Russia Retakes Georgian Village Near South Ossetia

From International Herald Tribune:

TBILISI, Georgia: Russian troops retook a village near the breakaway region of South Ossetia Saturday just hours after withdrawing, Georgia's Interior Ministry and European Union peace observers said.

The move drew criticism from Georgia, the EU and U.S. Senator John Kerry, who was on a half-day visit to Tbilisi.

Georgian police had already moved into Perevi on Saturday to remove Russian-built roadblocks when Russian troops and helicopters unexpectedly returned, said Shota Utiashvili, a ministry spokesman.

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More News On The Georgian Russian Conflict

Russia "clowning around" in border village: Georgia -- Reuters
Russian troops move back into disputed village: Georgia -- AFP
Georgia FM: Russian Troops Back in Georgian Village -- Voice Of America

Russian Forces Withdraw From Disputed Village: Georgia

A map of Georgia with data on the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

From AFP:

TBILISI (AFP) — Russian forces have withdrawn from a disputed village near the rebel South Ossetia region that Georgia had claimed was being occupied in violation of a ceasefire agreement, Georgian police said on Friday.

"The Russians have pulled out and Georgian police will soon be in Perevi," interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

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Georgia Claims on Russia War Called Into Question

From The New York Times:

TBILISI, Georgia — Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

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Russia Decries Georgian Military Buildup

From UPI:

MOSCOW, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Russia's permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Georgia has deployed troops along its border.

Representive Anvar Azimov said Georgia was engaging in military activities in areas bordering on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Interfax news agency reported Saturday.

"Several hundred servicemen of the Georgian Interior Ministry, including special task forces and sharpshooters, have been deployed in the village of Variani, Kvenatkotsa, Sagolasheni and Kheltubani," he said.

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Russia Recognizes South Ossetia And Abkhazia

Russia Ratifies Treaty With Georgian
Rebel Regions -- Yahoo News/Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia's lower house of parliament on Wednesday ratified treaties with the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia that will allow Moscow to station thousands of troops there.

Russia recognized the two regions as independent states in the aftermath of August's brief war with Georgia, drawing condemnation from Western states who said it was violating Georgia's sovereignty.

Lawmakers in the State Duma voted unanimously to ratify the treaties, which formalize military, diplomatic and economic ties between Russia and the two regions.

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Tensions Between Georgia And Its Regions -- October 25, 2008

Explosion Destroys Key Bridge in Georgia -- Voice Of America

An explosion has destroyed a key bridge linking Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia with the rest of the country.

Georgian officials and Abkhazian authorities blamed each other for the blast. Residents of Abkhazia's Gali district had used the bridge to reach Georgia's Zugdidi region. Georgian authorities have called the explosion an effort by separatist and Russian officials to cut off Abkhazia and another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia, from the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, the chief of the European Union monitors in Georgia, Hansjoerg Haber, asked Russia to give specific information about what it called Georgian ceasefire violations near the two breakaway areas. He said Russia has so far not provided even a telephone number monitors could use for consultations. He also urged the Russians and authorities in breakaway regions to permit monitors entry into the two areas.

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More News On Georgia And Its Breakaway Regions

'Russia blasts bridge to cut off Abkhazia' -- Press TV
EU observers seek access to rebel Georgia regions for probe -- AFP
EU hits back at Russia over Georgia monitoring -- Reuters
Georgia seeks to isolate Russian-backed regions -- Reuters
Medvedev appoints ambassadors to South Ossetia, Abkhazia -- China View
Russia appoints envoys to S.Ossetia, Abkhazia -- RIA Novosti

Will The U.S. Rebuild Georgia's Army?

Helping Hand: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (center right) with Vice President Dick Cheney

Russia’s Nervous Neighbors -- Newsweek

Since Russia's rout of the Georgian armed forces in August, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has suggested that Washington secretly provoked the conflict. But the Americans wanted no such thing, according to Lt. Col. Robert Hamilton, who ran the U.S. military training program in Georgia until six weeks ago. (He's now on a year's fellowship at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.) "At no time did the U.S. attempt to train or equip the Georgian armed forces for a conflict with Russia," he says. "In fact, the U.S. deliberately avoided training capabilities [that] were seen as too provocative" to Russia. That's one reason Georgia's troops crumpled so fast—precisely because their training didn't cover conventional-warfare topics like tanks, artillery and helicopters.

America's military involvement in Georgia began with a mission that was supposed to reduce Moscow's jitters. The Russians were complaining that Chechen rebels with suspected ties to Al Qaeda were holed up in Georgia's Pankesi Gorge. In 2002 the Pentagon stepped in, training and equipping Georgia's ragtag Army to clear out the unwelcome guests. After that mission ended in 2004, Georgia joined the Coalition in Iraq, and the training's focus shifted to counterinsurgency and peacekeeping duties.

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My Comment: Georgia will be rearmed .... but slowly. It's membership into NATO will not proceed for now, Nato's European partners are risk averse .... and Georgia is too much of a risk for them now.