Russia Gives Georgia An Ultimatum

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, protected by bodyguards after a jet plane
was heard flying overhead on Monday. (Joao Silva/The New York Times)

From the International Herald Tribune:

SENAKI, Georgia: Russia issued an ultimatum to Georgia on Monday to disarm its troops along the boundary with the pro-Russian separatist enclave of Abkhazia as Russian tanks rolled across the internal border and occupied a military base in western Georgia.

The move was a sign that fighting could escalate on a second, western front after the conflict initially broke out last week around South Ossetia, the separatist enclave farther east.

President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia said its forces had "completed a significant part of the operations to oblige Georgia, the Georgian authorities, to restore peace to South Ossetia," according to a transcript of his remarks with Anatoly Serdyukov, the defense minister, on the Kremlin Web site.

Separately, Russia said it was seeking an emergency meeting with NATO to discuss the crisis.

Read more ....

My Comment: If the Georgian Government is smart .... which I doubt .... they should realize that they have lost the war and that they should accept the Russian offer. They are one step away from destruction.

I personally think that they will not. Their egos and survival are dependent on this to continue .... or so they think that it can continue. Because of this denial .... they are powerless or unwilling to make the real tough choices now.

If this continues the Russian Army will be at the doors of the capital city, and what they will do will bring back memories of what happened in Grozny.

If I was living in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi right now .... I will be packing my valuables and leaving ASAP to the Armenian or Turkish border.