Russian ‘Military Operation’ Over- Ceasefire In Place As Sarkozy Heads To Moscow, Tiblisi

Reuters:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations in Georgia on Tuesday after five days of fighting, just before French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to hold peace talks in Moscow.

A Kremlin spokesman confirmed that Medvedev had issued instructions to the Defence Ministry to “stop the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace”.

“The aggressor has been punished and sustained very serious losses,” Interfax quoted Medvedev as telling Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

Russian markets rose on Medvedev’s words, with the rouble strengthening and shares rallying strongly as nervous investors expressed relief.

“That’s the signal people were waiting for. Things have fallen so low that we are about 50 percent cheaper than Brazilian equity,” said Alfa Bank share salesman Konstantin Shapsharov. The news broke just before Sarkozy was to meet Medvedev at the Kremlin to discuss an international plan to halt the war, which has rattled world oil markets and unnerved the West.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier Moscow could not agree to the plan if it included Georgians in a future peacekeeping force because they had attacked Russian colleagues during Tbilisi’s push to recapture breakaway South Ossetia.

“They can no longer remain. They brought shame upon themselves as peacekeepers. They committed crimes,” he told a news conference.

In Georgia, Russian forces attacked positions in and around the town of Gori on Tuesday, killing at least five people, a Reuters correspondent said. There were isolated skirmishes along the front line but no major offensives by either side overnight.

Close U.S. ally Georgia entered a conflict with Russia last week after launching an offensive to retake the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgian rule in 1992. Moscow responded with a huge counter-offensive.

Separatists in the Black Sea region of Abkhazia, west of the main war theatre, launched a push early on Tuesday to drive Georgian forces out of the Kodori Gorge — the only area of the province under Georgian control.

“The operation to liberate Kodori Gorge has started,” Abkhazia’s self-styled foreign minister Sergei Shamba said. “Our troops are making advances. We are hoping for success.”

Abkhazia insisted Russian troops were not involved.

Moscow’s troops appeared to have largely stayed within the two separatist areas of South Ossetia and Abkhazia overnight, calming fears they might push deep into Georgia and threaten President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government.

Reuters correspondents in the road junction of Gori, on the main east-west highway across Georgia, said no Russian forces were in the largely deserted town, though Russian warplanes were bombing artillery positions around the town.

Georgian officials said on Monday evening that Moscow had seized Gori, cutting the country in half, and Russian troops were advancing on Tbilisi to overthrow Saakashvili’s government.

U.S. President George W. Bush appeared to support that view, saying on Monday that Russia had invaded a sovereign neighbouring state and threatened a democratic government.”

Lavrov said in response that Russia had no intention of overthrowing Saakashvili though he should resign because “he can no longer be our partner”.

STRAINED RELATIONS WITH WEST

Bush told Moscow to end its military action and accept a peace agreement, saying its moves had jeopardised relations with the United States and Europe.

Further calming fears of a major Russian military offensive inside Georgia, Moscow’s troops pulled back from Senaki, a Georgian town east of Abkhazia which they had briefly occupied on Monday, saying their military objectives had been achieved.

Georgia hosts an important pipeline carrying oil from the Caspian to the West and the fighting has unsettled oil markets, though the pipeline itself has not been touched by the conflict.

The war has alarmed investors in Russia, hitting the rouble and Russian stocks and has raised fears of a wider conflagration in the volatile region bordering Iran, Turkey and Russia.

Moscow had on Monday snubbed Georgia’s declaration of a ceasefire, saying Tbilisi was continuing to fight and must first sign a pledge never to use force against South Ossetia again.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, taking a leading role in the crisis, has accused Georgia of starting the crisis and attacked the United States for backing Tbilisi.

Georgia called for a U.N. peacekeeping force to intervene to halt its conflict with Russia, and said on Monday evening its battered forces had retreated to defend the capital Tbilisi.

Saakashvili said Moscow should know Georgia will not quit. “Georgia will never surrender,” he said on CNN.

Saakashvili said earlier he had agreed to a plan proposed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner under which hostilities would end, a mixed peacekeeping force would be deployed — replacing the purely Russian one — and troops would return to pre-conflict positions.

Kouchner was in Georgian on Monday before flying to Moscow for meetings on Tuesday before Sarkozy’s arrival.

Russia says 1,600 South Ossetian civilians have been killed in the fighting and thousands are homeless but these figures have not been independently verified. Georgia has reported close to 200 killed and hundreds of wounded.

(Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, James Kilner in Tbilisi, Matt Robinson in Gori and the Washington bureau; writing by Michael Stott; editing by Janet McBride and Angus MacSwan)

Focus:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday he had decided to cease Russia’s military operation against Georgia. “I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian authorities into peace,” Medvedev was quoted as saying at a meeting with defence officials.

“The purpose of the operation has been achieved…. The security of our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been restored,” Interfax quoted him as saying.

The decision was announced just as French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the conflict in Georgia, centred on the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.
Medvedev is due to meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which currently holds the European Union presidency, to discuss the conflict on Tuesday.

“The operation has achieved its goal, security for peacekeepers and civilians has been restored. The aggressor was punished, suffering huge losses,” Medvedev said.

However, he warned Russia would be ready to respond if Georgia attacks again.
A senior Russian military official said on Tuesday that Russia could withdraw part of its troops sent into the region to help peacekeepers if Tbilisi observes the ceasefire.

Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the General Staff, also said Georgian troops were currently retreating from South Ossetia. He said Georgia had about three infantry brigades, one artillery and three antitank brigades in the region as of Tuesday.

Russia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that the country rules out negotiations with Georgia’s president, and insisted that Georgia must no longer have a peacekeeping presence in breakaway South Ossetia.
Four days on from Georgia’s ground and air offensive to seize control of South Ossetia, Russian forces have forced a Georgian retreat from the province in what Moscow has labeled a major peace enforcement operation to prevent further incursions.

Sergei Lavrov, speaking at a joint news conference with Finland’s foreign minister in Moscow, highlighted the severity of the crimes committed by Georgian forces in their attack on South Ossetia, and said Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili can no longer be considered a partner.