RUSSIA ENDING MILITARY OPERATIONS IN GEORGIA
August 12th, 2008Just out.
I wonder who got what?
Via: CNN:
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced Tuesday that he has ordered an end to military operations against Georgia.
The announcement came minutes before French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to land in Moscow to meet with Medvedev to negotiate terms for a possible cease-fire.
“I have reached a decision to halt the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace,” Medvedev said. “The aggressor has been punished and has incurred very significant losses. Its armed forces are disorganized.”
The decision ends five days of fighting that began in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia and spread well into Georgia. Video Watch more on the fighting in South Ossetia »
Before the Russian president said he would halt military operations, a Georgian Interior Ministry official said Tuesday that Russian bombs hit one of the three pipelines carrying oil to the Black Sea port of Poti. There was no oil in the pipeline at the time, the ministry official said.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has accused Russia of provoking the war to justify a full-scale invasion of the former Soviet state. The Russians say Saakashvili attacked first in an attempt to gain control of South Ossetia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an earlier news conference Tuesday that Russia wanted a demilitarized zone to be created in Georgian territory before a cease-fire took effect. Video Watch Lavrov speak about Georgia »
The zone had to be big enough to prevent Georgia’s military from again attacking the breakaway province, Lavrov said.
He said Russian troops already in the breakaway province on peacekeeping duty should remain, but that Georgian troops who were part of that force should not return.
Lavrov said it would be best if Saakashvili stepped down as Georgia’s leader — something the president has vowed not to do — but that Russia is not demanding his resignation.
