Russia brushes aside ceasefire calls after Georgia withdraws

[groovychk]

Russian forces were moving to take total control of South Ossetia last night as Georgia withdrew troops amid intense diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire to end the three-day conflict in which 2,000 people have reportedly been killed and up to 22,000 displaced. Seizing the opening offered by President Mikheil Saakashvili's doomed military incursion last week, Moscow also insisted the Georgian leader should resign, according to senior US diplomats.

Russian aircraft bombed Tbilisi's international airport hours before the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, was due to land on an EU mission, the Georgian interior ministry said. Last night it was reported that Russia sank a Georgian ship after coming under attack.

Russia and the US clashed at the UN security council - meeting for the fourth time in four days to discuss the crisis - over charges that Moscow wanted "regime change" in Georgia.

Zalid Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN, asked his Russian counterpart Vitali Churkin: "Is the goal of the Russian Federation to change the leadership of Georgia?" Churkin replied: "There are leaders who become an obstacle. Sometimes those leaders need to contemplate how useful they have become to their people."

Meanwhile, the tide of refugees fleeing ruined towns and villages showed no sign of ending last night as Russian forces pushed forward after Saakashvili pulled his bloodied troops out of the territory.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/11/georgia.russia3

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So now the FSU is telling the Georgian President to resign.

Comments

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

Nice! And pretty soon, Russia will have what it wanted all along! Georgia reclaimed, and all it's oil.

[time-lordy.livejournal.com]

Kalilzad should take off his shoe and hand it to Churkin, so he can bang it on the table like Khuruschev.

Ah, well, the idea of a democratic republic Russia was fun while it lasted.

Do you think they'll get back half of Berln this time around?

[jackye.livejournal.com]

As long as they don't build another wall....what else can you do?