ringing or Olympic medals ... Does anyone think that Russia has to pass, otvernuvshis?
P.S. On the border volunteers are no longer miss in the fighting zone. Need I believe that a lot of them already?

Materials used periodicals, historical monographs, memoirs witnesses.
Historiography quoted on the next edition:
Agusta Aleman "Alans in ancient and medieval written sources." M. Izd of "Manager" 2003 ISBN 5-8346-0252-5
Specific sources indicated in the text.
Other factual material ...
"Koms. Pravda on January 31. 1991 F. Sizy
"Lit. Russia" on February 8. 1991, T. D. Ochirova Dzhioshvili.
"MK" Feb. 15-16. E. Glebova in 1991
Menapolis-continent "№ February 8-March 1991. V. Astrov
"Soyuz", № February 8, 1991 D. Hrapovitsky
"Soyuz", № February 9, 1991 D. Hrapovitsky
"Trud", March 21, 1991 B. White
"The Voice" Feb. 1-7. In 1991 № 13 E. Krutikov
"Izvestia" on April 15. In 1991 V. Litovkin
"KP" on April 27. A 1991, Khokhlov, I. Chernyak
"Gudok" April 25. Oleg Popov in 1991.
Also served as a material personal impressions of travel in Tskhinval in 1993 and interviews with eyewitnesses to the events. Saw himself makeshift cemetery and photographs.

Monday, August 11, 2008

I think that George Bush and Saakashvili have to answer for that - J. Mestas


U.S. citizen John Mestas, who married resident of South Ossetia and has 5 - old daughter witnessed the attack on Tskhinvali.

This war did not start Russia and Georgia. A month ago, Condoleezza Rice was in Tbilisi, and I am sure that everything and then they planned. The opinion was expressed in his interview with Channel residing in the territory of Tskhinvali U.S. citizen John Mestas.

"I know who to blame. This is Georgia. You can now in English because I want America knew what happened. The Americans, if you see this note is propaganda, which shows news on your television and in other Western countries - is a lie. I have personally experienced the aggression by Georgia, which unleashed the Saakashvili. "

"I talked with people who were able to escape from Tskhinvali. They believe that even this was not war, this is genocide. Saakashvili and George Bush should be charged with war crimes, they are guilty of killing peaceful people, not just military. Who has to answer for that. I think that George Bush and Saakashvili have to answer for it, "- said Mestas

People misguided media or provocation?


As I have already warned its readers in the midst of information warfare. The photo demonstration in Istanbul.

On the posters on russian written:
Left - Russian soldiers get home Ossetians and Abkhazians our brothers (it is a strange statement Russian Ossetians and Abkhazians did not wish to enter into the modern Georgia and protect).
Right - Turkish Georgians are ready to help Georgia (Near leftist slogan looks just the opposite of inappropriate slogan).
History: The people of Ossetia, more than 200 years ago voluntarily acceded to Russia and to this day is considered the Russian people. After the redistribution of post-Soviet territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia (a former autonomous read independent field) does not want to join Georgia. All this tragedy.

Hot News

The Sunday Times: in Georgia are up to 200 military advisers to the Pentagon

As reported on Monday a British Broadcasting Corporation BBC, on the territory of Georgia are now several hundred military trainers from several NATO countries, primarily in the U.S. and UK. At the same time, the London weekly The Sunday Times informs that the Pentagon "in Georgia holds up to 200" of its military specialists, who are preparing Georgian parts.

According to one of the leading British military analysts Alain Melison, promulgated the British weekly The Sunday Telegraph, in the last ten years and shaped the U.S. to train Georgian units, and armed them. As the Melison, the Georgian army has 12 thousand well-trained troops, who received military training school "for the canons of NATO." Some of them went Iraq and has experience serving in the combat zone, said a British expert.

Alain Melison also pointed out that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Georgia is prepared in such a way as to be ready to join NATO, ITAR-TASS.

Earlier, Russian permanent representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said at a meeting of the UN Security Council that the Ministry of Defence of Georgia employs 127 military advisers from the Ministry of Defence.

According to the authorities of South Ossetia, the Georgian offensive in the republic attended the mercenaries. In Tskhinvali among those killed Georgian soldiers found the bodies of black military. Ossetian authorities suspect that they - instructors. Zagranica Tbilisi helped not only by specialists - almost all Georgian army weapons purchased abroad.

Russian ships flooded Georgian missile boat

Ships Black Sea Fleet Georgian repulsed an attack missile boats
On Sunday, Georgian missile boats have made two attempts to attack the Russian warships. Navy Ships Russia was opened returned fire, resulting in a committed Georgian attack boats sank. Chief of Information and Public Relations Navy RF - Assistant Chief of the Navy of Public Relations and Media Captain Igor Dygalo rank first in an interview with "West" has confirmed this information.

He said that on Sunday in the vicinity of Russian warships patrolling off the coast of Abkhazia were discovered four bystroiduschie maritime targets, which have violated the border declared security zone, did not respond to warnings and went on rapprochement with the Russian warships. Russian ships had been warning the shooting, and then fence artillery fire. As a result, the fluid sea battle was struck by a goal and three goals turned and fled towards the port of Poti.

Igor Dygalo stressed that the Russian navy fails to implement the blockade of Georgia, are all tasks of peacekeeping, the purpose of the operation is to ensure conditions for Russian citizens in the region, and supporting the Russian peacekeeping contingent. The use of force was carried out in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter in order to realize the inherent right to self-defence Russian side.

It reminds RIA Novosti, the Russian ships patrol the coast of the unrecognized republic of Abkhazia to support the peacekeepers. At 16: 00 Moscow time on August 9 decision of the Supreme Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in accordance with the Constitution of Russian Federation Navy ships have begun patrolling of maritime spaces off the coast of Abkhazia, near the zone of armed conflict in South Ossetia. The corresponding note sent to the Georgian side.

Of the Tskhinvali hospital evacuated all the wounded

Because the hospital was evacuated 100 people
Of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali city evacuated the wounded past that were in the basement destroyed by bombing and shelling of Georgian Republican Hospital.










In the outskirts of Tskhinvali detained by Georgian saboteurs

Detainees group suicide are heavily guarded
Official representative of the Government of South Ossetia Irina Gagloeva reported by telephone "West" that the vicinity of Tskhinvali detained two groups of Georgian military sabotage. According to her information, groups numbering eight suicide and eleven people are currently being held under heavy guard. Such measures due to the fact that local residents wanted to arrange them lynchings.

Earlier website Ossetian radio and television reported the detention area in the village of Zar group suicide, which is composed of African American. In order to ascertain all the circumstances of his stay in the territory of South Ossetia detainee was transferred to Vladikavkaz.


Hot News

In Tskhinvali flooded basements, where residents were hidden from the bombings


In Tskhinvali Georgian side Kehvsky vodokanal blew up, resulting in flooded basements of homes in the western part of Tskhinvali, where hid from bombing civilians.

The situation is compounded by the fact that in the republican hospital ended all medicines, now attempts to remove the wounded in Vladikavkaz.

Tskhinvali remains under control of Russian peacekeepers. Georgian troops broken outside the city, overshadowed them to the border of South Ossetia. The city is now awaiting the arrival of humanitarian aid - until it is very difficult with products in short supply, dealers defeated.

Georgian special forces savagery: shocking eyewitness

Georgian tanks razed to the ground memorial cemetery in Tskhinvali and completely destroyed the Orthodox temple in its territory.

This site told reporters the State Committee for Press and Information refugee from South Ossetia Tskhinvali Wanda Kachmazova. "Tank, which means ahead of the inscription" Georgian special forces ", razed to the ground memorial cemetery in the yard of 5 schools in Tskhinvali," - said the report. According to refugees, were buried at the cemetery heroes Ossetia, protection of the city in 1991-1992. This memorial was one of the holy places Tskhinvali, RIA Novosti.

In turn, the correspondent of the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Alexander Kots, wounded during a trip to South Ossetia, confirmed that Georgian troops wounded seek Russian peacekeepers. Pillar, which was travelling journalist, attacked the Georgian military. "I personally witnessed how to achieve the two wounded soldiers" - said in an interview with the First Kots Canal on their return to Moscow.

According to the correspondent, earlier met his Georgian soldier and achieve it, but the journalist rescued Major Russian army.

Those who have been in Tskhinvali during the attack by the Georgians were told that local residents attackers otstrelivali head.

Earlier, another heinous case, "West told the head of the Paris offices of the Russian Institute for Democracy and cooperation, doctor of historical sciences Natalya Narochnitskaya. During the shares of aggression by Georgia in the Church of Our Lady fled children and women. The church burned down with them. According to Narochnitskoy when sighting destroying women and children, it is the first sign of genocide. This in South Ossetia has already happened in the early twentieth century, she recalled.

Today there were reports that the Georgian side blew up Kehvsky vodokanal. As a result of flooded basements of homes in the western part of Tskhinvali, where hid from bombing civilians.


Java Takes refugees


Under the supervision of Russian peacekeepers two humanitarian corridor. According to him, refugees fleeing Tskhinval. One of the trans-shipment points was the village of Java. This district centre closest to the border with Russia.

Fifth night Dzhava not sleep. From dawn until night deep district center accepts refugees and wounded. It is here, thousands of people flock to Tskhinvali, and surrounding areas. Starikov, women and children taken north to Vladikavkaz buses, trucks and the City. Many households in slippers and bathrobe, small packages and bags - is all that is, ubegaya of bombings, people managed to pick with them.

"Nothing more time to pick up! Just so committed and all bags, nothing else!" -- Says Lyudmila Givitsaeva. "Our guys brought the car, and we sat down in it. When the war started, I loved that moment and not seen. I want to know anything about them," - said another woman.

Java and the neighbouring village militiamen patrol. How many of them impossible to calculate. According to local residents, the people's Convivir did almost every day join volunteers from North Ossetia, Chechnya, Abkhazia and Dagestan. In Dzhave now all men dressed in camouflage, under arms officials, farmers, the deputies.

"Some groups send to the protection of bridges, other groups left in Tskhinval. Thousands of people arrive wanting very much," - said Adolf Karpusov, MP republic of South Ossetia.

Force peacekeepers and Ossetian military on Monday were suppressed last position of Georgian special forces near the district. Now, on Tskhinval immediately open two roads.

"City Tskhinval almost completely cleaned - stresses the President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity. - There are some pockets of resistance - this snipers and scattered groups yesterday defeated militias, who have taken yet another attempt to capture Tskhinvali. Buffing now held. I wish to express to all children of South Ossetia, which We evacuated before this large-scale aggression of Georgia when I promised to all our children that they return to the southern Ossetia through Kehvu. Guys, I complied with your request, all of you back in Tskhinval, pass through Kehvu and in you on this road No one else has ever shoot will not. "

At the south in the ruined capital Dzhavu hourly go through columns of armoured vehicles - tanks, samohodki, howitzers, as well as caravans of ammunition and food. The authorities do not believe the republic will come lull. It is possible that the Georgian military at any time can try again stormed Tshinvala.

"On the steps which are now supposedly takes Georgian leadership, that is a declaration of a truce, and so on, I want to say that no word from Georgia, I do not believe - Eduard Kokoity said. - Southern outskirts of the city of Tskhinval again fired mortars and long-range artillery. These are, however, had already suppressed, but in any case, referring to the truce did not have to shoot. "

Maybe today will be deployed in Dzhave field hospital and refugee center. This will allow much to save time and provide emergency assistance on the ground. The extra eighty kilometres to Vladikavkaz may cost the lives of seriously injured.

However, at today's night is one small, but still a fundamental difference - the road from the Tshinvala to Dzhavy not fired artillery mortars Georgian army. Carriages "ambulance" and buses were free to evacuate refugees, the wounded and sick.

The German Government calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Caucasus

The German Government calls for an immediate ceasefire in the zone of armed conflict in South Ossetia, said here today госминистр MFA in Germany Gernot Erler. According to policy, "it is time to simply take a break in the fighting and start talking with each other."

As ITAR-TASS, Erler said that Germany Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is in constant contact with the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Georgia, the EU and NATO, discussing ways of resolving the conflict. Gernot Erler rejected the idea of abolishing appointed on Friday a visit to Sochi Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, where she plans to meet with President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. Denial of such a meeting, convinced Erler, would be "totally erroneous". "It is very important now to talk with the responsible persons", stressed the politician.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, of the 500 German nationals who were in Georgia at the time of armed conflict began, nearly 200 have already left the country.


Peacekeepers offered Georgians to lay down arms

Russian peacekeepers in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, Georgian armed groups presented an ultimatum for the renouncement of weapons. According to him, "Interfax" and peacekeeping forces commander Major General Sergei Chaban.

"Today, Defense Ministry units and agencies, Ministry of Internal Affairs, police, frontier guards and other uniformed services of Georgia ultimatum was handed over, according to which, from 7 am to 10 hours in the security zone being complete demilitarization" - said Chaban. According to him, "in the ultimatum emphasizes that in the case of surrender of weapons by the military team will take all necessary measures".

However, the commander noted that "satisfied the request of police forces in the Zugdidi district of Georgia in connection with the crime situation there to leave the police Scheduled weapons in the form of pistols." General stressed that this was considered by the leadership of the factions, and decided to retain only those posts Scheduled weapons in the form of pistols. "Everything else arms, automatic, machine guns, grenade launchers must be transferred as specified in the ultimatum" - said Chaban. In the ultimatum also stresses that the place of the weapons - the next observation posts CIS collective forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.

In the Defense Ministry confirmed the ultimatum presentation of the Georgian armed groups. "Disclosure of the requirements of disarmament is connected with unacceptable escalation of armed confrontation, given the possibility of armed provocations by the Georgian special forces" - said a representative of the Ministry.

Abkhazia will open a corridor for withdrawal from the Kodori Gorge Georgian military


If the Georgian military did not seize this opportunity, it will begin operation on their destruction
The Abkhaz armed forces completely blocked the upper Kodori Valley. According to the "Interfax" on Monday morning, Defense Minister unrecognised republic Mirab Kishmariya.
"Georgian military units completely blocked in the upper Kodori Gorge of Abkhazia," - Kishmariya said, adding that "blocked all the roads and mountain trails, all the way to exit from the area."
"We offer a humanitarian corridor for full withdrawal from the upper Kodori Gorge Georgian military and civilians," - Kishmariya said. According to him, "if the Georgian military did not seize this opportunity, it will begin operation on their destruction."


In South Ossetia arrived Russian convoy with humanitarian aid

This morning from North to South Ossetia joined the Russian convoy of about eighty machines. The ultimate goal of the route - Tskhinvali.

Colonna lucky humanitarian aid to residents of the town, where now there is neither light nor water. Trucks must deliver to South Ossetia, more than 50 tons of food, two mobile hospitals, power stations and diesel filters for water purification.

Today South Ossetia in the same group will leave highly-qualified children's doctors. According to him, Leonid Roshal - director of the Moscow Institute of Child emergency surgery and traumatology. Before he returned from war zones. "I am sending a group of highly qualified specialists of childhood - neurosurgeons, trauma, which have extensive experience in assisting children affected with disasters and wars in rpaznyh countries around the world. I think they will be very useful. To date, the entire community, including us, do not understand the true number of wounded. Just today, in fact, opened a corridor. The first convoy from the hospital in Tskhinvali was able to come to Vladikavkaz for medical assistance. We eagerly look forward to developments. In terms of organization of medical care is necessary in order to treat and children, and adults today in Vladikavkaz and around Vladikavkaz is. The main brunt of themselves, of course, will government agencies of North Ossetia "- rasskazl" West "Leonid Roshal.

In Tskhinvali arrived humanitarian aid from Russia


MOE Russia convoy with humanitarian aid, which on Monday morning left the Alagirskogo region of North Ossetia, entered the South Ossetia. The convoy of about 80 cars under the guise of several armoured personnel carriers must deliver in Tskhinvali mobile hospitals, food, diesel generators and other essential goods.

As chief military expert said the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations Pavel Plat, in Tskhinvali directed hospitals MOE and the Ministry of Health, calculated for a total of 200 seats. "During the day, if we normally come to Tskhinvali, we begin to deploy hospitals, and already on the night of Tuesday they will be able to take the first victims. Now basements dilapidated hospitals Tskhinvali, there are more than 100 people" - said Plath. He said that simultaneously with the work of the hospitals will begin rehabilitation hospital in Tskhinvali, shattered by shelling cities.

"In Tskhinvali will also delivered equipment for the tent camp for 500 people. The camp will be equipped with all necessary" - Plath said.

In addition, according to the representative of MOE, the city will be delivered 52.5 tons of food - cereals, canned, salt, sugar. Also, there will arrive protivochumny squad, who will take care treatment in the city, ITAR-TASS.

The head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting on Sunday in North Ossetia, that on Monday morning from Vladikavkaz in Tskhinvali leave convoy with humanitarian aid. In the following days will opravlena another column. According to the minister, in Tskhinvali will be sent 200 tons of food, 16 tons of medicine, 6 filtration plant for water and power generators. A total of MOE will send to the conflict zone 78 cars and 158 people.

Laughter through tears

War: No coments



Conflict Opens Front in the Media


11 August 2008By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer

Russian television is flush with footage of misery left by the Georgian assault in the separatist district of South Ossetia, but few, if any, reports mention Russia's bombing of Georgia.

William Dunbar, a correspondent in Georgia for English-language state channel Russia Today, mentioned the bombing in a report Saturday, and he has not gone on air for the station since.

"I had a series of live, video satellite links scheduled for later that day, and they were canceled by Russia Today," he said by telephone from Tbilisi on Sunday. "The real news, the real facts of the matter, didn't conform to what they were trying to report, and therefore, they wouldn't let me report it.

"I felt that I had no choice but to resign," he added.

A Russia Today spokeswoman said Dunbar resigned when a producer called to arrange a broadcast. She provided a copy of a Georgian media report saying Dunbar protested Russia's "aggression" against Georgia and said the channel assumed that was why he quit.

In an online story dated Saturday, the channel mentions Georgian statements about the Russian bombing raids but says its correspondents in Tbilisi "could not substantiate the reports."

In a further twist of the information flow, Georgia on Saturday terminated broadcasts of Russian news channels Channel One, Rossia and NTV and blocked web sites in the .ru domain.

Meanwhile, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said hackers had crashed many web sites, including those of state agencies. His own site was not loading Sunday, with an Internet browser saying the server stopped responding. Before it went offline, the site was tampered with to show Saakashvili with the kind of mustache sported by Hitler, Interfax reported Saturday.

Russian officials and state media, meanwhile, criticized Western media, saying they had taken Georgia's side and were misinforming their audiences.

Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said Sunday that Western media had failed to show the plight of Ossetians and what was left of their capital after it was almost razed by Georgian troops.

Rossia's news program, "Vesti," complained about coverage in U.S. and British media, pointing to an editorial in The Washington Post. The editorial said Russia's military campaign could hamper former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries from pursuing independent policies and that the United States and its NATO allies should "impose a price on Russia if it does not promptly change course."

"Vesti" said such attitudes were misleading. "Not many viewers and readers suspect that their minds are being bombed out the same way as the Ossetian villages, but with words and sentences instead of shells," it said.

It said continental Europe's news organizations had been more objective.

At least nine reporters have been reported injured in the hostilities. An NTV producer was shot and wounded Sunday, Interfax reported. The others include members of a "Vesti" crew, a Komsomolskaya Pravda reporter, an editor and reporter of a Georgian English-language newspaper, and two Turkish reporters for Kanalturk television.

Two other reporters may have been killed, Zaza Gachechiladze, editor-in-chief of Georgian newspaper Messenger, said by phone Sunday.

In Moscow, pro-Kremlin youth rallied Sunday at the Georgian Embassy to protest Georgia's "military operation," receiving wide coverage on state TV.

Georgia Offers Cease-Fire and Talks

Denis Sinyakov / Reuters
Russian soldiers driving past destroyed Georgian tanks in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, on Sunday after they seized control of most of the city.
11 August 2008
By Nikolaus von Twickel, Matt Siegel / Staff Writers


Georgia said Sunday that it had withdrawn its army from South Ossetia and offered a cease-fire after two days of all-out war over the breakaway region, claiming overwhelming Russian military might and warning that Moscow was opening up a second front in Abkhazia.

Moscow said the heavy fighting, which began early Friday, killed about 2,000 people, including 13 Russian peacekeepers. Tbilisi said it had lost up to 300 people, mostly civilians.

Casualty figures could not be independently verified, but media reports from the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, suggested that the city was badly damaged after suffering heavy shelling from Georgian artillery.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said on its web site, however, that Russian warplanes had "ruthlessly bombed and devastated Tskhinvali while many civilians were still in their homes."

Moscow continued pouring troops into the tiny mountainous region on Sunday, and television reports that the 58th Army was on the southern border of South Ossetia triggered fears that the military could penetrate into Georgia proper.

The government in Tbilisi said Russia had 6,000 troops in the region but denied that its forces had been defeated. "We relocated as to withstand the superior Russian forces by other means," Reintegration Minister Temur Iakobashvili said, Interfax reported.


David Mdzinarishvili / Reuters
A Georgian woman weeping near her destroyed home in Gori on Sunday.


Alexander Lomaia, head of the Georgian Security Council, said in a statement that Russian troops lost 40 tanks during fierce fighting for Tskhinvali but Tbilisi's forces withdrew early Sunday because of "overwhelming Russian reinforcements."

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov disputed a full withdrawal, saying Georgian troops remained in parts of Tskhinvali.

He separately told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by telephone that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "must go," Reuters reported.

Georgia's Foreign Ministry said it had told Moscow late Sunday that it was ready "to immediately start negotiations" on a cease-fire and an end to hostilities. Russia confirmed that it had received the note but said Georgia had not stopped hostilities.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was due to arrive in Tbilisi late Sunday on a mediating mission. His ministry said he would meet Saakashvili on arrival and fly to Moscow on Monday.

Russian planes bombed several targets in Georgia on Sunday, including an airplane factory near Tbilisi and a site in the Black Sea port of Poti.


Musa Sadulayev / AP
A South Ossetian man standing in his home demolished in a Georgian strike.


Georgia accused Russia of bombing the civilian airport in Tbilisi on Sunday evening, after the cease-fire offer.

"The attack on the Tbilisi airport is further evidence that Russia's invasion of Georgia is not about Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The goal … is to overthrow the democratically elected government of this small European nation," the Foreign Ministry said.

Tbilisi said it shot down 10 Russian jets, but Moscow put the figure at two on Sunday, acknowledging that one pilot had been captured by Georgia.

In North Ossetia on Saturday, a column of at least 400 Russian military vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and troop transport trucks, streamed south toward the Roki Tunnel into South Ossetia. The vehicles flying Russian flags caused a traffic jam up to 30 kilometers from the border.

Russians authorities denied foreign nationals access to South Ossetia through the Roki Tunnel, making it difficult to get a picture of the level of destruction.

Thousands of refugees in Soviet-era minibuses have been pouring into North Ossetia since fighting began Thursday. The Emergency Situations Ministry has set up refugee camps and field hospitals across the region.

At Alansky Convent, 40 kilometers from the border, Lolita Garbisoba, 45, described her two-day trek on foot. "I saw two small children shot to death in front of the their own mother. I saw this with my own eyes," Garbisoba said. She made the trek through the mountains under Georgian bombardment carrying her 8-month-old daughter on her back, she said.

On Sunday evening, at least 300 Russian vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, were massed 70 kilometers from the border. Soldiers, who appeared in good spirits, stood milling around the convoy, smoking cigarettes and chatting with refugees arriving in cars. Seeing a car of journalists, one soldier shouted, "Here we go, and then we go home!"


Gleb Garanich / Reuters
Saakashvili and Georgia's defense minister inspecting troops on Sunday.


Meanwhile, Abkhazia, Georgia's other separatist region, said it was massing troops to recapture the Kodor Gorge, a mountainous pocket that was taken by forces loyal to Tbilisi in 2001.

Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh said Sunday that he had ordered 1,000 soldiers to push Georgian forces out of the gorge and had called up reservists.

NTV television reported that additional Russian troops had landed in Abkhazia, heading to Kodor. The government in Tbilisi put their figure at 4,000.

Georgia denounced what it termed "new aggression" by Moscow in Abkhazia and said that administrative buildings and two villages in the gorge had been bombed by Russians.

"In order to create the conditions for an invasion disguised as a peaceful mission, Russia has resorted to its classic tactics of plunging the peoples of the Caucasus into conflict with one another," the Foreign Ministry statement said.


Ria-Novosti / AP
Putin speaking with South Ossetian refugees in Vladikavkaz on Saturday.


The Russian Navy deployed a flotilla off Georgia's Black Sea coast. National media reported they would stop military equipment reaching Georgia by sea, but the armed forces' deputy chief of staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, denied Sunday in Moscow that Russian vessels would take part in military actions.

Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said the warships were not planning to block shipments of oil from Poti but reserved the right to search ships coming to and from it.

Saakashvili said over the weekend that Russia was carrying out an armed attack against Georgia aimed at taking over the whole country and ordered a full mobilization of the country's armed forces, including the withdrawal of Georgia's 1,000 troops in Iraq.

Moscow ostensibly refrained from declaring a state of war.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, speaking during a lightning visit to the North Ossetian capital, Vladikavkaz, on Saturday evening, called Georgia's actions "complete genocide" and said that Moscow's actions were wholly justified by international law.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday ordered Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin to go to Vladikavkaz to gather evidence about possible Georgian war crimes.

The fighting, the biggest Russian military operation outside its borders since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, prompted international alarm about a widening conflict in the Caucasus and even a war by proxy between Moscow and Washington.

The U.S.-friendly government in Tbilisi has angered Moscow with its drive to become a NATO member. Georgia's armed forces have been trained and equipped by American military specialists in recent years.

A top aide to U.S. President George W. Bush, Deputy National Security Adviser Jim Jeffrey, on Sunday warned that the war would strain its already deeply troubled ties with the Kremlin.

The fighting caught the international community off-guard, since a flurry of diplomatic activity had been ongoing for some time and Saakashvili had offered a cease-fire Thursday evening.

At the United Nations Security Council, Moscow and Tbilisi traded barbs at two tense emergency sessions Friday. Council members planned to pick up the negotiations and meet again for a third time Sunday evening, when the United States was to offer a resolution condemning Russian military action against Georgia as unacceptable, a U.S. spokesman said, Reuters reported.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer criticized Moscow on Sunday for violating Georgia's territorial integrity and said he was concerned about Russia's excess use of force.

The exact course of events that led to the escalation Friday remained murky Sunday. Tbilisi said separatist forces had opened fire in the night from Thursday to Friday on two government-controlled villages, Prisi and Tamarasheni, forcing the Georgians to return fire. Yet Saakashvili said in a dramatic televised address earlier Thursday that he had issued an order not to retaliate and offered an immediate cease-fire and talks.

Moscow even sent a mediator for talks Friday in Tskhinvali. The mediator, Yury Popov, later accused Georgia of betrayal.

How Russian Forces Stack Up
Army 395,000*
Main battle tanks 23.000
Armored personnel carriers 9.900
Artillery pieces 26.000
Attack aircraft 1.809
Helicopters 1.932

Available for military service (Ages 16-49)
Men 36.2 million
Women 37 million

How Georgian Forces Stack Up

Army 32,000**
Main battle tanks 128
Armored personnel carriers 44
Artillery pieces 109
Attack aircraft 8
Helicopters 37

Available for military service (Ages 16-49)
Men 1.1 million
Women 1.2 million

* Estimate includes 190,000 conscripts. Russia has a further 419,000 in paramilitary forces
** Georgia has asked parliament to increase troop strength by a further 5,000
— Reuters


Matt Siegel contributed reporting from North Ossetia.
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