Russians 'advancing on Tbilisi'

[bemildred]

Source: al Jazeera



Russian forces are advancing towards Tbilisi, according to the Georgian government, despite a fragile ceasefire being agreed by the two sides.

The reports on Sunday come hours after Russian troops were seen beginning to withdraw from Kaspi and Igoeti, towns close to the Georgian capital.

Fighters from the breakaway region of Abkhazia, who are backed by Moscow, have also taken control of 13 Georgian villages and a hydropower plant, according to the Tbilisi government.

Jonah Hull, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tblisi, said: "This is indeed disturbing news.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/08/200881623730798306.html

[LSparkle]

1. Biden's headed there ... Has he arrived yet?

Will he be on any Sunday show from Georgia?

Disturbing indeed ... while Bomb Bomb uses his
"tough stance" on Georgia for political benefit
tonight, thousands of miles away.

And we as a nation are focused on Beijing and
Michael Phelps ... We have our priorities SO
SCREWED UP.

[Muttocracy]

3. I don't know - if he's supposed to be back Mon. he must have left before his office announced. nt

[Muttocracy]

11. found an update on his travel schedule

what I saw before about being back Monday must be wrong - maybe he's leaving Monday night their time.

anyway:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/16/biden-heads-to-georgia/
Biden heads to Georgia
Posted: 03:55 PM ET
From CNN's Steve Brusk

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and thought to be on Barack Obama’s short list for vice president, is headed to Georgia Saturday night.

His spokesman, Elizabeth Alexander said, “At the request of Georgian president (Mikhail) Saakashvilli, Chairman Biden is heading to Georgia this weekend. He is leaving this evening and will be there Sunday.”

No other Senators are traveling with him.

In a statement, his office said he will meet President Saakashvili, Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze, and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Tefft. He also will meet with residents who fled the fighting.

Biden said in the statement, “I am going to Georgia this weekend to get the facts first-hand and to show my support for Georgia’s people and its democratically-elected government. I look forward to reporting to my colleagues in the Senate and on the Foreign Relations Committee, as well as the Administration, about what I learn.”

[Muttocracy]

2. so much for the cease fire? nt

[bemildred]

4. The Russians have been "advancing on Tbilisi" for over a week now.

No need to get worked up just yet.

[Muttocracy]

5. hard to even know what the definition of advance is here. nt

[bemildred]

6. Any movement is advancement.

Especially if you are going forward.

[ohio2007]

7. The trains through Abkhazian are running on time

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e36_1218934269

Russians are going to stay

[bemildred]

8. Indeed they are. nt

[Tutonic]

19. Yep. Heading toward Tbilisi according to "Georgian government"

Bet if you spoke ot Putin, he'd say just the opposite. The news is all spin at this time.

[bemildred]

22. They all lie, all the time, that's true. nt

[ohio2007]

9. That "cease fire" talk is for western MSM consumption. nt

[razors edge]

17. Absolutely,

the neos know they can't do shit, so they play it down and lick their wounds.

[Flaxbee]

10. If Saakashvili said so, it cannot be true.

The man is a US puppet and a liar.

That being said, the Russians need to back off, as they're playing into neocon hands.

[ohio2007]

12. Saakashvili feeling the heat by his looks in this video

Saakashvili Eats His Tie

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=686_1218921588
He's pondering if Gitmo would offer better accommodations then the Gulag



http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Kid379OjuC0

over extended and it was followed up with an unequal measured response

[daleo]

14. That was pretty strange

I have to admit it was kind of funny, especially the way he looked around before sneaking a bite of his tie.

[bemildred]

23. I thought this was an interesting POV:

Look: Saakashvili came to power on a Georgian nationalist platform of recovering Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He’s been jonesing for an excuse to send troops in for years, regardless of anything the U.S. did or didn’t do. Likewise, Putin has been eagerly waiting for an excuse to pound the crap out of him in return — again, regardless of anything the U.S. did or didn’t do. (You don’t think Russia was able to mount a highly precise counterattack within 24 hours just by coincidence, do you?)

Now sure, in general, Kosovo + missile shield + NATO enlargement + resurgent Russian nationalism formed the background for this war, and maybe the U.S. has played a bad hand on this score. But Bush administration officials have said for months (i.e., before the war started, meaning this isn’t just post hoc ass covering) that they’ve urged Saakashvili to stay cool. And I believe them. What else would they do, after all? There was never any chance that we were going to provide Georgia with military help in case of a Russian invasion, and it’s improbable in the extreme that anyone on our side said anything to suggest otherwise.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2008/08/did_us_provoke_geogia-russia_conflict/

[Regret My New Name]

15. hehehe old KGB mind control shit....

[Regret My New Name]

13. Any bets on how close they will get before they turn around?

Haven't they been doing this all week?

[Igel]

16. As luck would have it ...

On a different, albeit tangentially related topic, Dnes has an article about a man, Rudolf Čížek, who just pulled out of storage some film he took in August '68. Too bad it's not digitized and online yet; then again, it sounds like quite a bit of footage.

http://zpravy.idnes.cz/kriminalista-ctyricet-let-schovaval-hlaseni-o-okupaci-ceskoslovenska-1zm-/domaci.asp?c=A080816_1029162_domaci_pin

Czech, sorry.

I'd suggest Babelfish, if you want more than the picture. Basically it tells a little about the chronology, how the Soviets treated the Czech politicians and the people (including some protesters) rather poorly. Arrogantly.


Forty years ... not so long. One professor I knew in Brno--this would have been '93 or '94--talked about having the Russian tanks roll into the main market square there, and then go up the main street in town. The threats were explicit and implicit. In a tour one of the faculty in my exchange program gave in Prague, she said she was one of the protesters in Prague, and how they had to run down the side streets. Markers still there for the dead protesters, both in Brno and in Prague.

[Purveyor]

18. Russia needs to take all of Georgia to send the signal to NATO that yes, there

are limits to your 'crusade'....

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

21. Are you insane?

Seriously, do you WANT to start World War III?

[Codeine]

24. He will fight the the last drop of Georgian blood. nt

[ohio2007]

26. ? They already did

nothing left to do now but beat down the insurgency when it starts to flares up. I'm sure for every Russian killed, Putin will demand the right ears of ten Georgians until civilian moral improves in the land of the re conquered.

[reorg]

20. Just watched a BBC report "Russian troops near Tbilisi"

where a reporter states with an alarmist voice "these troops were not here 24 hours ago" ... "now they sit just 18 miles from the capital Tbilisi" ... and the accompanying pictures first show a tank near a road sign, and then a tank advancing in some unspecified direction ...

That sounds frightening, as if the evil Russians were to enter Tblisi any moment now and maybe execute the elected president of this fragile Caucasian democracy in short order ... but wait.

It is kind of hard to find a precise map of Georgia online these days, but I found something useful at Live Search. The lettering on the road sign says "Lamiskana" in one direction and "Kaspi" in the other, which would indicate that the spot where the tank was filmed is most likely somewhere on the road between Gori and Tbilisi (about halfway), which would indeed be some 20 miles away from the capital.

However, the border to South-Ossetia is also just a short distance away from this spot! About 10 km to the north (pretty much the same distance as Gori is away from the border). And guess what, according to The Independent, the "plan also grants Russian forces limited rights to patrol Georgia proper, apparently with the aim of discouraging the Georgian military or partisans from establishing forward positions near South Ossetia."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russian-president-signs-ceasefire-pact-899428.html

Oops. No violation of the ceasefire agreement then, after all? I'm sure this comes as a relief to all of you.

[Parmenion]

25. Small Country

Good analysis Reorg. I just want to mention one thing- Georgia is a tiny country, so distances that seem "close" are actually quite far relatively. For example- 20 miles from Tbilisi is quite a lot for a country the size of Georgia. I live in Lebanon, and everything is within a few hours drive from Beirut, but one would not claim that Israel is "nearing Beirut" if Israeli troops crossed the border into Lebanon.

[SOS]

27. Will CNN run more fake footage to corroborate this "advance"?

Russsian channel accuses CNN of using misleading war video

"MOSCOW - Russian English-language television channel Russia Today has acused the U.S. broadcaster CNN of using the wrong pictures in their coverage of the conflict in South Ossetia. A Russian cameraman says footage of wrecked tanks and ruined buildings, which was purported to have been filmed in the town of Gori, in fact showed the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, the RTTV reported on its web site.

Gori was said to be about to fall under the control of the Russian army but the cameraman says the video was actually shot in Tskhinvali, which had been flattened by Georgian shelling.

"When we arrived and news came that Gori was being shelled, I saw my footage. I said: that's not Gori! That's Tskhinvali. I can swear in front of any tribunal. I can point out this location on a map, because I and a cameraman from the channel Rossiya videotaped that," the channel quoted the cameraman as saying."