Russian jets bomb Georgian airbase - Tbilisi

Reuters ^ | 08 Aug 2008 | Reporting by Matt Robinson, editing by Tim Pearce

[Grzegorz 246]

TBILISI, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russian jets bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Friday, a senior Georgian security official told Reuters.

"No one was wounded but some buildings have been destroyed," said Kakha Lamaia. The airbase is some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Tbilisi.

"They have declared war against us," said Lamaia.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

"Aug. 8: Russian Channel 1 claims this image shows a convoy of Russian tanks moving towards Tskhinvali in the South Ossetian enclave in Georgia. Russia's Defense Ministry says it has sent reinforcements to its peacekeepers deployed to South Ossetia to help end bloodshed."

Peacekeepers my a$$.

Aug. 8: A Russian fighter flies over a Georgian position near the city of Tskhinvali, 62 miles from Tbilisi. Georgia's interior ministry said Russian planes had attacked positions just south of breakaway South Ossetia where fighting raged on Friday.

Aug. 8: Georgian troops fire rockets at a South Ossetian separatist territory near a settlement in Ergneti, 59 miles from Tbilisi.

Aug. 8: Georgian tanks move along a road near the city of Tskhinvali, 62 miles from Tbilisi. Fighting raged in and around the capital of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region on Friday as Georgian troops, backed by warplanes, pounded separatist forces in a bid to re-take control of the territory.

Aug. 8: A convoy of Georgian troops moves towards Tskhinvali in the South Ossetian enclave in Georgia. Georgian troops launched a major military offensive Friday to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia, prompting a furious response from Russia, which vowed retaliation and sent tanks into the region.

[flyfree]

Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia:
Security Issues and Implications for U.S. Interests
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/102644.pdf

[Catholic Canadian]

Roid rage?

LMFAO!

[oldleft]

Georgia has already recalled 1,000 of their troops from Iraq because of this. Does anyone know the size of the Georgian armed forces?

[flyfree]

In its report for 2005, Georgia’s International Security Advisory Board (ISAB) noted that previous reviews identified a total strength of 13,000-15,000 active-duty personnel as an optimum for the Georgian armed forces. A four-brigade structure, along with an increased reserve force, represent an increase of 25-30 percent on earlier planning figures in the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) agreed with NATO in 2004.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/georgia/army.htm

[VOR78]

Possibly about 27,000 if the following link is accurate:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/mil_arm_for_per-military-armed-forces-personnel

[Proud_USA_Republican]

FoxNews Update - A Georgian interior ministry spokesman said three Georgian soldiers were killed Friday in a bombing on the Vaziani airbase.

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said that a Russian raid Friday on the Marneuli air base destroyed several Georgian military aircraft and inflicted unspecified casualties. It said that Russian aircraft also bombed another base in Bolnisi. Rustavi 2 television reported four people were killed and five others wounded at the Marneuli air base.

A senior Russian diplomat in charge of the South Ossetian conflict, Yuri Popov, dismissed the Georgian claims of Russian bombings as misinformation, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow was receiving reports that villages in South Ossetia were being ethnically cleansed.

“We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives,” he said during televised remarks in Moscow from Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

[Milhous]

Wu wei

---

News about news

Instead of watching BBC World News about South Ossetia, we can now watch Rustavi2 showing Saakashvili being interviewed by Lyse Doucet on BBCworld. Apparently Saakashvili is going for broke as he has ruled out a ceasefire now.

Also the Patriarch led prayers for peace in all the churches.

---

Wounded

On the 8 oclock news they are showing the wounded in hospital. I don't know what is worse, seeing the wounded or seeing the terribly primitive state of the hospitals. Not much equipment, crumbling walls. Hygiene?

Off now to Betsy's hotel bar, traditional place for expats on Friday night.

---

Ethnic cleansing? Thanks to Fistful of Euros for directing people to my blog.

It's a hot summer evening here. People are going about their business as usual in Tbilisi. I did my weekend shopping, and no run on the shops.

There was nothing new at 7pm on the news. It's not clear whether there is any news blackout. Saakashvili is appealing to the international community to solve the dispute. It's hard to see the Russian "peace keepers" being replaced by internationals, although that's probably what Saakashvili has wanted for a long time.

The charge of ethnic cleansing is a bit steep. Everyone left in South Ossetia was either South Ossetian with a new Russian passport or really South Ossetian presumably with a Georgian passport or no passport at all. Or Russian "peace keepers". Surely they might expect a bit of trouble and be able to defend themselves.

The only ethnic bit is the Georgians going back into their own territory. And then they let the civilians out in the cease fire, into Georgian territory. What have the Russians been doing for their citizens? I haven't seen any coming out. The South Ossetian provisional government was sending people to Georgia during the moratorium, not to Russia. Hard to see that as ethnic cleansing. It seems that the S Ossetian fighters didn't use the cease fire to give up their arms and didn't observe the cease fire either.

Wonder what the refugees are doing in Gori? Tsinkhvali seems to have been flattened, so no going home.

---

To war or not to war?

Reports say Russians have damaged the runway at the Marneuli airport near Tbilisi.

We are wondering what the Georgian airforce is doing.

Nobody has declared war yet, and the Russians are hedging, but when you put it all together, it looks pretty much like it.

It seems some dignitaries are on their way, like President Adamkas from Lithuania. They better land quick.

---

Getting closer

For English language news on the situation, we are reading www.civil.ge, which is following Georgian news.

The Russians have bombed the military base at Vasiani which is 10 km from Tbilisi.

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Getting closer

According to the news:

The Russian warplane has dropped two bombs on the Vaziani military base outside Tbilisi, the Georgian Interior Ministry said.

"No one was injured and no major damage has been caused," Shota Utiashvili, the Interior Ministry's spokesman.

---

Moratorium for whom?

Just as the moratorium goes into place, we get TV news of Russian tanks moving into the region.

---

Local diplomacy

I went off to register at the Embassy and to hear what they thought was going on.

The usual Embassy muddle: the form didn't have space for mobile numbers and they had to ring me up afterwards for my email address.

The information they had about the situation was 12 hours out of date, as if they hadn't seen BBC World this morning.

They thought the voluntary "warden" telephone tree used to inform people might not work as "people might have left".

It seems in case of an evacuation it will be through Armenia. Our Greek has been told the same. This seems to be a plan agreed at a meeting of all the embassies earlier in the week.

But nobody is expecting this to be necessary. I'm leaving for Lithuania next Thursday anyway, for a long weekend.

A new meeting of diplomats has been called this afternoon which everybody but the Russians have gone to.

---

Ultimate goal

Everyone knows that the Russians cannot defend South Ossetia unless they hold the Rokki tunnel to North Ossetia in Russia. The tunnel is not in good condition and only wide enough for one column of traffic. But that's the only way they can get troops and equipment in, and the people out to Russia

If the Georgians cut it off, that will settle South Ossetia's fate (and also the Russians' reputation in the region).

Watch this space. Rather big stakes.

---

All calm in Tbilisi

So we went out altogether for lunch: some wag dubbed it the Last Supper. The fasting period has started again (till the Feast of the Virgin Mary on 28 August) and we discussed whether it was necessary to fast in the army or not.

Tbilisi is normal, they are concreting holes in pavements, there are no queues in the banks (we got some extra cash just in case) and nobody seems to be stockpiling food.

The word from one of our banks: it has evacuated the money from the Gori branch, and then it remembered to evacuate the staff too. Hollow laughs all round.

There are rumours that the Tbilisi hospitals are taking the wounded. The electricity is holding up.

We went back to see the news and heard about the moratorium announced by the Georgian government between 3 and 6pm for the population to go out and for the South Ossetian fighters to lay down their arms and come out too, with an amnesty. The South Ossetian Provisional Government leader was telling people to give up. The Moscow appointed leader Kokoity has gone back to Russia "for talks" leaving the locals to get on with it.

Now the Russians are pretending that it was the Georgians that have started it, after weeks of provocations in the two breakaway regions.

Last word from our driver, who regrets that the young people who have lived peacefully all their lives will now be corrupted by war and have their lives spoilt and their spirit made evil. From his point of view, war was nothing new, he would survive.

---

[Kimberly GG]

I believe it was (gag me) Geraldo on Fox who said the similarities are likened to the beginning of WWII?

I am not knowledgeable AT ALL about Russia or previous wars for that matter. How concerned should I be?

[eleni121]

Georgia has become another statelet governed by George Soros.

The Ossetians seem to want to be close to Russia...so let them be.

The Georgian opposition needs to stop this ridiculous trend in Georgia.

[eleni121]

I fear the Soviet Union is looking to be reborn.

---

That’s just a silly statement.

We just witnessed a state funeral of the most vocal and enduring critic of the former soviet union: Solzhenitsyn.

[LS]

No kidding. Russkies will use this as an excuse to rebuild the Evil Empire.

[rjp2005]

I spoke too soon - CNN started covering it this afternoon. Question is, how long will they continue coverage if it extends for weeks.

[rmlew]

That's not a fighter. It is SU-24 Blinder, a interdiction/attack plane, the equivalent of the F-111 Aardvark or F-15E.

I like the Georgians, but if the Russians are using T-80's vs the Georgian t-72s, Georgians are in trouble.

[Tommyjo]

Not a Blinder. All the Blinders are retired now as of the early 1990s. The aircraft is an SU-24 FENCER.

[rmlew]

Fencer not Blinder. I got the NATO designation wrong. However, it is an SU-24.

[kronos77]

Now, a real reason for war in Georgia:

BP Turkey Pipeline Is Still Burning, Delaying Repairs (Update2)

By Ali Berat Meric and Eduard Gismatullin

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) — A fire that’s closed BP Plc’s Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in eastern Turkey may keep burning today and tomorrow, delaying the start of damage assessment, Turkey’s Energy Ministry said.

``It is still burning,’’ Ebru Akdogan, a spokeswoman for BTC Co., said by phone today at 5:30 p.m. Istanbul time. ``We don’t know when it will finish.’’

About 70,000 barrels of oil had burned by late last night, leaving another 30,000 barrels to burn out before experts can start assessing damage to the 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) stretch of the pipeline in eastern Turkey where the fire broke out, Mehmet Akif Sam, a spokesman for the ministry, said in a phone interview today. That may not happen until Aug. 10, he said.

BP, StatoilHydro ASA and other partners have cut crude production at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli and Shah Deniz fields in the Azeri part of the Caspian Sea, Tamam Bayatly, a Baku-based spokeswoman at BP, said by phone. The pipeline linking Azerbaijan with the Mediterranean was pumping about 800,000 barrels of oil a day before the fire.

``We continue our production at reduced rates and we are continuing to use alternative routes’’ to export oil, Bayatly said. ``We are matching our production to the storage capacity at the Sangachal terminal and the alternative routes.’’ She declined to comment on the current export rate.

Lost Output

At least half a million barrels a day of production will probably be lost in Azerbaijan, Peter Hutton, a London-based analyst at NCB Stockbrokers Ltd., wrote today in an e-mailed report. ``The line looks likely to be down at least three weeks.’’

BP and other companies are pumping crude through the Baku- Supsa pipeline to the Georgian Black Sea coast, which was reopened this month after about 18 months of repairs. The link was expected to transport 100,000 barrels of oil a day, BP’s Azerbaijan country head Bill Schrader said June 4.

Exporters are also sending crude through the Baku- Novorossiysk link to the Russian Black Sea coast. The pipeline has a maximum capacity of 300,000 barrels a day, according to data from Russian operator OAO Transneft. It has never been run at the full capacity.

Some crude is being transported in rail cars to the port of Batumi in Georgia, according to BP.

Halted Shipments

The fire started late on Aug. 5 and halted shipments from the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, said it bombed the pipeline as part of its campaign for autonomy in southeast Turkey. The link may stay closed for two weeks while the damage is repaired, Turkish officials said yesterday.

The pipeline is 1,768 kilometers long and most of it is in Turkey. It cost $3.9 billion to build and contains 10 million barrels at any one time.

The port of Ceyhan has the capacity to hold up to 7 million barrels of crude and has a 2.5 kilometer-long jetty to allow the simultaneous loading of two tankers, according to BP.

BP said today that the fighting between Russian and Georgian troops in the breakaway region of South Ossetia hasn’t disrupted crude transit flows across Georgia.

``Our business in Georgia continues as normal and we continue to monitor the situation,’’ Bayatly said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net; Ali Berat Meric in Ankarat .
Last Updated: August 8, 2008 11:08 EDT

[kronos77]

Although I'm a Serb and I treat Russians as friends, I cant see Georgians as enemies, but as fellow Christians.
My opinion is that someone outside pushed Georgians in conflict with Russia.

Bare in mind, US personnel left Georgia short time ago. I pray that this mutual killing of our Orthodox brothers stops soon.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Considering the bulk of the russian military are conscripts, the Georgians might be able to overcome that disadvantage with better trained crews and having home field advantage.
But if the Russians had their best positioned at the border knowing this was going to go down, Georgia has got a real problem. The latest T-80’s are fast and have much improved reactive armor.
They can also fire a missile out of their main gun which goes farther than any tank round. That missile can take out a tank, fixed position, and even a helicopter.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Georgia was supposed to be joining NATO in 2009. This is what I believe this is all about. Russia trying to prevent that from happening and keep that area in its “sphere of influence”. Georgia also has great strategic value for energy transportation to the black sea.