Olga Muratovna Ataeva, age 30, Tskhinval, 30 Stalin St.

My brother, Alan Ataev worked as a dentist in the city hospital, and was not a military person. During the artillery bombardment of the city on the eighth of August, he, my sister and my parents were hiding out in the basement of our house close to the center of the city. On the 9^th, during a period when it was relatively calm, he went out to see if anybody needed medical assistance and never came back. The next morning, my mother, despite the heavy shooting, had gone out to search for him.

She found his remains about 300 meters away from our house. He was torn apart into pieces, probably by a direct hit of some heavy weaponry, maybe a tank. She recognized him by his shoes. Together with my sister they gathered what was left of him and buried him a few hours later, still under heavy fire in the city. They weren’t sure if they would survive or not, all that was important to them was to bury what was left of Alan.

“The group for documentation of witnesses of the war in South Ossetia. August 2008.” Vladikavkaz

http://inoodle.com/2008/08/all-propaganda-thats-fit-to-print-new.html

by Sean M. Madden
iNoodle.com
August 14, 2008

The New York Times’ top story this morning -- entitled "Bush, Sending Aid, Demands That Moscow Withdraw" -- leads with the following three propaganda-packed paragraphs:

President Bush sent American troops to Georgia on Wednesday to oversee a “vigorous and ongoing” humanitarian mission, in a direct challenge to Russia’s display of military dominance over the region. His action came after Russian soldiers moved into two strategic Georgian cities in what he and Georgian officials called a violation of the cease-fire Russia agreed to earlier in the day.

Mr. Bush demanded that Russia abide by the cease-fire and withdraw its forces or risk its place in “the diplomatic, political, economic and security structures of the 21st century.” It was his strongest warning yet of potential retaliation against Russia over the conflict.

The decision to send the American military, even on a humanitarian mission, deepened the United States’ commitment to Georgia and America’s allies in the former Soviet sphere, just as Russia has been determined to reassert its control in the area. But the propaganda is already at work, before we even get to these lead paragraphs, within the headline itself, splashed as it is across the front page of America’s oft-called “newspaper of record,” along with the Gray Lady’s hundred-plus-year-old motto “All the News That’s Fit to Print”. The headline is accompanied, or vice versa, by a photograph of a “humanitarian aid” shipment being unloaded, we’re told, from a U.S. military cargo plane at an airport in Tbilisi, Georgia.

But to be sure that all concerned -- that is, we historical-fact-deprived Americans, you god-help-you Georgians, and the rest of “the free world” -- get the point at a glance, the U.S. State Department seal, apparently color-coordinated for the occasion, graces the side of the shipment.

As part of an all-out Western media campaign to bury the simple fact that Georgia invaded South Ossetia a week ago today -- an act of aggression which led, subsequently, to Russia’s response -- today’s NYT’s top headline helps to further instill the lie, at home and abroad, that Bush and the U.S government are truly concerned about the welfare of Georgians and human beings generally.

American and international readers are spoon-fed their daily dose of sanctioned thought within the very first sentence of the article. Bush, and by extension, the U.S. government and its military are not in Georgia to further U.S. (or the global elite’s) geopolitical interests.

Don‘t you dare think such a forbidden thought, the NYT goads its readers (of whom, on the whole, it can be said could do with a fair bit of goading to wake them from their psyop slumber).

Bush, the U.S. government and its military -- who, lest we forget, are guilty of murdering more than a million Iraqi civilians by way of their very own and very indisputable act of overt aggression, to say nothing of atrocities in Afghanistan or the ceaseless drumbeat toward a prefabricated war with Iran -- are in Georgia on a “humanitarian mission”.

A “vigorous and ongoing” one at that, should we have considered that it could be otherwise.

Gee whiz, what swell folk they are, off on a sticky humanitarian venture, risking life and limb for liberty and justice for all, when they could be vacationing during the final throes of summer. Worse yet, some of the American men and women deployed to Georgia may actually believe that they’re doing just that, risking life and limb (as they most certainly are) for liberty and justice for all.

Mike Whitney wrote the following in an article which headlined yesterday’s Information Clearing House newsletter:

The attack was unprovoked and took place a full 24 hours before even ONE Russian soldier set foot in South Ossetia. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans still believe that the Russian army invaded Georgian territory first. The BBC, AP, NPR, the New York Times and the rest of the establishment media has consistently and deliberately misled its readers into believing that the violence in South Ossetia was initiated by the Kremlin. Let's be clear, it wasn't. In truth, there is NO dispute about the facts except among the people who rely the western press for their information. Despite its steady loss of credibility, the corporate media continues to operate as the propaganda-arm of the Pentagon.

Whitney’s article popped into my inbox at 1:35 BST (British Summer Time) this morning. The New York Times daily headlines email arrived at 9:31, giving me time, first, to read, share and comment on (in correspondence) Whitney’s ICH article before coming upon the NYT’s daily dose.

But let’s return to those first three paragraphs and see if we can’t sift through the propaganda that the New York Times has the never-ending gall to heap upon its readers, despite or in continuation of its deep complicity in smoothing the way within the hearts and minds of the American people for the U.S. to wage its criminal war in Iraq, as it did in the lead up to the invasion of Afghanistan, as it has been doing with feverish abandon concerning Iran, and is doing now within the article at hand in order to provide pseudo-intellectual cover for U.S. aggression-by-proxy in the Caucasus.

President Bush sent American troops to Georgia on Wednesday to oversee a “vigorous and ongoing” humanitarian mission, in a direct challenge to Russia’s display of military dominance over the region.

The U.S. already had troops in Georgia, reportedly to train the Georgian military. Considered in this light, the first sentence of this NYT article is, at best, a half-truth, at worst, a lie of omission.

On July 15, Reuters reported (and MSNBC.com published, though the page has since “expired“) that “one thousand U.S. troops began a military training exercise in Georgia on Tuesday against a backdrop of growing friction between Georgia and neighbouring Russia.” The report continues: "The main purpose of these exercises is to increase the cooperation and partnership between U.S. and Georgian forces," Brigadier General William B. Garrett, commander of the U.S. military's Southern European Task Force, told reporters. This was reported on July 15, one month ago.

But this fact must be relegated to the memory hole. We are meant only to remember that U.S. forces are on a humanitarian mission and that Georgia was attacked, unprovoked, by Russia in a “display of military dominance over the region.” Never mind that U.S. forces did, in fact, invade and presently occupy both Iraq and Afghanistan in a display of military dominance. Russia, on the other hand, was meant to stand by as their citizens were being attacked and killed by Georgia military forces which General Garrett has told us were working in cooperation and partnership with U.S. forces in July.

Given this fine example of international cooperation and partnership, are even Americans and other gullible New York Times readers meant to swallow the obvious conclusion that Georgia would never have attacked South Ossetia without prior U.S. knowledge and approval?

His [Bush’s] action came after Russian soldiers moved into two strategic Georgian cities in what he and Georgian officials called a violation of the cease-fire Russia agreed to earlier in the day.

We’re meant to believe that Russian soldiers just decided, devoid of any cause whatsoever, to move into two Georgian cities. Russia, not Georgia, must be seen to be the aggressor. Not a hint of reality must be allowed to seep in and cause good ol’ American patriotic resolve to waver.

All must be black and white, even if what passes for black is, indeed, white or vice versa.

Mr. Bush demanded that Russia abide by the cease-fire and withdraw its forces or risk its place in “the diplomatic, political, economic and security structures of the 21st century.” It was his strongest warning yet of potential retaliation against Russia over the conflict.

Can even the New York Times, propaganda-arm-extraordinaire, print this with a straight face? Bush -- the million-plus-mass-murderer from Connecticut, I mean Crawford -- is pointing out to Russia that it is risking its place in the “the diplomatic, political, economic and security structures of the 21st century,” by which he can only mean the New World Order, the very nature of which the world’s citizens have observed throughout the Bush years (I and II) is nothing if not diabolical.

In closing, and in brief, let us take a look at the third paragraph in this New York Times piece:

The decision to send the American military, even on a humanitarian mission, deepened the United States’ commitment to Georgia and America’s allies in the former Soviet sphere, just as Russia has been determined to reassert its control in the area.

The New York Times now asserts -- in case we missed it being gently shoved down our throats the first time -- that only in retrospect did the U.S. decide to deepen its “commitment to Georgia and America’s allies in the former Soviet sphere”. A bald-faced lie if ever there was one. But, note, this isn’t a U.S. official lying to the American public via the New York Times. No, this is the New York Times, itself, lying directly to its readers, worldwide, as it does day in and day out.

And, finally, the spoonful of sugar, to either help it go down or to make you regurgitate the whole:

“Even on a humanitarian mission.”

— — —
Sean M. Madden is an American writer presently living in the UK. He edits and writes for his iNoodle.com and MindfulLivingGuide.com blogs, and welcomes correspondence from readers. His email address is sean@inoodle.com.

© copyright 2008 by Sean M. Madden

The Guardian - By Seumas Milne - Aug 14, 2008 (Opinion)

http://www.newstrust.net/webx?14@@.10865b0a

War in the Caucasus is as much the product of an American imperial drive as local conflicts. It's likely to be a taste of things to come

The outcome of six grim days of bloodshed in the Caucasus has triggered an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media. As talking heads thundered against Russian imperialism and brutal disproportionality, US vice-president Dick Cheney, faithfully echoed by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, declared that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered". George Bush denounced Russia for having "invaded a sovereign neighbouring state" and threatening "a democratic government". Such an action, he insisted, "is unacceptable in the 21st century".

Could these by any chance be the leaders of the same governments that in 2003 invaded and occupied - along with Georgia, as luck would have it - the sovereign state of Iraq on a false pretext at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives? Or even the two governments that blocked a ceasefire in the summer of 2006 as Israel pulverised Lebanon's infrastructure and killed more than a thousand civilians in retaliation for the capture or killing of five soldiers?

You'd be hard put to recall after all the fury over Russian aggression that it was actually Georgia that began the war last Thursday with an all-out attack on South Ossetia to "restore constitutional order" - in other words, rule over an area it has never controlled since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nor, amid the outrage at Russian bombardments, have there been much more than the briefest references to the atrocities committed by Georgian forces against citizens it claims as its own in South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali. Several hundred civilians were killed there by Georgian troops last week, along with Russian soldiers operating under a 1990s peace agreement: "I saw a Georgian soldier throw a grenade into a basement full of women and children," one Tskhinvali resident, Saramat Tskhovredov, told reporters on Tuesday.

Might it be because Georgia is what Jim Murphy, Britain's minister for Europe, called a "small beautiful democracy". Well it's certainly small and beautiful, but both the current president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and his predecessor came to power in western-backed coups, the most recent prettified as a "Rose revolution". Saakashvili was then initially rubber-stamped into office with 96% of the vote before establishing what the International Crisis Group recently described as an "increasingly authoritarian" government, violently cracking down on opposition dissent and independent media last November. "Democratic" simply seems to mean "pro-western" in these cases.

The long-running dispute over South Ossetia - as well as Abkhazia, the other contested region of Georgia - is the inevitable consequence of the breakup of the Soviet Union. As in the case of Yugoslavia, minorities who were happy enough to live on either side of an internal boundary that made little difference to their lives feel quite differently when they find themselves on the wrong side of an international state border.

Such problems would be hard enough to settle through negotiation in any circumstances. But add in the tireless US promotion of Georgia as a pro-western, anti-Russian forward base in the region, its efforts to bring Georgia into Nato, the routing of a key Caspian oil pipeline through its territory aimed at weakening Russia's control of energy supplies, and the US-sponsored recognition of the independence of Kosovo - whose status Russia had explicitly linked to that of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - and conflict was only a matter of time.

The CIA has in fact been closely involved in Georgia since the Soviet collapse. But under the Bush administration, Georgia has become a fully fledged US satellite. Georgia's forces are armed and trained by the US and Israel. It has the third-largest military contingent in Iraq - hence the US need to airlift 800 of them back to fight the Russians at the weekend. Saakashvili's links with the neoconservatives in Washington are particularly close: the lobbying firm headed by US Republican candidate John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, has been paid nearly $900,000 by the Georgian government since 2004.

But underlying the conflict of the past week has also been the Bush administration's wider, explicit determination to enforce US global hegemony and prevent any regional challenge, particularly from a resurgent Russia. That aim was first spelled out when Cheney was defence secretary under Bush's father, but its full impact has only been felt as Russia has begun to recover from the disintegration of the 1990s.

Over the past decade, Nato's relentless eastward expansion has brought the western military alliance hard up against Russia's borders and deep into former Soviet territory. American military bases have spread across eastern Europe and central Asia, as the US has helped install one anti-Russian client government after another through a series of colour-coded revolutions. Now the Bush administration is preparing to site a missile defence system in eastern Europe transparently targeted at Russia.

By any sensible reckoning, this is not a story of Russian aggression, but of US imperial expansion and ever tighter encirclement of Russia by a potentially hostile power. That a stronger Russia has now used the South Ossetian imbroglio to put a check on that expansion should hardly come as a surprise. What is harder to work out is why Saakashvili launched last week's attack and whether he was given any encouragement by his friends in Washington.

If so, it has spectacularly backfired, at savage human cost. And despite Bush's attempts to talk tough yesterday, the war has also exposed the limits of US power in the region. As long as Georgia proper's independence is respected - best protected by opting for neutrality - that should be no bad thing. Unipolar domination of the world has squeezed the space for genuine self-determination and the return of some counterweight has to be welcome. But the process of adjustment also brings huge dangers. If Georgia had been a member of Nato, this week's conflict would have risked a far sharper escalation. That would be even more obvious in the case of Ukraine - which yesterday gave a warning of the potential for future confrontation when its pro-western president threatened to restrict the movement of Russian ships in and out of their Crimean base in Sevastopol. As great power conflict returns, South Ossetia is likely to be only a taste of things to come.

s.milne@guardian.co.uk

Gabueva Larissa Nugzarovna, born in 1968, 36 Gagloeva St., doctor-pediatrist of children's health centre.

On August 5, the children's health center was no longer working. I came to work, called up the head physician, and he said that we do not work. I asked: “And on Friday?” He said: “We will see, depending on the situation”.People had no fears whatsoever. Before that, we made survey of the children population - 25% of the children remained in the city. We indeed evacuated children, to Rostov, to Vladikavkaz, but mainly because it was a rest for them. There was no particular warning, nobody expected such an attack, indeed Saakashvili has said that there will be no shooting, and our president assured that we have all means to be protected... And all was absolutely quiet, nobody tried to leave nowhere.  In the night of Friday, August 8, at 23.30 this shelling by large-caliber weapons began, I feel shaking again throughout my body. On that day I was on duty in the maternity hospital, and because for that moment there were no lying-in women, we were on duty in-home. In order not to wake up late at night, I decided nevertheless to go to work to be on the safe side.

When the bombardment began, I came back home halfway. We did not even run to the basement, somehow we were not afraid, we thought that it was just another common shelling and it will end soon. We hid in the space between two houses - I, my husband, father-in-law 73 years old and mother-in law 78 years old. We got the children out earlier, but it was not due to the war, there were simply referrals to rehabilitation center “Phoenix”.

We thought that the shelling was about to end, though it felt somewhat unusual - we never had such a bombardment. All the time we heard assurances that South Ossetia can cope with any aggression by its own forces. All city dwellers will tell you this - we were not ready for such a war, and could not even imagine, what such action is possible against a peaceful population. The bombardment went on and on, it became clear that we had to get out of there.

We ran to the house - again not to the basement, but to the ground floor. The entrance to our basement was blocked by a car which stood there, at entrance, and it was impossible to drive out the car under the bullets. We settled on the floor, as we could, and towards morning there was a little lull in the shelling, it many, who ran to visit one's relatives, who went upstairs to their apartments for groceries, blankets and documents. The bombardment was resumed soon after and caught the people completely unprotected. A new  powerful bombardment from “Grad" and rockets began and in front of our eyes the missiles hit the  neighbor's houses, and two houses – of Byazrov Murat and Tedeyev Lerik – caught fire. From a “Grad” missile, a house lighted up and burned in its entirety in 20 minutes. So was burned the house of doctor Tokmayeva Nelli in the second day. Neighbors could not help with anything, because shrapnel was falling down like rain, the bullets whistled, and there was nothing to extinguish the fire with, indeed there was no water in the city all of this time, not even drinking water- so one should not divide the  Georgians into militant and peaceful. The former destroyed us by fire, the latter - tormented the city by thirst, sending all water to their gardens.

Everyone was waiting, though any hope has already been lost, talks started that the Russians betrayed us. Our guys ran around helplessly and tried somehow to defend themselves, and to a question: “What is going on?” they answered: “We are encircled!” – and ran away. We asked, where is the command, where are all authorities - what authorities, they shouted, we are encircled, and now almost everyone thinks of how to rescue his own skin. Some  absolutely unfamiliar guy from OMON ran into our house, from the horror I have not even memorized his surname, he asked for our car, UAZ, said that he will return it, if only he would break out of the encirclement… he took the car , naturally, nobody could refuse him.

On the following day the battle continued, and we got at last to our basement – the entrance there was unblocked once the car was taken. In one instance, when things slightly settled down - evidently, they recharged the weapons, or something else, - in this moment I went upstairs. When I came back, just in the second I went to the basement, a rocket flew to our first floor. It knocked out all the glass, the doors – such was the impact, the wooden doors flew out as well. Some fragments flew to our apartment as well, our oriental carpet was burned up – luckily it was made of artificial material otherwise a fire would start. There was a “Volga” standing in the courtyard, its back window was shattered, the trunk too was honeycombed by shrapnel. Luckily the fuel tank was not hit.

Our guys said that a lot of infantry comes our way, and that they are already near the plant “E'mal'provod”. We had both doors and windows open, and I thought that now Georgians will enter our house and make camp there, then our end is coming. Our house is just near the road.

Therefore I was afraid to stay at our place, moved to my parents’ house, there the basement was deeper, and almost all the neighbors sat there. And my father-in -law, mother-in law and Roland, my husband, houses remained in our house.

And so we sat in the basement until the Russian troops entered. By the way, they entered late. Nobody was believing in Russians any longer, all said that Russia betrayed us, and there was almost no hope left.

In the following morning after the bombardment to our neighbors their son came running and said that they should run fast to the peacekeepers that the Georgians are already in the city. We with our parents were in the basement and, hearing these shouts, ran out to learn what is happening. They have already run to the peacekeepers, so, we could no longer join them. I ran to my sister, to find out, they are alive or not - they live a few houses away from us, once I made sure that they are alive, I ran back. And suddenly I saw a neighbor who somehow looked very hopelessly at me from the window. I said that she should run to the basement, now there will be bombardment, as the Georgians took the city. She said: “We have no basement”. “Then run to ours”, - I said. She delayed again and with the entirely hopeless voice asked: “My husband is a Georgian. Will you let him in as well? “” Now run to us together with your husband “, - I said and ran home.

So all of us gathered in our basement and under the rumble of tank shots waited only for a divine miracle, because it was clear –before the Russian tanks would come in, the Georgians “will work” the city to the ground. A neighbor’s boy came running, said that he lost his parents when they ran to the peacekeepers.

And then a real hail began, I do not know, how else can it be named, above our heads was a constant thunder, the howl of missiles, the singing of bullets. In one word, a doomsday. Neighbors’ houses began to burn. I felt that we are pushed by waves from all of this- where “Grad” missiles dropped everything was starting to blaze. We heard that there are many victims around the city; many soldiers are wounded, with no one to bandage them even.

Suddenly our neighbors who escaped to the peacemakers have returned. They told that there was something terrible going on there: the Georgians approached almost to the peacekeepers’ military base, and the peacemakers themselves stood doomed and prepared for death. There was no space in the bunker; about 80 persons were packed there, although it was designed for no more than 20. In one instance our guys ran in and said: “If they find us now, we will be shot”. And the women started to hide the soldiers behind themselves. They were in shock, and what could they do?

We asked where were the authorities, the command, well, any administration. They said that they saw only, that Barankevich with a grenade launcher behind his shoulder jumped through the fence of the peacekeepers’ camp. All the journalists were there. Then our soldiers managed to break away somehow and through the Military impasse they reached their homes, and from there to our basement. As the result we had 12 persons with us. Nobody could eat, they only drank water. The funniest thing , if it was possible to laugh in such situation, was the fact there were some neighbors who did not speak with one another for 10 years, and here, in these two days they were reconciled in a moment and so cared about each other that I thought that you can never know, how your life would turn.

Still we were lucky compared to others. My mom was taught by the by bitter experience of the first war and it in the basement we had water, oil stove and bed. My dad always grumbled about her precautions, but mom refused to remove her “bunker”.  The bombardment was terrible, all knew that the hospital is being fired at, there was nowhere to carry the wounded to, everything around was hit by the fragments. Probably, they aimed at the military base at the peacemakers, but we leave nearby-so we got hit.

We drove out finally, when everything has pretty much settled down. It was simply necessary to change the surroundings urgently, to look at some peaceful scenes, to save our psyche. The children were in Vladikavkaz, they kept calling us, and we were afraid that the rings, the bombardments would resume with more power. All noticed such a connection. Then some soldiers ran into our house, and told us that if we turn on the cell phones, we should turn on only one at a time. Then the battery was finished, but before that the last SMS came from my small niece: “Are you still alive”?

You know what else did I notice? At first somebody nearby would fire up three shots from an automatic rifle, and then powerful shelling on this place would begin. Somebody signaled to them, showed, where there was a congestion of people.

At one time it was quiet, and I was got out to investigate. I saw a dog running with wild speed, turning to our lane, dived to our courtyard and jumped to the basement - and straight under the bed. And it did not get out of there, until everything calmed down, and it was already the fifth day of bombardments. Then the dog got out and started to drink water from the bowl with craving.

On 11 August we left on a bus. There was no evacuation up to that time; people were leaving as they could. Only on August 11, at last, buses have arrived from Vladikavkaz. So at night, in dressing gowns, slippers, with some small things were left

I was at the funeral of Kachmazov sisters, you know, they did not even have a basement, they sat on the ground floor. A missile flew to their house, and they were burned in their own home. The funeral was here, in Vladikavkaz.

The people were completely unprepared for war. The people of Tskhinval were left to their own devices; it is if we were sacrificed.  At the same time many children remained in the city. Some of them were driven out, but I heard that on Zar road, in the area of Tbet, a car with children was shot at and burned down. A 16 year old girl was ripped apart by a mine…

"The panel on documenting eyewitness testimony of the military operations in South Ossetia. August 2008". Vladikavkaz.

Coordinators in Moscow:
Oleg Kuduhov, Internet publication "Osetinskoe radio", Chief Editor
website: http://osradio.ru/; tel: 8 925 64 23 553,
e-mail: oleg@kuduhov.ru

Elina Bestaeva, website: www.iriston.ru
Tel: 8 926 194 50 29
e-mail: bestaute@mail.ru

Mikhail Saakashvili in his declarations during the military action in South Ossetia and after them has always indicated that all that is occurring was made by Russian hands. It was due to the aggression by Russia against the peaceful Georgian people, that the events were explained not only in Georgia itself, but also in mass media worldwide. In particular, the world news agencies did not miss a chance to show destruction in the Georgian city of Gori as well as the Russian weaponry. A properly constructed visual array and well written texts allowed to create a target image in the minds of simple Americans that was necessary for the White House. And the president of Georgia, always speaking against a background of an EU flag, has necessarily indicated that it is a Russian aggression not only against the Georgian people, but also against the USA, NATO and OSCE.

The official announcements from the White House were uniform as well in their evaluation of the events. The played out farce around the notion that Russia is supposedly the culprit of this tragedy, did not emerge out of nothing. This extensive information war was just one step in a big play. An additional proof of this is the hasty signing of the contract with Poland to place the American PRO on its territory. Then they started talking once again of some “Russian threat” which was worrying Warsaw.

However, the Bush administration has always emphasized in its announcements that it supports Georgia, but the rendered aid will be only of humanitarian nature. At the same time Mikhail Saakashvili was expecting greater things and hoped for an aid of the US military contingent that would be transferred from Iraq.

One cannot omit a declaration by Vitaly Churkin on one of his press-conferences. He made public the fact that August 8, a day the military action of Georgia against South Ossetia began was the successful final day of the joint Georgian-American military exercises the “Immediate answer". Thousands of American soldiers have participated in these exercises. And, according to certain sources, as of today, there are approximately 127 American military advisers of the USA Ministry of Defence in Georgia. All of this indicates that the prepared military operation was known to the head of US forces and his aides, and consequently the information war which was deployed by foreign mass media, in particular American, was profitable to the White House and the world USA interests.

novopol.ru

Georgians killed Ossetians within the Georgian army who refused to fight against the Ossetians, reported the residents of inner regions of Georgia.

Residents of the city of Telavi stated the following: "Currently there aren’t many Ossetians left in Telavi. The total population of Telavi is about 30-35 thousand. It is a small town. There are few Ossetians remaining. Not more than one thousand. No more. More recently, it was much more. The number was five thousand not so long ago. The Ossetians began to move away immediately after the collapse of the USSR. Because it was clear that nothing was to be expected there. Since 1990 Ossetians began to leave in large numbers… But those who remained there until recently are unfortunate people. They, the Georgians, have the Ossetians go first in this war. The Ossetians are forced to fight against other Ossetians. They drive our boys against South Ossetia. If they do not go fight against their own - they are killed. We all know of these cases. Everyone knows the last names of the killed Ossetians. Ossetians hide in order not to leave for this war. Those that are found in hiding are also killed. Tortured. This is their "democracy"… To kill without trial or investigation.

We were born in Telavi. We studied there, worked, lived… But we are not Georgians. We are Ossetians.

First thing they do is look for reservists among the Ossetians so that they can go against their own people. That's how. Do not write our last names. We are not cowards. But we have families there. We have all-Ossetian families. Happy are those who have daughters. At least they are not forced to go to war. But they do not know the Russian language. They also purposely forced Ossetians to go to Georgian schools. We make the children speak Ossetian at home. But they graduated from Georgian schools… In Telavi, in general, there was only one Russian school - in a military town. We all wanted our kids to go there.

Our only hope now is with Russia. Russia helped Tskhinval. Russia is now restoring it. But let them hear us also.

There are already casualties among the Ossetians who were driven to fight in South Ossetia for Georgia… Their last names we know, but why… Don’t write them down. They even go to those families whose children have died recently and say: "Get out of here!" We are now making calls to Telavi from Vladikavkaz. We all say: "We are up in the air". There are no roads. Do you understand, there are no roads?! How are they to leave from there? Even without property, without anything, how does one leave? Wish they could at least help us leave… To leave through Baku, one would need a passport. How does one get one? They do not give Ossetians passports. This is their praised democracy… There are no roads through South Ossetia. People are up in the air. In the air. From Telavi to Tbilisi it is 90 kilometers. Telavi is the district center. Next to Telavi there was a purely Ossetian village. A blooming village. The gardens were drowning. People worked hard on their soil. Worked. Only the helpless elderly remain there now. Who cannot move from one place. They are offering a thousand dollars for two-story houses with an attached farm. And even that is not given. They say: "You will leave anyway. All of this will be left for us anyway"…"

Let us remind you that for ethnic Ossetians living in Georgia there is no real possibility of legally escaping from there. They are not provided with passports.

Madina Tezieva

August, 8th, 2008 is a critical day in the history of Russia and the world. This day the peaceful residents of Tskhinval were annihilated in order to literally bring to fruition the ideolology of a military operation “Clear Field” in the place of South Ossetia.

This day the Georgian people have been doomed by their own democratic choice to a self-genocide - or a national suicide, i.e. on suicide of Georgian people as a civil nation. This day the interests of leaders of world powers have collided and the upgraded Russian army has been tried on its durability. This day president Medvedev and chairman of the government Putin have defined how the first hundred days of “tandemocracy" will be marked.

But to the history textbooks- Russian and worldwide - August, 8th will enter first of all as the Independence Day of Russia, the day a state by the name of Russian Federation finally reached the status of independent power with which now - in this quality – the world would have to deal with.

And today's passions around South Ossetia – as well as the disputes on the status of un-recognized states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - recede to the second plan before the huge value of that fact that for the first time attention is seriously brought to the question of status of the biggest unrecognized statehood in the world-the Russian one.

Without hypocrisy

XX century was a century of manipulations, hypocrisy and controlled fanaticism. The primitive internal political totalitarianism of the beginning and the middle of the century and its foreign policy child - the international terrorism - flourished on a boundary of the new century in all colors of the diversified global democracy, its spread provided around the planet by the necessary mechanisms of military-political genocide.

As a result, Churchill's characteristic - " the dog fight under a carpet " – turned out to be applicable not only to the internal policy of the USSR and other totalitarian states, but also to a worldwide global-democratic practice.” Black and white should not be named ", “not to say yes and no" became the firm norm of geopolitical etiquette.

The events of August, 8th, 2008 around of South Ossetia gave a first push to the world without hypocrisy, to the world in which the opportunity returns to call things by their proper names. The entire Georgian-Ossetian-Abkhazian problem is first of all a history of hypocrisy and non-recognition of reality.

Hypocrisy and lie was the Soviet Union -a federation of national republics, ostensibly equal in rights with the informal superiority of the state-founding RSFSR.

The communist “new language”- the language of political hypocrisy, born out of the anti-Russian western project called "Marxism" - usurped the history of Russia and has appropriated its results to the pseudo-state formation within the limits of which Russia did not exist. Because "RSFSR", unlike Georgia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Moldova and Karelo-Finnish SSR, did not exist politically.

Abolished by the “great October socialist revolution” Russia- the jail of nations- remained under interdiction even in the most “great patriotic” Stalinist years. The communist mode practically until its last day played with Russian national consciousness in cheating games, allocating to the Russians as a people - and RSFSR as to the state formation - a role of the interethnic paste deprived of ethnic distinction.

It is not by chance, that in a daily practice it was permitted to use the words "Russian" and "Soviet", the "USSR" and "Russia" as synonyms, together with the fact  that " Great Russia " which " has rallied forever " " the indestructible union of free  republics ", in its status of " federal republic ", was deprived of an independent control centre (within the limits of the Soviet system such center could be only a separate - Russian -  Central Committee of the republican party organization) and turned into a joint protectorate-colony and a tank of material-economic resources for all other "union republics".

Disintegration of the USSR has not changed the situation: the independence of Russia in the post-Soviet world has not been recognized. June, 12th, 1990 became a day of the first attempt to declare the right of Russia to state sovereignty. But there could be no talk of any sort of independence- until the latest time.

Because the post-Soviet reality has remained just as camouflaged, as the Soviet one , and gaining of independence by the " former Soviet republics " - unlike " independence of Russia " – became a real process, although a unilateral one. Namely: if in 1990 the separatist movements of "union republics" in their struggle against “the union center " leaned first of all on political support of " new democratic Russia " after 1991 they have all refused to recognize not even in equality up to new Russia at all in equality, but in the right to independence.

 Russia in fact " was forced to peace" with the following provisions: all of the Soviet realities should be kept intact (and first of all – Leninist-Stalinist invented administrative borders), all duties of Russia as a resource tank concerning " the new independent states " should be carried out unquestionably, at the same time all the rights and claims of Russia - together with those of the abolished USSR - are cancelled and are transferred by fiat to the category of un-recognized.

It is useful to remind, that the hypocritical practice of the last years of USSR’s existence has changed the unambiguous concept of "independence" to euphemism "sovereignty". Until August, 1991 the majority of "union republics" – following the example of “republics of the Soviet Baltic” - were in the habit to proclaim “the state sovereignty ", ostensibly meaning conservation of unified “common home ".

Since certain time this convenient pseudonym for the actual refusal of obedience to higher bodies of authority was taken advantage of by the "autonomies" - and so Nagorny Karabakh, South Ossetia, Tatarstan and Chechnya have proclaimed their “sovereignty”. The August putsch - a suicide of the incapacitated "union center" - has put an end to hypocritical parade of sovereignties: “declarations of independence” were consistently accepted by all “former union republics ", from the Baltic border states with their illusive, but memorable experience of intra-war statehood, to such artificial products of Stalin’s national policy, such as "Ukraine".

Independence was proclaimed by the future "unrecognized states" – Nagorny Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria - and by the future “black hole “Dudayev’s and Basayev’s "Ichkeria". The only territorial state formation on the post-Soviet space for which the word "independence" remained a taboo, was the Russian Federation.

Сохранение выморочного статус-кво непризнанной российской независимости было выгодно многим - и многими обеспечивалось. Наследники несостоятельной союзной номенклатурно-коммунистической элиты в лице КПРФ и "имперских патриотов" препятствовали утверждению российской государственной символики. Наследники региональной коммунистической номенклатуры - руководители "новых независимых государств" - опираясь на международный консенсус, объявляли несуществующим то самое развязавшее им руки ленинское право на самоопределение вплоть до отделения и образования самостоятельного государства исключительно для русской (российской) нации и многочисленных этносов, желающих продолжать свою национальную историю в ее составе, в едином организме с русским народом.

Conservation of the invented status quo of the un-recognized Russian independence was profitable to many- and many provided for it.  The successors of insolvent union nomenclature-communist elite in the face of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and “imperial patriots " prevented the approval of the Russian state symbols. Successors of the regional communist nomenclature - heads of " the new independent states " - leaning on an international consensus, declared the Leninist right to self-determination and formations of the independent state that untied their own hands, as non-existent exclusively for the Russian nation and the numerous ethnic groups wishing to continue their national history as its part, in a single organism with the Russian people.

Successors of the second and the third echelons of the party-economic nomenclature –the "oligarchs" - brought economic and political base under a recognition of the right of the " Washington regional council" to establish Russian sovereignty in the limits of completely baseless “principle of indestructibility of the post-Soviet borders " with complete refusal of compliance with the already cut-down post-war norms of international law.

Ideologists of the new, Putinist stage of Russian statehood building have also for long did not dare to leave the frameworks of “sovereign democracy” allowed by the “regional council".

Actions of the Putin-Medvedev regime, undertaken on August, 8th, 2008, became, probably, an overdue, forced, but a final declaration of the Russian national independence. The world community - for the first time since 1917 – has to deal with the independent Russian state. And military operations of the Russian armies in vicinities of Tskhinval, Gori, Senaki and Tbilisi, having got rid of hypocritical mask of a “peacekeeping operation ", were revealed in the true quality – as a war for Russia’s independence.

Under military rules.

The geopolitical russophobia was never - anyway, at an official level – raised by Americans as an official foreign policy ideology: slogans like "the Russians are coming” remained scarecrows for marginalists and retired politicians left in circulation. Ronald Reagan's thesis about “the evil empire" was welcomed in the USSR by many - only because by this time for the majority of the educated citizens of the USSR “the Soviet authority” was an embodiment of evil, and for the Russian people - also the enemy of Russia. And Reagan - and other ideologists of the West - acted seemingly against communism and for Russia.

All public anti-soviet rhetoric of the official West was conducted under a similar scheme. Under such scheme – with wide scope - programs of a propaganda broadcasting of " the enemy voices " were formed which enticed the Soviet radio listeners with  an opportunity to hear the best Russian writers, artists, musicians, thinkers and priests expelled by communists from Russia " for the sake of the truth".

Under such scheme the significant part of socially active "perestroika" majority contrary to (and even owing to) to long-term anti-American and "anti-imperialist" stereotypes of Soviet times began to perceive the USA and the West as trustworthy allies in the struggle against Soviet authority.

Between 1990-1991 the nomenclature-communist regime in the USSR discredited itself in public opinion to such degree, so ridiculously and ineptly opposed its corporate interests to the political aspirations and ideological moods of the society, that any warnings about the anti-Russian character of the western policy - especially such odious, as well-known Kryuchkov report about " agents of influence " - were not perceived seriously and were swept aside, as well as all other false Soviet propaganda by the regional council lecturers (about writer Solzhenitser and academic Tsukerman).

 Actually, the communists-the main anti-Russian western project of the XX century- gave  effective cover to the West, and have enabled it to approach very closely to its objective-until recently under a deep secrecy , - the objective of geopolitical abolition of Russia as an independent culture-civilization .

The first one and a half post-Soviet decades of " unilateral independence " have been spent to tie the Russian Gulliver (gas, oil, the electric power, a labor market, huge business-incubator) by hundreds of  ropes of unilateral obligations to the unilaterally independent (i.e. parasitic) lilliputian kingdoms.

Since 2004 the direct heirs of communists-internationalists – the democratizers-globalizers- have gone for a direct aggravation, in fact demanding from Russia not only to forfeit the right to supervise the use by eastern-European parasite states of the Russian economic and human resources, but also to agree for a political role of a mandate territory for Ukrainian, Georgian and Baltic viceroys.

On August, 8th, 2008 forces of the “global democratic international” have begun direct military intervention - not of Georgia against South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but of the Americanocentric West against Russia.

No failures in the informational supply of the war, no clumsy attacks by Saakashvili or awkward moments by Bush can hide the obvious: the events in South Ossetia in their objectives and counted results are not a war of Georgia against the un-recognized statehood of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, not a war of Russia against the independent democratic Georgia, not even the Russian compulsion of Saakashvili regime to peace.

It is a complex military-political and informational-ideological blitzkrieg, the worldwide special operation against the Russian independence. And from the Russian side – it is an open and totally defensive war for state independence.

Such an estimation of the situation does not at all mean, that the military development of events is inevitable, or that calls “to go to Tbilisi " and " to hang Saakashvili “have no alternative. Compromises, search for ways of least damage and ways to minimize loss are necessary and always possible. The only impossible and impermissible thing is any attempt to remain in a field of hypocrisy and silence, any way to hit the situation on brakes and to present it as if it was "for fun".

This secretive-chekist practice is probably stylistically close to many key figures of modern Russian elite, but the life after August, 8th - a life in independent Russia - has changed irreversibly.

And this new life rigidly puts before authority and a society of independent Russia some very rigid questions which must be answered honestly, transparently, without passing over in silence and allegories.

Firstly, it is necessary to answer to ourselves, how, based on what should we live in a condition of total informational-political blockade –serious blockade, without concessions and good will from its organizers.

Secondly, it is necessary to define how to reconstruct our external economic and - we shall not be afraid of this word - business-plans in view of the irreversible changes in the international economic reality.

Thirdly, it is necessary to intelligently and responsibly define, which measures should we be willing to undertake in the case of escalation of the conflict so that the understanding of possibilities and scale of these measures would be common for us and for our geopolitical opponents.

Therefore it is a question of radical renewal of state strategies - political, economic, personal (for each of the significant participants in the process) and military.

The last means, that in the near future Russia should accept and proclaim - both on special, and on public levels – an essentially new military doctrine, capable to inform the world community about mechanisms of maintenance of the sovereignty of such state as the independent Russian Federation now becomes.

Certainly, the Independence Day on August, 8^th has fundamentally reformatted the internal political landscape of the country. Quickly enough – in the first hours after the beginning of war for Russian independence - there were basic changes in the political structure of a society together with preservation – probably excessive for a country at war- of the ideological and political variety.

Mainly due to the fact that the concept "collaboration" has passed from the category of curses to the category of statements that have political and legal consequences.

One of the most fatal chekist traditions in modern Russian politics were the extremely wide admissions to limits of the possible. Today the "chekist business” is found behind the backs of projects directly supporting the intervention.

Today the collaborators-bloggers, hourly placing the job applications to polizei-presidium of the future occupational regime on the Internet, combine this activity with an active participation in “a cadre reserve “of the operating near-Kremlin ideological sub-elite.

Today the numerous "players" who have got used to previous game rules, cannot and do not wish to learn the only game rule which has taken effect on August, 8th 2008 г.: " If you started- then go ".

It is necessary to them - together with the entire country - to learn this rule. And - together with the entire country - to go, overcoming the dusk resistance of the West, in a direction of a rising Russia.

IA REGNUM

The president of South Ossetia Edward Kokojty at a meeting with deputies of the republic’s parliament on August, 17th has informed, that during meetings in the last few days in Moscow with the president of the Russian Federation and the head of the Russian government he has once again confirmed the will of his people - the independence of South Ossetia, informs the correspondent of IA REGNUM.

"All of us stand on the same position, and I have brought it to the leadership of the Russian Federation. I said, that the people of our republic have expressed their opinion twice, and we have no intent to conduct additional referendums. Two referendums are enough. It once again shows, that with any generation the will of our people remains the same and that is an independence of the Republic of South Ossetia ", - Edward Kokojty has declared.

He called the last events in South Ossetia “a barbarous inhumane action by Georgia " and has expressed gratitude to " all deputies who have taken part in repulsing the Georgian aggression ".

As Edward Kokojty has informed, currently the group of representatives from South Ossetia is conducting consultations in Abkhazia. "We discuss with the Abkhazian side the ways out of the current crisis, as well as further prospects of our cooperation with the Republic of Abkhazia", - he noted.

At a meeting with the members of parliament of South Ossetia there were deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Konstantin Zatulin and Arsen Fadzayev present as well. They expressed their sympathy to the people of the republic and condolences to the families of victims of Georgian aggression.

"Many of my colleagues would have wanted to be here beside me. Believe me, we all feel the same way, and even our condition is identical and I am sure, that the first session of the State Duma of the Russian Federation will begin with the  deputies demanding to pass resolutions announcements, to state their positions, etc. ", - Konstantin Zatulin has told.

" After everything that happened, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia as well , will  never return to be a part of Georgia, and the thesis about territorial integrity of Georgia as all of us understand, is a pretext for aggression ", - he declared.

"At the same time, we should emphasize the  peace-making function of Russia. It was correct, and we are sure of it ", - Konstantin Zatulin added. Arsen Fadzayev has emphasized, that " the most important thing for the republic is that today in South Ossetia there is peace"." I would like to ask you, that all of you rally together  and make everything  for stability in the republic.

As for the State Duma,  I wish to emphasize, that on our part we  shall do everything that depends on us, and let nobody doubt it ", - Arsen Fadzayev has told.

IA REGNUM

Two pictures. No comments.

The Russian president Dmitri Medvedev assigned the corresponding agencies to begin the fulfillment of agreements stated in the regulation plan of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, said the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.

He said that the Russian president signed, on behalf of Russia as one of the contributing parties, the plan of regulating the conflict that held the six main points which were worked out by him and the French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

"The president gave the order to fulfill those agreements, that the document held."  - Lavrov

"Certainly, we will measure out our own steps for honest compliance with the agreements, as well as the compliance with them of other parties." - Lavrov

He noted, that Saakashvili did sign the document, but "today, here and there, reports continue of the interception of trucks full of weaponry". Stressing "how dangerous would it be for these weapons to fall into the wrong hands".

Also, during his meeting with the Security Council of the Russian Federation, the Russian president gave order to use further measures to ensure peace in South Ossetia.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said, that any further measures for safety must be based on the line of the safety zone as established by previous agreements.  "This line will serve as our orientation," said Lavrov.

"Orders were given to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and The Russian Minister of Defense to begin consultation within the UN and OSCE regarding international intermediation, first and foremost regarding the mechanism called upon to help to support the work of our peacekeepers," said the Minister of Foreign affairs.

Lavrov said that, "within OSCE terms, suggestions as to the increase of the number of observers will be looked upon, including military observers, which in accordance with the OSCE line, were located inside of South Ossetia".

http://life.ru/news/

Russia will actively participate in the international court of law in support of charges by Russian citizens of South Ossetia that have stated their grievances against Georgia, said the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.

"Those of our citizens that have suffered as a result of the conflict, that have lost their property, will also seek to press charges in international courts, and Russia will actively support them in this." - said Lavrov.

Answering the question as to whether Russia will participate in similar charges sought by Georgia, the Foreign Minister said: "We will participate in the courts in compliance with the according procedures."

Georgia started the conflict on the eighth of August by launching a military assault on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinval. According to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1.6 thousand civilians became victims of the ensuing conflict. Both Ossetians and Georgians had to leave their homes. With the number of refugees, according to the UN, being over 118 thousand people.

To protect its citizens living in South Ossetia, Russia sent over ten thousand troops and hundreds of armored units in support of its peacekeepers stationed in the region. On the twelfth of August Russia had completed its operation to restore peace in the conflict zone.

http://www.rian.ru

The document regarding the regulation of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, signed by the Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, was different from the document originally agreed upon by the presidents of France and Russia. From it is missing the first, integral part of the document, says the head of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, as reported by Interfax.

This question is to be clarified through the diplomatic channels.

To remind you, the copy of the document signed by Saakashvili was delivered to Moscow today. Composed on the 12th of August, the original version, as agreed on by the Russian and French presidents, was signed by the presidents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Sergei Bagapsh and Eduard Kokoity. Today, that same copy was also signed by the Russsian president Dmitri Medvedev.

After the full defeat of Saakashvili’s army, its transatlantic owners have rushed to save the face of the Georgian dictator. The western mass-media, paid by the founders of the American project « Victorious war of annihilation against Ossetians and Abkhazians», began to justify the autocrat Mishiko by distorting the facts, and placing fantastical blames against Russia.

They have reached the point that they are now stigmatizing Moscow’s peacekeeping mission, putting the situation in South Ossetia on its head– saying, it is Russians who bombed and shelled Tskhinval. Even the German chancellor Angela Merkel, usually a firm and a wise woman, has echoed Condoleezza Rice, naming the actions to liberate the South Ossetian people as "disproportionate". However not all Europe exhibits the reaction to the Caucasian events, that is needed for Washington to revive Saakashvili’s worthy image.  Huge sums of money were put into him, so the destroyed project must be urgently reanimated. Here the eloquent citation from an article by the writer Marek Halter in the Parisian “Le Figaro”.

«Now about Europe. It is the second conflict on the European continent after the one that engulfed the former Yugoslavia. Therefore Europe should be the one to settle it. So thought Nicholas Sarkozy, who has immediately gone to where the events took place. But what can Europe do in the face of this anachronistic conflict between Russia and America? First of all, it can exist.

As Stefan Zweig wanted it and many others with him. Can Europe, in order to exist, submit to the presence on its soil of NATO troops, the alliance created in 1949 in Washington to counteract the expansionist designs of the Soviet Union? I am convinced that it is possible without being anti-American, to think that the independence of the Europe does not agree with its allegiance to NATO. Their interests do not always coincide. Let us recall the war in Iraq.

To be short, what does George Bush want in Georgia? I, for my part, consider that Saakashvili’s military operation in Ossetia has been prepared together with the American advisers and approved by Condoleezza Rice, during her previous visit to Tbilisi. Neither Bush nor Saakashvili were surprised by the strictness of the Russian reaction. In their strategy they counted on the Russian answer and the media-mobilization, it will provoke.

Even the arrival of russophobe leaders– Polish, Ukrainian and Baltic – on August, 12th to Tbilisi has been programmed in advance. I can argue that within the next few days the "danger" which the "Gazprom" state’s military and economic power poses for its small neighbors, will be exploited to its fullest. This "danger" will justify a post factum expansion of the American presence in these regions to the detriment of solidarity and integrity of Europe.

Vladimir Putin – is not a chess player, as were all the previous Russian leaders. He is a judoist. The judoist does not have to be stronger in order to win; he should be able to use the force of his opponent to throw him to the ground».

The former chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder has put the fault for the current confrontation in the Caucasus on the government of Georgia.

“The attack by Georgia on South Ossetia has served as a starting point of this military confrontation, and we should not confuse anything ", - G. Schroeder was quoted by Reuters, in an interview to German media.

Also, in the opinion of ex-chancellor, Washington should have known about the Georgian operation against Tskhinval, considering the presence of American military advisors in Tbilisi.

G. Schroeder also has expressed an opinion that Abkhazia and South Ossetia could never return to the jurisdiction of Tbilisi after what has happened.

" I do not think, that Russia endeavors to annex these territories, but I am also sure, that Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not return to the previous status (being part of Georgia) ", -Schroeder emphasized.

Arguing on a position of the West concerning the Georgian - South Ossetian conflict, the predecessor of Angela Merkel on a post of German chancellor, has supported Moscow, having noted “serious miscalculations “in politics of the West in relation to Russia. G. Schroeder has called the European Union to accelerate the acceptance of an agreement on strategic partnership with the Russian Federation and noted that otherwise Europe risks to push the Kremlin to an establishment of closer relations with China.

As a reminder, the chancellor of Germany, Angel Merkel, who met on August, 15th in Sochi with the president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, has supported idea of “territorial integrity “of Georgia. A. Merkel also has repeated a position of NATO about the "disproportionate" use of force by Russia in response to Tbilisi’s actions in South Ossetia.

RBC.RU

The Russian psychiatrist-criminalist professor Michael Vinogradov believes, that the president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili – is a psychologically unstable person who is currently in a condition of extreme fright from what he has done.

According to “Vesti” channel, the professor has analyzed the photos of the Georgian president, and also a fragment of video recording, showing Mikhail Saakashvili gnawing the tip of his tie, preparing for TV appearance. This recording was shown on one of the western channels as well as on “Vesti” channel.

“The fact that he was chewing his tie in front of a foreign correspondent”; - Vinogradov said- shows his heightened degree of anxiety". It is possible to speak of him  losing " the control over his behavior, confusion and generally about great  fear which now possesses this psychologically unhealthy person", believes professor Vinogradov.

Georgia has initiated military action in South Ossetia on August, 8^th and has fired at the capital of the unrecognized republic, Tshinval. Nearly 1,600 civilians became the victims of this conflict, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. To protect the inhabitants of South Ossetia, many of whom are Russian citizens, Russia has sent approximately 10,000 servicemen and hundreds of military vehicles into the region, to assist the peacekeepers, currently based there. On August, 12th Russia has finished the operation to coerce Georgia towards peace.

On August, 11th Georgian TV channels showed the footage of panicking Saakashvili during his trip to Gori. Then the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has proposed that the bodyguards of the Georgian president were frightened with a sound of a shot by Georgian weaponry that has renewed the bombardment of South Ossetia. The representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has noted professional work of the operator who filmed this footage.

On August, 13th the newspaper " Krasnaya Zvezda” has published a document, concerning the condition of Georgian president, - " Mikhail Saakashvili: psychological personality research", prepared by a number of leading foreign experts. The document was published in its entirety and consists of five chapters, including the diagnosis and recommendations. In particular, the newspaper writes, experts have established that the president of Georgia suffers from a strong paranoid disorder, coupled with hysteric personality type and narcissism complex".

“Saakashvili’s personality exhibits characteristics typical to a paranoiac: the hypertrophied sense of self worth, unlimited pride and a heightened sensitivity to failures and disapproval from society. He attaches special importance to everything that is connected with his person and his own interests. At the same time, he does not pay close attention to everything which is not included in his “private space”.

 “Saakashvili persistently puts himself in opposition to the rest of society and views the world around him as a hostile environment ", - conclude the specialists according to “Krasnaya Zvezda”.

RIA News

It happened according to a Russian proverb: it took Russia long to put the horse to the cart. Saakashvili was just a couple of hours short of gaining victory over South Ossetia.

In the very first minutes of the assault on Tskhinvali it became clear that Georgia had both built up its military strength manyfold and learnt the lessons from the recent conflicts in the Caucasus. UnlikeRussia.

The Stalingrad Scenario

The main lesson is to minimize street fighting. In 1994 Russian troops’ assault on Grozny showed that there is only one cruel but effective way to confront mobile fighting groups with minimal losses and it is to destroy the groups’ potential hideouts, i.e. residential buildings and houses, by shellfire. Andthat’s what Georgiansdidit.

Anestimated 2300 combatantsdefendedTskhinvali. Under the Dagomys Agreements Ossetians cannot have heavy arms. That’s why they relied mainly on close-in street fighting backed by grenade launchers should aggression begin. But the Georgian side tried to rule out this war scenario. “Grad” launchers would shell Tskhinvali for 9 hours destroying one residential area after another – those defending the city could not even raise their heads.

Only then would tanks enter the fighting. They would fire at the few remaining upper stories of residential houses: upper stories are favorite hideouts of grenade launcher operators. When the tanks stopped the fire, the “Grad” launchers would resume it. And it would happen several times. Only then would Special Forces enter the scene to finish off all that was still alive and moving.

The Georgian firepower was unexpected not only for the Ossetians who protected Thskhinvali, but for the Russian regular troops, too.

These massive destructions resulted in a comparatively quick advancement of Georgians into the streets of Tskhinvali.

Where Have Russian Choppers Gone?

Still the Ossetian units were not beaten. Following the order of Kokoity, they managed to disperse and put up fierce resistance to the enemy in some urban areas. The “Alan” battalions managed to burn two tanks and throw the Georgian Special Forces several hundred meters back. Soldiers of the Chechen “Vostok” Battalion managed to kill without a single shot the crews of three Georgian armed vehicles and to throw the vehicles downhill (however all these “Vostok” heroes were later killed). The unprecedented courage of South Ossetian defenders aborted Sakashvili’s blizkreig. Georgians failed to occupy the territory of the unrecognized republic during the 24 hours. They even failed to suppress all hotbeds of resistance in Tskhinvali. It’s due to this that Russian politicians did not face the fatal fact of South Ossetia’s destruction and it’s due to this that the clumsy Russian military machine received time to deploy its forces.

There were no Russian combat helicopters in the sky, which became one of the main unpleasant surprises. It affected the course of the fighting, especially during the first day. During the numerous Caucasian conflicts of the past it is helicopters that were the main and decisive force of quick reaction. The question is “Where have they gone”? Are there so few of them left that it was difficult to send several helicopters to rescue those defending the city? It was right in Tskhinvli that a helicopter regiment was deployed some time ago, the only regiment of the Russian air force that had an experience of mountain fighting. But in 1992 right after the first Ossetian-Georgian war it was disbanded.

“Worse Than Beasts”

But what was least expected was the cruelty of Georgians, which was shocking.

“There were babies with cut-out eyes delivered to our hospital”, said Angelina Gasieva, a doctor of the Tskhinvali city hospital, to Moskovsky Komsomolets (St. Petersburg). “You see that the baby is still alive, but it has no eyes”.

She says that Georgians shouted in the Ossetian language to civilians hiding in the basements to come out as there was no danger and when the latter believed them and came outside they were shot from machine guns and tank guns.

Angelina, her sister and children spent several days in a bunker under the debris of the bomb-destroyed city hospital.

“There was a never-ending scream in the hospital”, she says. “Almost all the wounded people were in the state of shock. They kept shouting, “Where are my children?” There was no room in the basement. There were corpses, wounded people, some of them being operated on right there in the basement, all in one place. When the three of us were rescued form the debris I was all covered in blood.

My two children and I walked 20 kilometers through the forest. A lot of people fled the city through the forest. Georgians knew about it and bombed the forest. A lot of refugees were killed there.

Irina, Angelina Gasieva’s sister also hid in the hospital basement.

“There is a smell of cadavers all over the city”, she says. People walk around the city collecting parts of their relatives, put these parts together and bury them in the backyards and gardens, there are no coffins. Georgians did not kill the many women and children they captured physically. They killed them morally. I cannot even say outloud what Georgians were doing to them. We had expected them to be capable of a lot of different things but not SUCH things. Ourhospitalwasdestroyedpurposefully. It was the only five-story building in that area. They are not Christians, they are infidels, barbarians, they are worse than beasts. How shall we live now?

This question is acute not only for the Ossetians who lost their houses. “Are you planning to return to Tskhinvali”? This is the question that American journalists most often asked refugees. I think that the only thing that Saakashvili is interested in is how effective the ethnic cleansing that he has initiated will be. The Russian army will rattle the saber and go back beyond the Caucasus Mountain Range. The international community will make a bit of noise and calm down. But if the majority of the small South Ossetian nation cannot come back home (and now they have no place to go back to) the territory of the republic will become empty and “the South Ossetian problem” will resolve itself for Georgia.

Vladlen Chertinov

Moskovsky Komsomolets (St. Petersburg) thanks Valeriy Friev, the honorable Chairman of the Ossetian community in St. Petersburg for his help in establishing a communication line with South Ossetia.

Covert Mechanisms of the Georgian-Ossetian Conflcit

An Election Campaign Storm in McCain's Favor

With Saakashvili’s help US Republicans now in power are trying to solve several typical election-related tasks at the same time. The Bush Administration is blowing up the noise around the Russian invasion in Georgia to divert the attention of US voters from its own failures in economy (the financial crisis) and foreign policy (Iraq and Afghanistan). The wave of anti-Russian hysteria staged in the US has led to the rising popularity of the Republican candidate and hardliner Bill McCain, who has been regarded as a no-win candidate by many experts till now.

This demonstrative cruel violence of Georgia’s Saakashvili-led pro-American government in the conflict zone is aimed at distracting Russia from its foreign policy effort to stabilize the situation in the Middle East. Russia is one of the few countries that opposes active US anti-Iran efforts. Hence this attempt to discredit Russia in the international community. AnalystswarnofUSplanstoneutralizeRussiaasamajorindependentplayerintheinternationalarenawhileRussiahastotakeactivemeasurestoresolveconflictsin thepost-Soviet space.

The parliament of North Ossetia has addressed the Russian State Duma  and the Council of Federation of  Russia with the offer to recognize South Ossetia as an independent state. Here is what Taimuraz Mamsurov, the President of RNO-A has told in this regard:

- Since the international community applies the tactics of the come to pass facts, literally having spat on everything that is written down in documents of the international level, as the case of Kosovo has shown I would like us to apply the same logic. South Ossetia has proved, that it can exist as an independent territory, and it is time for it to be considered as such.

The Council of Federation and the State Duma now should answer collectively to  this request of the parliament of Northern Ossetia, however yesterday, an assistant chairman of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament Alexander Torshin, visited Vladikavkaz. The senator has a long time connection with Northern Ossetia – he headed the commission of parliament on investigation of the Beslan terrorist act.

- From the point of view of international law, from the point of view of our legislation, we have all the means to accept this request for consideration, - Alexander Torshin has told. – As soon as it will come to our attention, it will be directed to the corresponding committee for a study. I am assured that the State Duma will act in a similar fashion. We will come to a decision. Time passes by, the situation changes, it is necessary to come to a constructive decision.

Chief Adviser of international affairs to the U.S. presidential candidate John McCain and his business partner Randy Shenemann (Randy Scheunemann) has received hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past three and a half years from the Government of Georgia, writes the Associated Press today.  The agency calls it a lobbying deal with the Georgian government, through which 200,000 and 800,000 dollars were received.  Furthermore, with Scheunemann's mediation, starting in 2001 McCain lobbied the government of Taiwan (500,000 dollars), Macedonia (500,000 dollars), Romania (400,000 dollars), Latvia (250,000 dollars) in the U.S.

Earlier, McCain called for the full reconsideration of the relations with Russia in connection with the latest developments in the Georgian-South-Ossetian conflict: "There is a need to consider whether there's a reason for Russia to remain in the" Big Eight "- said McCain.  According to him, that involves a reconsideration of the U.S.' approach to the issue of Russia's membership in the World Trade Organization.

100 victims have passed through КБСП (clinical hospital of first aid) over 3 days, tells the head of department of public health services АМС of Vladikavkaz Olga Bekuzarova.

Of those, 63 arrived in КБСП on August 10th.

There are 80 victims total at КБСП today.

The majority of them had operations.

Their condition is estimated as grave.

Basically wounded were transported, Olga Bekuzarova, using first aid cars of Vladikavkaz.

«Half of the first aid car pool in the city of Vladikavkaz is daily used to deliver the victims.  The city administration helped with both medicines and with fuel for the cars. There are 2 fast response crews with 6 people in each at КБСП. They came out to Dzhava and administered first aid on the spot. In addition, we made 411 hospital beds available for the wounded in Vladikavkaz.  Of those, 300 beds are in КБСП, the others are placed in our polyclinics, in day time hospitals where there is out-patient surgery available: in a polyclinic №1 –  there are 10 beds; in a polyclinic №7 – 56; in a polyclinic №4 – 22; in the 1-st children's polyclinic – 5; in the 2-nd children's polyclinic – 8 beds », she said.

These new spaces are currently not being used.

Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov is certain that Georgian aggression against South Ossetia should not be passed over. Sergey Lavrov insists on a payment by the Georgian party of a monetary compensation for the destruction caused brought to the settlements of the un-recognized republic." I am convinced, that the aggressor should pay for those destructions which it has caused ", - the minister noted.