Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Russians detain Georgian soldiers at port.

This is from IHT.
The Russians are snubbing western criticism and rubbing in the Georgian defeat. Confiscating the Humvees that were used in joint Georgian U.S. military manouvers will probably enrage the U.S. The U.S. paid no attention to Russian objections to the manouvers and so this will be part of the punishment. It will be interesting to see what the U.S. does. From all these actions it seems that the Russians have no intention of going back to the status quo in which the U.S. expected Russia to co-operate on various issues even while helping to create a situation where Russia was surrounded by hostile regimes. At the very least Georgia can forget about re-integrating Abkazia and South Ossetia into Georgia. So far it seems as if the U.S. and some European nations still support Georgia joining NATO but this may prove impossible so long as the issue of Abkazia nad South Ossetia remains unsolved.

Russians detain Georgian soldiers at port
By Michael Schwirtz and C.J. Chivers
Published: August 19, 2008
POTI, Georgia: Russian forces detained 21 Georgian soldiers in the Black Sea port of Poti on Tuesday. On a day when Russian troops continued to dig in to positions across Georgia, the detention of the troops - who were bound and blindfolded - was further evidence of continued military activity on Georgian territory by Russia despite assurances that its troops would withdraw.
The Georgians, who were blindfolded and bound, were taken by the Russians to a military base at Senaki, along with five armored Humvees from the U.S. military that were to have been shipped back to the United States. The Humvees had been used in joint U.S.-Georgian military exercises three months ago, said Eduard Machevoriani, the port's commercial director.
A top Russian military official, Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said that the Georgian soldiers were disarmed at a checkpoint Monday and that they had been armed with automatic rifles, submachine guns and grenade launchers, Interfax reported.
Another senior Russian military official, Colonel Igor Konashenkov, said the Russians would destroy all weapons and ammunition that they seized during their operation in Georgia but would take all tanks and armored vehicles that they find in good condition. Among the seized arms are 2,000 small arms and 65 tanks, of which 44 were in "excellent condition," he said, according to Interfax.
On Sunday, President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia announced that Russians would begin withdrawing from Georgia proper into the two pro-Russian breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where the conflict began Aug. 7.

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