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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Georgian President: Russian barbarians plotted invasion, occupation for months |
| 2008-08-16 |
| Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday he signed a cease-fire accord that orders Russian troops to withdraw from his country, calling the Russians barbarians who had been plotting for months to invade and occupy his country's sovereign soil. U.S. President George W. Bush called Russia's actions in Georgia "completely unacceptable" and said that Moscow must end the crisis. "The world has watched with alarm as Russia invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatened a democratic government elected by its people," Bush said in his weekly Saturday radio address, which the White House released on Friday. Bush said he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Brussels next week to meet with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials. Rice visited Tbilisi and France, which brokered a cease-fire this week, and was headed to Crawford, Texas, to meet with Bush at his ranch this weekend. "To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must act to end this crisis," Bush said. Georgian leader Saakashvili on Friday told a joint news conference with the U.S. Secretary of State that his country would never be reconciled to losing any of its territory to Russia. He also criticized the muted reaction by European nations to the build up. Of the cease-fire agreement, Saakashvili said it was not a done deal. "We need to do our utmost to deter such behavior in the future," he explained. He later said that Russian tanks had moved on two more towns in central Georgia, widening their "occupation." Saakashvili's claim could not be independently verified and Russian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Saakashvili said the tanks had moved to the towns of Khashari and Borjomi southwest of South Ossetia. "We now have an increasing area of Russian occupation of our territory," Saakashvili told reporters several hours after signing the cease-fire agreement. Rice, visiting the Georgian capital Tbilisi in efforts to secure a peace deal between the warring states, said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had also signed the pact - and that Russian troops must now withdraw from Georgia as outlined in the deal brokered earlier in the week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Georgia has been attacked. Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once," she said calling for the immediate and orderly withdrawal of Moscow's military and all paramilitary troops that went with the convoys. "The Russian pullout must take place - and take place now," she said, speaking at the pro-Western Georgian leader's side at a joint news conference outside his presidential palace in central Tbilisi. |
| Posted by:Fred |
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| Posted by: ed 2008-08-16 19:53 |
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| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-08-16 19:32 |
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| Posted by: McZoid 2008-08-16 06:07 |
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| Posted by: 3dc 2008-08-16 02:56 |
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| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-08-16 02:47 |
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| Posted by: McZoid 2008-08-16 01:32 |