Russian President orders end to operation against Georgia
RUSSIA: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told defence chiefs
yesterday he had decided to cease Russia’s military operation against
Georgia.
“I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian
authorities into peace,” Medvedev said at a televised meeting.
“The purpose of the operation has been achieved.... The security of
our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been restored,”
he said at the meeting with Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and the
head of the military’s general staff, Nikolai Makarov.
“The aggressor has been punished and suffered significant losses,” he
said.
Medvedev qualified the ending of hostilities, saying that in the
event of new Georgian attacks in the rebel region of South Ossetia, such
threats should be “liquidated.”
A senior Russian military commander also said that while a ceasefire
by the forces and a halt in their advance into Georgia did not mean that
all operations would be scrapped.
“If we have received the order to cease fire, this does not mean that
we have stopped all actions, including reconnaissance,” General Anatoly
Nogovitsyn said at a briefing.
Medvedev’s order was announced just as French President Nicolas
Sarkozy arrived in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the conflict in
Georgia, centred on South Ossetia.
France, which currently holds the European Union presidency, has
pushed a three-point peace plan aimed at returning the situation in
Georgia to what it was before hostilities broke out late last week.
Meanwhile on the ground, Georgian authorities said Russia’s air force
had again attempted to bomb a strategic oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan,
which connects the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean via Georgia.
There was no immediate word on whether the pipeline had been damaged.
Georgian authorities said Sunday that Russia had tried to hit the
pipeline but missed, while Russia denied trying to target it.
Moscow, Tuesdday, AFP |