Russia Withdraws, Georgia Prepares for Refugee Flood

As Russian forces withdraw, finally, behind the buffer zone back into South Ossetia, Georgia prepares for a new crisis: the influx of thousands of refugees who had fled the area during the conflict returning to try and rebuild their lives after leaving.

Despite skepticism and in spite of still maintaining a presence in several key Georgian locations, Russian forces have finally begun to withdraw into territory in South Ossetia, as they said they would do by yesterday. This creates a new situation for Georgian authorities, that of masses of people displaced by fighting who now wish to return to their homes and attempt to resume their lives.

Georgia has deployed a “massive police presence” in and around the city of Gori to help guarantee security for returning residents in the wake of the Russian withdrawal on Friday evening, said Shota Utiashvili, a high-ranking Interior Ministry official.

At dusk on Friday, columns of armored personnel carriers and troop transports ferried most of the Russian forces in Georgia back to Kremlin-defined security zones in Abkhazia, a separatist enclave in Georgia’s west, and South Ossetia, the breakaway region where the war broke out two weeks ago.

On Saturday, Russian armored columns continued to flow over the Inguri River from the Georgian city of Zugdidi into Abkhazia, a local police spokesman said. The Russians have also left the Georgian military base in Senaki, but only after confiscating almost everything of value, including televisions, refrigerators and even toilets, according to local residents who have watched the steady stream of Russian trucks moving in and out of the base for more than a week.

Russian troops still maintain checkpoints and are entrenched in the Georgian cities of Poti, a port city on the Black Sea, and have several locations within Georgian territory along the border area of South Ossetia. Russia's Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military’s general staff, stated that the Russians would not "sit behind the fence and watch as they drive around in Hummers,” a reference to captured United States Marine Corps captured by Russian forces last week. Georgia and Western allies maintain that the Russians are in violation of earlier agreements and demand a Russian return to their prewar positions. Russia, meanwhile, intends to announce it's recognition of two separatist enclaves, which creates an even more murky diplomatic and political situation in the region.

Currently some 112,000 refugees have been registered by the Georgian government, with estimates being that there are possibly closer to 200,000 in total. Refugees who are moving back into areas still held by Russian forces are cautiously optimistic that the conflict has begun to come to an end. Housing for refugees has not been an easy task to undertake. Many refugees have been forced to seek housing in dilapidated buildings that have been far from capable of handling the large numbers of people flooding into them; in one case, a shelter housing around 1,700 refugees shared a single, rigged up water faucet and two toilets.

As Russia withdraws, even to the point that they have and are withdrawing, the main concern now for the people of the nation of Georgia is certain: for Georgians to return to any semblence of their former lives is going to be a slow, hard process. Especially if they're keeping a watch out for bears wandering the countryside.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Russia Announces Pullout Date - What, Again?

Russia has announced a "firm" date for withdrawing it's troops from central Georgia back into an area behind a "buffer zone" in South Ossetia. Hasn't the world been assured of a Russian pullout before?

Russia has announced that it will begin withdrawing troops from Georgia back into South Ossetia behind a buffer zone where Georgian forces will not be allowed by late Friday, according to reports coming out of Moscow. The announcement comes from General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy head of Russia's General Staff, who made the announcement at a Moscow news conference, stating that Russia will observe a 1992 peacekeeping agreement between Russia and Georgia. He further stated that Georgia had violated the terms of the agreement by withdrawing their own peacekeepers and sending them toward the regional capital, Tskhinvali, thus negating their right to engage in peacekeeping operations within the region.

Georgian officials say that Russia is the aggressor, and may not be considered a peacekeeper itself. Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told VOA that the buffer zone around South Ossetia is ill-defined and that Russia is "playing games" with the facts.

Utiashvili says Russian officials show journalists one thing during the day, and return their forces at night. He claims that the number of checkpoints and amount of territory held by Russian forces are not decreasing.

Given the previous announcements of cease-fire orders and troop withdrawals by Moscow, it's a reasonable understanding why Georgian officials are skeptical that Russia will withdraw it's troops at this point. Georgia isn't alone in doubting Russia, as negotiations between Russia and NATO reached a near total breakdown yesterday, with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice harshly criticizing Russia for it's actions in Georgia.

U.S. Secretary of State led the charge against Russia, beginning with sharply-worded statements to journalists on the plane over to Brussels. At the meeting, Rice also spoke of Russia’s increasing aviation presence in near Alaska. “It is not cost free,” Rice commented. “This is a very dangerous game, and perhaps one the Russians might want to reconsider.” Moscow responded to that statement through Deputy Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn yesterday. “That is a Russian issue,” Nogovitsyn said. “The decision on those flights was made by the supreme commander. Strategic aviation will no longer remain laid up. There is nothing criminal about it. We’ve been flying there for half a year already.”

Sources in Western diplomatic circles say the NATO session was tense. The United States, some of the Scandinavian countries and the vast majority of Eastern European countries were in favor of taking a hard line against Russian actions and quickly providing Georgia with a membership action plan. Western European diplomats, in particular French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, opposed a harsh position. The final statement from the four-hour-long session was a compromise.

For now, the world can only wait, watching to see if Russia will, this time, follow through with it's word to withdraw troops back at least into South Ossetia. From there, the future remains uncertain. One thing that is certain, as the situation in Georgia begins to, hopefully, wind down, Russia has certainly shown exactly how much her current government can be trusted by the rest of the world.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Georgia On My Mind...

For days on end the world has had it's attention torn in several directions. With the U.S. Presidential race entering the convention phase, the controversies surrounding the Olympics in Beijing, the Middle East, and now Russia and Georgia?

If you asked the average American on June 27, 1914, who Archduke Franz Ferdinand was, the vast majority would have looked at you and said "never heard of him. Indeed, almost a full century later, if you mention Franz Ferdinand you're likely to bring to mind the rock group from Glasgow, Scotland, who's hit song "Take Me Out" was featured in commercials for the Sony PSP.

On June 28, 1914, Europe began it's decline into a state of continental war that would become, at the end, the most costly and devastating war to ever face the world. Even with the American entrance into the conflict in 1918, many Americans weren't sure why the U.S. was involving itself in a European conflict. And a great many Americans still weren't exactly sure what had started the war to begin with.

It's a century later, nearly, and until a few days ago, the vast majority of Americans really didn't have a clue that there was a problem in the former Soviet satellite nation of Georgia, let alone having any knowledge of a region known as South Ossetia. Yet once again the less well known regions of Europe have engaged the attention of the world as they become an object of turmoil and strife. The reason? South Ossetia has been seeking to break away from Georgia, as a large percentage of the population of the region are ethnic Russians, and wish for closer ties to Moscow than to Tbilisi. Or at least, that's what the Russians claim.

To some in the west, Russia has proven itself, at the governmental level, not to be trusted at their word. With the claims of having given cease-fire orders to their forces that rolled into the region on the one hand, and the first-hand accounts of Russian armor rolling into flanking positions around key Georgian cities, the bombing of the infrastructure (communication facilities and the like), and the sinking of Georgian ships by Russian warships, one can only speculate as to the long term goal of the Russian government. Georgia was, after all, one of the nations that made up the former Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was a member at one time of the KGB's "Fifth Directorate," which focused on political dissenters against Soviet policy, as well as having worked in the KGB's foreign intelligence divisions. Relevant? Perhaps not, unless one looks at the documented history of the practice of disinformation practiced by the KGB and Soviet Union throughout the years. To be fair, the United States and other western nations have practiced this method through the years, as well, but in this case it is Russia that is claiming non aggression at the governmental level while Russian troops have been occupying Georgian sovereign soil.

There will be, and probably are already, those who shrug their shoulders and proclaim, "It's no different from the United States invading Iraq and Afghanistan." In the case of the United States in regards to both Afghanistan and Iraq, there was evidence that has been documented and gone over ad nauseum to show terrorist activities being sponsored by or supported by both countries. Ethnic Russians living in the nation of Georgia are citizens of Georgia, not mother Russia, and the conflict that was brewing between South Ossetia and Tbilisi was an internal matter, not something for Russia to become, legally, involved in, which leads to the question; is the world witnessing the awakening of the Russian bear after a period of hibernation?

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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Newspaper Reports Putin Affair, Closes Next Day

A now defunct Russian newspaper has defied the Kremlin, and paid for reporting on rumors about the possible engagement of Russian President Vladamir Putin and 24 year old Olympic Gymnast and Parliament Member Alina Kabaeva.

For months, the rumors of the possible romance of President Vladimir Putin with Alina Kabaeva have been quietly circulating around Moscow. Rumors that have remained unpublished until yesterday.

Last week, the Moskovski Korrespondent dared to report that there was a romance, that Putin had already divorced his wife Ludmilla in secret, and that Putin plans to marry Kabaeva.

Today, there is no Russian newspaper named Moskovski Korrespondent.

The paper admitted there was no factual basis for its claim that Putin had already divorced Ludmilla, 50, his wife of 24 years, and would marry Kabaeva in June, shortly after standing down as president and becoming prime minister. It cited information from a party planner who claimed to be bidding to organise the lavish reception.

Both Putin and Kabaeva denied the report, which was followed up by European newspapers but ignored by Russia’s media, which do not delve into the private lives of politicians.

Editor Grigori Nekhoroshev was forced to resign his position, stating that he thought they should break the taboo and run the story. Russian billionaire tycoon Alexander Lebedev ceased publication of the paper immediately, the parent company blaming "costs and conceptual disagreements with the newsroom" but denying that there was any political motivation in the decision to shut down the newspaper.

Many Russians believe otherwise. Putin discounted the article and condemned the paper as tabloid journalism. Kabaeva threatened to sue. Putin, during his presidency, brought control of all Russian television under control of the Kremlin and has been highly sensitive of criticism from the print media.

So much for the much vaunted freedoms of the Russian Federation...


Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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