OUTSIDE GORI, Georgia - Russian troops and paramilitaries rolled into the strategic Georgian city of Gori on Wednesday, apparently violating a truce designed to end the conflict that has uprooted tens of thousands and scarred the Georgian landscape.
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(Photo: AP Images / Sergei Grits)Georgian refugees sit in a truck on the road between Gori and Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008. Russian tanks, troops and paramilitaries rolled into the strategic Georgian city of Gori on Wednesday, apparently smashing an EU-brokered truce designed to end the six-day conflict that has uprooted tens of thousands and scarred the Georgian landscape.
In Washington, President Bush said the United States planned a massive humanitarian effort involving American ships and aircraft, including a C-17 military cargo plane loaded with supplies that landed on Wednesday.
Bush said he was sending in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to deal with the crisis, and she called on Russia to halt military operations in Georgia. "I have heard the Russian president say that his military operations are over. I am saying it is time for the Russian president to be true to his word," Rice said.
Georgian officials said Gori, a central hub on Georgia's main east-west highway, was looted and bombed by the Russians before they left later in the day and camped nearby.
Moscow denied the accusations, but it appeared to be on a technicality: a BBC reporter in Gori reported that Russians tanks were in the streets as their South Ossetian separatist allies seized Georgian cars, looted Georgian homes and then set some homes ablaze.
"Russia has treacherously broken its word," Georgia's Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said Wednesday in Tbilisi, the capital.
An AP reporter saw dozens of trucks and armored vehicles leaving Gori, roaring southeast. Soldiers waved at journalists and one soldier jokingly shouted to a photographer: "Come with us, beauty, we're going to Tbilisi!"
But the convoy turned north and left the highway about an hour's drive from the Georgian capital, and set up camp a mile off the road. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russian troops were near Gori to secure weapons left behind by the Georgians.
To the west, Russian-backed Abkhazian separatists pushed Georgian troops out of Abkhazia and even moved into Georgian territory itself, defiantly planting a flag over the Inguri River and laughing that retreating Georgians had received "American training in running away."
The developments came less than 12 hours after Georgia's president said he accepted a cease-fire plan brokered by France. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that Russia was halting military action because Georgia had paid enough for its attack last Thursday on South Ossetia.
Bush said he was skeptical that Moscow was honoring the cease-fire.
"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 keep its word and act to end this crisis," Bush said.
The EU peace plan calls for both sides to retreat to the positions they held prior to the outbreak of fighting late Thursday. That phrasing apparently would allow Georgian forces to return to the positions they held in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and clearly obliges Russia to leave all parts of Georgia except South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili criticized Western nations for failing to help Georgia, a U.S. ally that has been seeking NATO membership.
"I feel that they are partly to blame," he said Wednesday. "Not only those who commit atrocities are responsible ... but so are those who fail to react. In a way, Russians are fighting a proxy war with the West through us."
Russian at first denied that tanks were even in Gori but video footage proved otherwise. Continue >>
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The fool Saakashvili brought all this on going into S. Ossetia. Did he really think Russia was going to sit back, and was he fool enough to think the fool in the WH can do anything about the Russians coming in. He is not any smarter than little bush.
JHS "....... IT MAY JUST BE THE START OF A NEW COLD WAR."
Just what the Pentagon, military contractors and many politicins want to see.
mfenemore
"Who is going to pay for this massive effort seeing that the U.S. is already over nine trillion dollars in debt?"
Print more money, add to the debt and the Chinese will keep loaning the US money, at least for now.
msnchris "Time to reinvest in our millitary "
Perhaps you dont look at the US budget numbers for the US, we have been doing that to the tune of over half a trillion dollars per year for years. US spends more on military than the entire rest of the world, also US IS THE WORLDS NUMBER ONE ARMS EXPORTER.
"I think we should take 100,000 troops from Iraq over the next six months and put them in Poland, Ukraine and the Czech rep. just in case."
Exactly what the neocons and military-industrial complex wants to see, war and conflict. FYI, take those troops out of Iraq, you will see civil war flare back up.
You sound like bit of a war monger.
aritonang "In recent months the Russian military has been flexing her muscle elsewhere in the world. "
Perhaps you haven't notice the US doing the same thing many times over. The Russians figure if the US can unilaterally invade countries, so can they.
The invasion of Georgia by Russia not a good thing, but the US getting into the face of the Russians is making things much worse. The US needs to get out of the back yard of Russia. It seems the US in intentionally provoking the Russians by sending US military advisors in to train the Georgian military, setting up anti-missile and radar facilities in Eastern Europe to "protect" Europe from missile launches from Iran. Well number one, Iran is not going to lob missiles at Europe, and number two, let the Europeans worry about any threat that may exist there. The US has made a mess in both Iraq and Afghanistan, is spending itself into a hole we might not ever get out of. Its time the US worry less about the rest of the world, and focus on the multitude of problems we have here- millions without healthcare, energy problems, failing infrastructure, trillions of dollars of debt and growing, financial crisis, social security and medicare heading for insolvency, you name it.
I am not an isolationist, but the US has stepped way over the bounds of reason in it's foreign policies. The US has lost influence and power around the world. The Russians know this and are now taking full advantage of it. The US needs to stop sending military advisors to former Soviet states, it serves no useful purpose except to antagonize the Russian's, then again, that may be exactly what the neo-cons and military-industrial complex want. It is in the best interest of the Pentagon, politicians and military contractors to have foreign enemies. Politicians use it as distractions to domestic problems. The US would be outraged if the Russians began sending military advisors to the US spheres of influence again.
Can you imagine the outrage by the US if Russians set up anti-missile and radar facilities in Cuba or other nearby countries. If I were leader of Russia, I would be doing exactly that, meddling in the US backyard until the the US stops meddling where it really has no legitimate business. One other point, the US has lost the moral authority to lecture other countries on their actions after the crimes perpetrated on the Iraqi citizenry after the Iraq invasion debacle.
The key to this crisis is in the Kremlin. In recent months the Russian military has been flexing her muscle elsewhere in the world.
Such as the strategic bombers formation overflying Scotland territory in the North sea as well as Sweden over the Baltic. We have have also the bombers being escorted by US interceptors near Alaska and other places in the Pacific.
PM Putin use these military maneuver to counter NATO "offensive" in Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Balkans and Central Asia. It is actually a proxy war with the west.
But like all military exercise it is actually inside a time limit and not a full scale offensive, lest you would actually see those tanks in Tbilisi.
Russian peacekeepers is actually front paratroopers.
JHS,
You are soo very right. Time to reinvest in our millitary and bring on another million soldiers since it won't go to a nuclear war but could be a conventional war in Europe. We outclass them technologically, and we have many more Professional vs. conscript type soldier. However, they have a lot of soldiers who are hungry for a fight.
Mfenemore,
We will pay that debt off by giving more tax incentives to companies and less taxes to people who will spend more money and our economy will boom.
If the demoncrats get in they will tax the living dailights out of us, kill company growth for small to medium size businesses. Moreover, OBAMA is the closest thing to a Marxist I've ever seen.
I think we should take 100,000 troops from Iraq over the next six months and put them in Poland, Ukraine and the Czech rep. just in case.
Who is going to pay for this massive effort seeing that the U.S. is already over nine trillion dollars in debt?
This is just the start, Russia will now focus on Ukraine to show it displeasure with NATO expansion. This IS NOT GOING AWAY, IT MAY JUST BE THE START OF A NEW COLD WAR.