Eurasia Insight:
RUSSIAN "IMPERIALIST BOOTS" STOMPING ON GEORGIA - PRESIDENT
8/11/08

Beleaguered yet unbowed, President Mikheil Saakshvili urged Georgians to resist a relentless Russian military onslaught. At the same time, the Georgian leader stepped up efforts to mobilize international opinion against the Kremlin, amid reports that Russian forces are deliberately trying to terrorize the civilian population.

Russian troops, in a widening of its offensive that displayed contempt for the global community, pushed well into Georgia proper on August 11. They occupied the western cities of Senaki and Zugdidi, thus gaining control of a strategic East-West highway. Moscow has thusfar ignored all suggestions of a ceasefire.

Near the South Ossetian conflict zone, Russian troops zeroed in on the Georgian city of Gori, about 50 miles northwest of the capital Tbilisi. A city hospital that had been treating wounded civilians and soldiers was forced to cease its activities. Ilia Chorgolashvili, a hospital staffer told EurasiaNet that civilians were panic-stricken as the Russians approached. "I am trying to get a car to come back to Tbilisi," he said over the phone. "The city is falling. Everyone is running away."

The Russian land grab effectively left Georgia fragmented, imperiling the country's sovereignty. Locals feared that Moscow was plotting a pincer movement against Tbilisi, moving in from the West and North. Russian officials have given little indication of where and when their offensive will end. The Russians have even pressed their offensive at sea, sinking a Georgian patrol boat in the Black Sea.

"They [Russian troops] are intensively bombing Tbilisi, Poti, villages in Adjara, and elsewhere," said a Georgian government statement. "Overnight, as many as 50 Russian bombers were reported operating simultaneously over Georgia, targeting civilian populations in cities and villages, as well as radio and telecommunications sites."

Residents in the Western city of Supsa also reported sighting Russian soldiers, who were scrounging for food.

Georgian residents elsewherehave reported that Russia has dropped fragmentation bombs in areas, including the port city of Poti, far removed from the fighting. The only tactical justification for the use of such ordnance would be to sow havoc among non-combatants, and thus weaken the country's will to resist. Other Georgian sources have claimed that Russian troops summarily executed a journalist working for a media outlet connected to an alternative Ossetian administration loyal to Tbilisi. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]

Saakashvili, in a televised address to the nation late on August 11, called on Georgians to remain determined to defend their homeland against the Kremlin's innate expansionist impulses. "Today Russian imperials boots are again stomping our country," emotional Saakashvili said.

"We will resist all kind of aggression," Saakashvili continued. "Georgia will never be put on its knees again."

Saakashvili also voiced his disappointment with the international community for failing to stand up to Russia. "We are hearing words of support from all over the world, we have very good international positions, but it appears this was not enough to stop the ... barbaric aggressor," Saakashvili said. "The world just watched from far away and allowed Georgia to be occupied in 1921, and they are allowing it now, in 2008."

With internally displaced persons now streaming into Tbilisi, Saakashvili ordered that schools and municipal buildings be open to accommodate them.

Sentiment in the capital is growing increasingly bitter concerning the inability of the United States and the European Union to compel Russia to refrain from indulging in further indiscriminate violence. "It's like when thugs are beating somebody to death in the streets, and [people] are watching from the window shaking their heads in disapproval," said Roma Lordkipanidze, dentist in Tbilisi.

A Western diplomatic mission arrived in Tbilisi on August 11 to press Russia to show restraint. Upon landing, Deputy US Assistant Secretary Matthew Bryza sharply criticized the Kremlin's decision to move its forces beyond South Ossetia. "What does this have to do with protecting Russian peacekeepers and passport-keepers?" he asked. He expressed his full support for Georgia's "democratic government" and promised assistance but he didn't say if the United States is going to take any effective measure to stop Russia's advance.

French President Nicols Sarkozy, the EU president, is expected in Georgia on August 12. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who arrived in Georgia on August 11 have also condemned the violence.

Saakashvili appealed to his nation to gather in downtown Tbilisi for a rally at 3 pm on August 12 to demonstrate against Russian aggression. "Power is in unity," he said.