[Marxism] 'Russian troops said to advance on key Georgia city

[Fred Feldman]

The aim may be to remove the current Georgian government which gambled on
presenting itself as the most militantly anti-Russian in the region. Such
"regime change" operations often foster long-term prospects. There is no
sign that this region is on the road to peace.
Fred Feldman


August 11, 2008
Russian Ground Forces Assault Vital Georgian City 
By ANNE BARNARD
This article was reported by Andrew E. Kramer, Anne Barnard and C. J.
Chivers, and written by Ms. Barnard.

TBILISI, Georgia - Russian tanks and troops moved through the separatist
enclave of South Ossetia and advanced on the city of Gori in central Georgia
on Sunday night, for the first time directly assaulting a Georgian city with
ground forces after three days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.

Georgian tanks were dug into positions outside Gori and planning to defend
the city, said Shota Utiashvili, an official in Georgia's interior ministry.
He said the city of Gori was coming under artillery and tank fire. There was
no immediate comment from Russia.

A senior Western diplomat said it was unclear whether Russia intended a full
invasion of Georgia. "They seem to have gone beyond the logical stopping
point" to retake the separatist regions, he said.

The Bush administration said Sunday that it would seek a United Nations
Security Council resolution condemning Russian military actions in Georgia.
And in a heated exchange with his Russian counterpart at the United Nations,
Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador, accused the Kremlin of seeking to
oust Georgia's pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.

A column of Russian forces was also seeking Sunday night to enter Georgian
territory from Abkhazia, another separatist enclave to the west, and Abkhaz
fighters were massed at the boundary line, an Abkhaz official said in an
interview. 

The advance appeared to answer the question on which the conflict had been
pivoting: Would Russia simply occupy the two separatist territories of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, or would it push into Georgia, raising the
possibility of a full-scale invasion? 


Gori, about a 45-minute drive south from the capital of South Ossetia,
Tskinvali, sits in a valley that is the main route connecting the east and
west halves of Georgia. 

Mr. Utiashvili said the Russians were "trying to cut the country in half."
He said that if they tried to occupy Georgia, "there will probably be
guerilla warfare all over the country."

In Washington, American officials reacted with deepening alarm to Russia's
military activities on Sunday. Georgian troops had tried to disengage, but
the Russians had not allowed them.

"The Georgians told them, 'We're done. Let us withdraw," one American
military official said. "But the Russians are not letting them withdraw.
They are pursuing them, and people are seeing this."

The official said that it appeared that the Kremlin's objectives, at a
minimum, had extended beyond securing the enclaves and now included the
destruction of the Georgian armed forces, with an aim of intensifying the
domestic pressure on Saakashvili.

"The Russians have gained all of their military objectives," the American
official said. "This is not about military objectives. This is about a
political objective - removing a thorn in their side."

Russia had also doubled the number of its troops in Abkhazia to about 6,000,
and Russian warships from the Black Sea fleet were off the territory's
coast. A column of Russian tanks was negotiating with Georgian officials to
enter the Georgian city of Zugdidi, just south of Abkhazia, the Abkhaz
official said. 

Russia also bombed the Tblisi international airport shortly before Bernard
Kouchner was due to arrive to mediate on behalf of the European Union. Only
light damage was reported.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice worked through the night
Saturday with other Bush administration officials on a Security Council
resolution. American diplomats said that they did not want an actual
Security Council vote on the resolution until Tuesday or so, the better to
draw out the debate and publicly shame the Russian government. While the
resolution will carry no punitive weight, and is almost sure to be vetoed by
Russia, a permanent Council member, the hope is that it could create more
pressure for a cease-fire, officials said. 

Meanwhile, Georgian and Western diplomatic officials said that Georgia had
offered a cease-fire proposal to Russia, though Russian officials did not
acknowledge receiving such an offer.

A senior American official said that the United States had conveyed the
details of a cease-fire proposal by President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia
to Russia's acting ambassador in Washington late Saturday night, and that
there briefly were indications that the Kremlin wanted to talk directly with
the Georgian president.

"At midnight last night we got from the Russians that they would welcome a
call from Saakashvili," the official said.

But the day passed, and through Sunday night in Georgia, the Kremlin had not
taken Mr. Saakashvili's call and negotiations had not proceeded, an advisor
to Georgia's president said.

"He has asked to talk with Putin, and he has asked to talk to Medvedev," he
said, of Saakashvili. "But they have refused."

The American official also said that Georgia had managed on Sunday to
provide its cease-fire proposals to Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign
minister, but there was no reply.

Mr. Kramer reported from Tbilisi and Ms. Barnard from Moscow. Ellen Barry
contributed reporting from Moscow; Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting
from Tbilisi, Georgia; and Helene Cooper from Washington.