Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/world/europe/17georgia.html
August 17, 2008
Kremlin Agrees to Framework for Cease-Fire in Georgia
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY and C.J. CHIVERS [Russia] [Georgia] [former USSR] [home to Stalin, Sheverdnadze, et al.] [re-assertion of Russia’s historic influence] [similarly, rebirth of Russia’s inferiority complex that leads to Russia’s leaders striking in odd ways] [followup] [Czar Putin’s government appeared to withdraw from Abkhazia region in Georgia and Ossetia] [here we see it was feign] [now comes open war] [recently (just a few days ago): jihadis activity at site of 2014 games] [use psci 350] [use ir text] [Russian ethos] [odd balance of revving up the home constituency while elites in Russia fret silently about how Russia viewed by West] [like peoples everywhere, Russians rally round the flag!] [finally media beginning a more balanced view with blame placed in many places, here we see the tendency for even top journalists to slam Russia using words such as defiant] [Americans need to understand how agreived Russians feel and how popular teaching Saakashvili is] [*****]
MOSCOW — Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, on Saturday signed a revised framework for a deal to halt the fighting in neighboring Georgia, which has stirred some of the deepest divisions between world powers since the cold war. But the Kremlin then indicated that despite the accord’s approval, it would not immediately pull its troops from the country. [*******]
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, told reporters that Russian forces would stay in Georgia as long as they were needed. He said their withdrawal would depend on the introduction of what he called additional security measures, without explaining what those were. [unsurprisingly, the Russians playing hardball] [presicely what US would do in similar circumstances] [******]
“The basic agreements do not determine the ceiling for the peacekeeping contingents,” Mr. Lavrov said. “How long it will take, I have already emphasized that it depends not only on us. We are constantly facing problems created by the Georgian side. Everything depends on how fast and efficiently these problems will be solved.”
Speaking at his ranch in Texas, President Bush described the Russian endorsement of the cease-fire as a “hopeful step.” [I think Bush has got the tone about right] [he’s lauded them faintly when they have done something positively] [he’s chided them relatively mildly but firmly when opposite] [I’ve actually been surprise] [I think it’s Robert Gates and Condi Rice who have advised and eclipsed Veep’s Vulcans] [*****]
“Now Russia needs to honor the agreement and withdraw its forces,” Mr. Bush said.
The Russian announcements on Saturday came a day after the American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, went to Georgia to demand a Russian pullout and win the Georgian president’s support for the revised cease-fire agreement. As Ms. Rice was arriving in the capital, Tbilisi, Russian troops moved to within 25 miles of there.
On Saturday, that contingent remained outside the capital, and overall, the situation on the ground in Georgia was largely unchanged, with the Russians occupying large swaths of territory.
If Russian troops do not begin withdrawing over the weekend, the standoff is likely to touch off more strains between Russia and the United States. Mr. Bush has repeatedly castigated Russia in recent days for invading Georgia after intense fighting broke out over a disputed province, South Ossetia, which is an ally of Moscow and wants to secede formally from Georgia.
The Kremlin has said that Georgia provoked the conflict by sending its troops into South Ossetia, and referred to the Georgia president, Mikheil Saakashvili, as a war criminal. Mr. Saakashvili has contended that Russia is determined to turn Georgia into the kind of vassal state that existed in the region during Soviet times.
It remained an open question on Saturday whether a dispute remained over the interpretation of the precise language of the cease-fire framework.
The original arrangement was negotiated by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. But after Georgia raised objections about one provision, he altered it so that it could not be used by the Russians to justify maintaining a military presence deep in Georgia. Mr. Saakashvili signed the revised version on Friday, and even as the Kremlin announced Saturday that Mr. Medvedev had signed as well, it did not explicitly say that he had approved the changes by Mr. Sarkozy.
In fact, on Saturday, Mr. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, raised a new issue, saying that the document that Mr. Saakashvili approved Friday had not contained an introduction that had been endorsed by Russia, South Ossetia and the other breakaway region, Abkhazia. Mr. Lavrov said the introduction declared that the cease-fire framework was supported by the presidents of Russia and France, which urged other parties to sign it. Still, whatever the clash over the wording, it appears that the Kremlin could still try to cite overall security concerns to forestall a withdrawal.
Neither side seems eager to compromise. At a news conference on Friday, Mr. Medvedev accused Mr. Saakashvili of embracing “idiotic ideas” that had provoked the war, while Mr. Saakashvili referred to the Russians as “21st-century barbarians.”
Tensions between Georgia and South Ossetia and Abkhazia have long simmered, and Russia has increasingly supported the breakaway regions’ desire to secede, even giving their residents Russian passports. With the Russians contending that Mr. Saakashvili began the fighting, they have made clear in recent days that Georgia can never again claim the regions.
The United States, though, has emphasized that Georgia’s territorial integrity must be preserved. Mr. Bush said Saturday, “There’s no room for debate on this matter.”
Throughout Saturday, the Russian Army continued operations in Georgia that suggested that a pullout was not imminent.
Large numbers of conventional armored troops occupied the central city of Gori, where they were seen by reporters and photographers for The New York Times. Units moved out of the city and began to dig artillery and fighting positions in villages to its east, nearer to Tbilisi.
The troops were in Gori despite assertions to the contrary earlier in the day by a senior Russian defense official, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn. He said at a news conference that there were no troops left in Gori, which is astride Georgia’s main highway. He also said units that had been there were only reconnaissance troops.
A railway bridge at Kaspi, east of Gori, was destroyed after explosives were apparently placed under its spans. Georgia contended that the Russians were trying to undermine Georgia’s economy by destroying civilian infrastructure.
General Nogovitsyn said the Russians played no role in the damage. “We are now in peacetime,” he said. “Why should we be blowing up bridges when our job is to restore? We are hard at work.”
At least three Mi-24 helicopter gunships, one of the most feared weapons in Russia’s conventional arsenal, patrolled the skies to Gori’s east. They were not seen firing, but Georgia said elsewhere that their ordnance had set the national forest near Borjomi afire and that a highway bridge was damaged. The claims could not be verified.
Russia did allow for the turnover of human remains in at least some areas of the conflict. Two Georgian trucks loaded with corpses passed out of Gori to Tbilisi, bound for a morgue. It was not clear if the trucks contained civilian victims or the bodies of soldiers, or both.
There were signs that the humanitarian difficulties were expanding. A Times reporter traveling between Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, and Gori saw extensive sections of villages that had been burned. And refugees continued to flee areas through which the Russian military had passed.
Clifford J. Levy reported from Moscow, and C J. Chivers from Tbilisi, Georgia. Reporting was contributed by Matt Siegel from Gori, Georgia; Sabrina Tavernise from Igoeti, Georgia; Joe Silva and Justyna Mielnikiewicz from Gori, Igoeti and Kaspi, Georgia; and Steven Lee Myers from Crawford, Tex.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company