STATEMENT BY THE CHRI MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

STATEMENT BY THE CHRI MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Aug, 13th 2008
CHECHENPRESS.

Official Information Section, 09/08/08

Following the recent events in the Caucasus and the beginning of theopen aggression by the Russian Federation against the sovereign Republicof Georgia the ChRI Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes the followingstatement:

The Chechen people who have been fighting for their freedom for severalcenturies against the Russian occupying forces consider Russia’saggression against Georgia a disgusting and misanthropic act aimed atescalating the military conflicts in the whole Caucasus.

There isn’t andthere cannot be any justification for Russia’s acts of aggressionbecause military conflicts are a source of infinite suffering for thecivilian population of the conflicting parties.

The Chechen people who in fact have been victims of Russia’s aggressivegeopolitical ambitions have in reality been sacrificed by theinternational community to the Kremlin Empire. Ichkeriya’s leadershiphave always been staunch supporters of the peaceful resolution of theRussian-Chechen military conflict and have repeatedly informed the mainpolitical actors in the region, as well as their partners, of Russia’splans to annex the territories of neighbouring countries.

The war crimeswhich Russia commits in the ChRI and which have been criminally ignored by the whole world only serve to stimulate the far-reaching goals of theKremlin. Leading countries of the world have left these warnings withoutheed hoping to satisfy Russia’s revengeful appetites with the Chechenblood. However, as the Russian forces’ open intervention in Georgia demonstrates Russia’s imperial aspirations are but growing and itsaggressiveness is gathering new and dangerous momentum.

This alarming situation has motivated the ChRI leadership to urge allpeace loving countries to exercise their principled approach and toprevent further escalation of the military conflict by reigning in theaggressor.

The ChRI Minister of Foreign AffairsUsman Ferzauli

Minsk Silence on S. Ossetia

13 August 2008

Minsk Silence on S. Ossetia

MINSK -- Russia's ambassador to Belarus said Tuesday that Moscow couldnot understand why Minsk, nominally a close ally, had failed to offerthe Kremlin open support in its conflict with Georgia.

"We are somewhat perplexed by the modest silence of the Belarussian side. You need to express yourself more clearly on such issues,"Ambassador Alexander Surikov told a briefing.

Belarus' Foreign Ministry has called on both sides to lay down theirarms and start negotiating for peace.Surikov complained that Belarus had not even offered to send aid forpeople injured or made homeless in South Ossetia. "We have alwayssupported and defended Belarus," he said. (Reuters)

Stand up to Russia

Stand up to Russia

Sending troops to help Georgia is out of the question, but the U.S.must do more than issue strongly worded statements.

By Max Boot

The Los Angeles Times August 12, 2008

It took the Red Army -- excuse me, the Russian army -- only two daysto secure Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Now Russia is pressing itsattacks into the heart of Georgia, threatening to cut the majoreast-west highway and vital oil pipeline. Moscow's ultimate goalremains unclear, but it may well be to topple the democraticallyelected government of President Mikheil Saakashvili and replace himwith a pro-Kremlin stooge. That is what the Russians did in Chechnyain 1999-2000.

The difference is that, while Chechnya had aspirations of nationhood,Georgia has already achieved it. Since the collapse of the Sovietempire in 1991, it has been a fully sovereign country. More recently,as a result of the 2003 Rose Revolution, Georgia has become ademocracy -- admittedly an imperfect democracy, but with far greaterrule of law than Russia. By crossing Georgia's borders, the Russianshave committed their worst violation of international law since theinvasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

At a time like this, it is vital for the leaders of the West to standtogether and make clear that this aggression will not stand. This isno time for weaselly statements of moral equivalence claiming thatGeorgia brought this war on itself or that Russia's response is merely"disproportionate" -- as if there were a "proportionate" level ofaggression that would be justified. Whatever the details of the clashthat began last week between Georgia and the breakaway, pro-Russiaprovince of South Ossetia, there can be no excuse for Russia'sinvasion. The presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland wereon the mark in their demand that "aggression against a small countryin Europe ... not be passed over in silence or with meaninglessstatements equating the victims with the victimizers.

"The more hysterical excuses that Moscow makes for its aggression areparticularly creepy. Pravda accuses Saakashvili of committing "warcrimes against humanity" and claims that Russia had no choice but toprotect its citizens in South Ossetia from a "savage, brutal, criminalattack" by "the back-stabbing Georgians." There are echoes here ofGerman spokesmen from the 1930s shedding crocodile tears over thesupposed mistreatment of German minorities in nearby states. Thosewere the excuses that Hitler used to swallow Czechoslovakia and Poland.

The Nazi analogy may appear overwrought. Certainly no one is claimingthat Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is another Hitler, auniquely evil and reckless madman. But Putin does appear to have morethan a passing resemblance to lesser autocrats such as Mussolini andthe Japanese generals of the 1930s whose aggression nevertheless hadtragic repercussions. Indeed, two other historical analogies that cometo mind are the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the Italianinvasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Both set the stage for World War II byrevealing the impotence of the League of Nations and the unwillingnessof the great powers to respond forcefully to aggression.Likewise, the Russian attacks on Georgia, if left unchecked, couldeasily trigger more conflict in the future. The Kremlin has embarkedon a campaign to destabilize not just pro-Western Georgia but otherformer Soviet satrapies that refuse to toe its line. Many of thesestates have their own Russian minorities whose alleged maltreatmentprovides the perfect excuse for Russian meddling. Today, Georgia;tomorrow, Ukraine; the day after, Estonia?

If there is one thing that has limited Russian action against theBaltic states to cyber-attacks, economic pressure and verbal bullying,it is that these countries are now part of NATO. NATO's refusal togive Georgia a "membership action plan" earlier this year was ablunder that emboldened Russian aggression. That is a mistake thaturgently needs to be rectified.The West must demand that Russia withdraw its troops from all of Georgia's soil, possibly to be replaced in South Ossetia and Abkhaziawith international peacekeepers. If the Kremlin won't comply, the Westshould respond with sanctions such as withdrawing ambassadors fromMoscow, kicking Russia out of the Group of 8 leading industrializednations and freezing Russian bank accounts abroadWe should also do more to help Georgia defend itself. Sending Americantroops is out of the question, but we can send American equipment.

That's what we did in 1973 when Israel appeared on the verge of losingthe Yom Kippur War, and it is a favor we should extend to ourembattled ally in the Caucasus. The greatest bang for the buck wouldcome from two inexpensive hand-held missiles: the Stinger to destroyRussian aircraft and the Javelin to destroy tanks. Pictures of longcolumns of Russian vehicles advancing slowly down winding mountainroads indicate that a few well-placed missiles could wreak havoc withtheir operations.

Many will claim that such steps are needlessly "provocative" and thatthe fate of Georgia is inconsequential beside the larger imperative ofmaintaining good relations with Russia. We have heard such talkbefore. The world failed in the 1930s to rally to the defense of smallstates such as Ethiopia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Finland when theywere menaced by larger predators. The statesman of the time calculatedthat the cost of action was too high. What we learned in retrospectwas that the cost of inaction was far higher. That is a lesson weshould heed today.

Max Boot is a contributing editor to Opinion and the Jeane J.Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Councilon Foreign Relations.

Putin Outmaneuvers the West

Der Spiegel 08/12/2008

CEASEFIRE IN GEORGIA

Putin Outmaneuvers the West

By Christian Neef

Russia's strongman Vladimir Putin has achieved his goal in Georgia --the country has been destabilized. And the West will have to look onpowerless when its ally, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, iseventually driven from office.

The march on Tbilisi has been called off, if such plans ever existed.Russian President Dimitry Medvedev has announced the end of militaryoperations in the Caucasus for the time being. According to sources inMoscow, some in the Russian military found it very painful to have tohalt the advance just 90 kilometers from the office of GeorgianPresident Mikhail Saakashvili. The hardliners would have loved nothingmore than to do a bit of clearing up in the headquarters of thisGeorgian hothead.

But hasn't Russia already achieved everything it had set out toachieve? Moscow will now argue that it has fulfilled its "peacekeepingmission" as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin puts it, and that ithas stuck to international agreements regarding the Caucasus byprotecting one side and restraining the other. Now only one taskremains -- Saakashvili needs to go, say the Russians.And that poses the next quandary for the West. Russia will now stressits readiness to enter negotiations, but only on one condition -- thatSaakashvili quits. The Russians will demand that the West (andespecially the Americans) let their their darling go.

Russia had already indicated its position on Monday when Putin drewparallels between Saakashvili and Saddam Hussein. One could understandthat the Americans had hanged the criminal Saddam, said Putin. But headded that it was a scandal that the US had a totally different stancein the case of Saakashvilli and had even provided eight aircraft totransport the Georgian soldiers stationed in Iraq to join the fightingin Georgia.

So Moscow is calling for Saakashvili's head as a precondition forresolving the conflict -- and the West dearly wants a resolution. Butthe West accedes to Moscow's demand, it will publicly embarrassitself. On the other hand such an outcome would be logical. Ascolumnist Bruce Anderson wrote in Britain's Independent newspaper: "Indiplomacy, strategy and geopolitics, our political leaders have beenguilty of multiple failures over many years." All the talk about apossible Georgian membership of NATO only encouraged Tbilisi to embarkon its military adventure. Saakashvili already felt like a full NATOpartner and thought he could provoke Russia without punishment. Andthe Russians thought it was time to teach him a lesson.

No one in NATO is likely to have even considered hurling themselvesinto the breach for tiny Georgia. The Americans need Russia to helpthem keep Iran in line. With its show of military might Moscow hasreminded the West where part of its oil and gas come from. And it hasshown the countries in the gray zone between East and West -- Georgia,Ukraine and the former Soviet Central Asian states -- that it makes nosense to seek protection from a West that only gives empty promises.

It's true, security guarantees and pledges of solidarity aren't worthmuch if they run counter to the West's own strategic interests. ThePoles know that all too well -- they hoped in vain for help from theirfriends in 1939, the British and the French, when Hitler and Stalininvaded their country.Since peeling away from Georgia in a 1990-1992 war, South Ossetia hasbeen de facto independent. Russians participated in a mixedpeacekeeping force following a ceasefire agreement in 1992. Althoughunder international law the breakaway region of Abkhazia is part ofGeorgia, it is financially backed by Russia. Most Abkhazians holdRussian passports.Russia is in a difficult position. Moscow warned the West againstrecognizing Kosovo's declaration of independence earlier this year,saying that similar declarations among former Soviet satellites wouldresult. The Russian argument that South Ossetia has a right toautonomy, however, was never extended to Chechnya. The West recognizedKosovo over Russian protest. Now the Kremlin's revenge may well be toofficially acknowledge South Ossetia's independence fromThe US takes Georgia's side in the conflict. Americans considerPresident Mikhail Saakashvili a faithful ally, and US militaryadvisors support him given Georgian participation in the Iraq war. USPresident Bush has accused Russia of a "disproportionate" response andUS Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad said Russia was following a"campaign of terror." Russia has rejected the accusations.

The UN Security Council could not agree on a position regarding thesituation proposed by Russia Friday. The Russian document urgedGeorgia and South Ossetia to cease fighting immediately. Russiarequested the council's Friday emergency meeting. Since then, debatein the Security Council has degenerated into a tit-for-tat betweenRussia and the United States.Members did not reach an agreement on the text proposed by Russia. TheSecurity Council nevertheless expressed its alarm over the escalationof the conflict. The Russian proposal requested "immediate cessationof violence" and a return to the negotiating table. Georgia, backed upby the US, viewed the proposal as hemming its opportunity to defenditself. So no agreement was reached.But amid all the tragedy, Saakashvili's behavior does have abeneficial element. The Caucasus conflict may now trigger a deeperdebate in the West about how to deal with the states of the formerSoviet Union. It would probably have been better if Europe had beenquicker to bind Georgia and the Ukraine to the European Union. ButBrussels thought that was "premature" while both countries were busytalking about NATO membership.The Russians are on the home stretch. Georgia is destabilized andTbilisi may well soon have a pro-Russian government. The Germans won'tbe playing much of a role in the diplomatic wrangling over the nextfew weeks even if Chancellor Angela Merkel's summit meeting withMedvedev in Sochi on Friday does focus solely on the Georgianquestion. German foreign ministry state secretary Gernot Erlerdefended the meeting by saying Medvedev was the man to talk to onforeign policy affairs. "Medvedev takes the decisions," said Erler,even though he knows that is not the case. Merkel may be travelling toSochi but the man who pulls the strings -- Prime Minister VladimirPutin -- will be sitting 1,800 kilometers north of there, in Moscow.

That is evident not only in Putin's crisis management regardingGeorgia but in all his moves to intervene in foreign policy sinceMedvedev took power. At the end of May, it was Putin who made theimportant trip to France, the current holder of the rotating EUpresidency, not Medvedev, as previously announced. It was Putin whotalked to US President George W. Bush and French President NicolasSarkozy in Beijing.Many in Moscow refer to Medvedev as "mini-Putin" -- and are hangingtheir portrait of Putin back up next to that if Medvedev in theirgovernment offices.

Russian "peacekeepers" in South Ossetia reinforced by 2 companies from Chechnya

Russian "peacekeepers" in South Ossetia reinforced by 2 companies from Chechnya -

Russian Defense Ministry

MOSCOW Aug 11 (Interfax)- The Russian peacekeepers in theGeorgian-Ossetian conflict zone have been reinforced with troop unitsfrom the "East" and "West" battalions stationed in Chechnya.

"The reinforcements sent to the Russian peacekeepers in theGeorgian-Ossetian conflict zone include two companies from the 'West'and 'East' battalions permanently deployed in Chechnya," a RussianDefense ministry spokesman announced Monday.

Kodori Under Abkhaz Control

Kodori Under Abkhaz Control

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi /
12 Aug.'08 / 23:45

Authorities in breakaway Abkhazia said their forces were in fullcontrol of upper Kodori Gorge.

Officials in Tbilisi have confirmed it.However, there are conflicting reports about how the process took place.The Abkhaz side has claimed that its troops took over the area afterfighting with the Georgian forces throughout the day, on August 12.Shota Utiashvili, the Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman, told Civil.Ge that the Georgian forces were withdrawn from the gorge lastnight.

CNN aired brief footage showing an Abkhaz militia taking down the Georgia's national flag from the administrative building in the gorge.Meanwhile, President Saakashvili told a group of foreign journalistson August 12:

"Within a well-prepared plan, several hundred pieces ofthe Russian [military] equipment, Russian airborne troops, commandedby the airborne troops of Russia landed there [in the Kodori Gorge]and expelled and certainly killed part of the population. Wholepopulation from that place is gone. This is classical case of ethniccleansing.

"Upper Kodori gorge was the only part of breakaway Abkhazia underTbilisi's control.

Vladimir Samanov to lead "peace keeping" troops inAbkhazia

Russia's symbolic move: Vladimir Samanov to lead peace keeping troops inAbkhazia
de A.C. HotNews.roMarţi,

12 august 2008

Russian general Vladimir Samanov, known as one of the toughest militarycommanders will take over the lead of the peace keeping troops inAbkhazia, the second separatist republic of Georgia. This strategicmove, announced by ITAR-TASS agency is a symbolic one, experts declare.

Russian peace keeping troops amount to 9,000 military personnel and over300 armed technical units. Up to November 2007 Samanov was a Defenseministry counselor. He was accused by the Human Rights Watchorganization of massacre in Chechnya while he commanded a militarycampaign there.