Despite the televised order by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia launched an offensive Tuesday in Abkhazia, sending tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery toward the breakaway region.

Georgian troops were forced out of their last stronghold in the separatist province, said Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zaitsev, a defense official in Abkhazia. The claim that Georgian forces were gone could not immediately be confirmed.

And hours before the order to stop fighting, Russian jets bombed the crossroads city of Gori, near the separatist region of South Ossetia. Gori’s post office and university were burning Tuesday, but the city was all but deserted after most remaining residents and Georgian soldiers fled Monday ahead of a feared Russian onslaught.

Throughout this calculated aggression, the Russian media has played an inglorious but technically brilliant role. They have used the most modern techniques of journalism and marketing to broadcast the worst lies of the Kremlin. Those lies themselves have been cleverly designed to imitate the West’s own justifications for the Kosovo intervention: “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide.” Doubtless the Georgian forces committed crimes in their incursion into South Ossetia. There are plausible reports that they shelled villages. But they were overwhelmed so quickly that they simply could not have committed crimes of the scale alleged by the Kremlin. Besides, Russia’s long patronage of South Ossetian attacks, its invasion across internationally recognized borders, and its relentless bombing of a country that has retreated and offered a cease-fire deprives it of any right to make such accusations. Russian policy is a war crime in itself.

The US yesterday pushed for the UN Security Council to call for a ceasefire in the widening Caucasus conflict as it accused Moscow of seeking regime change in Tbilisi.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said he would meet his Western colleagues to finalise a draft resolution that would call for “an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of all forces to the status quo in the breakaway Georgian enclave of South Ossetia. He particularly stressed the need for Moscow to withdraw the combat forces it sent to South Ossetia in the past week.

And in highly contentious exchanges with his Russian counterpart Vietaly Churkin reminiscent of the Cold War, Khalilzad accused Moscow of seeking “regime change in Tbilisi” and of waging “a campaign of terror” in Georgia.

He said Churkin cited comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a confidential telephone conversation with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice suggesting that the president of Georgia “must go”.

“This is completely unacceptable and crosses the line,” the US ambassador said. “Russia must affirm that its aim is not to change the democratically elected government of Georgia and that it accepts that territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia.”.

Nice to know that when the Dems ran off John Bolton, Bush installed another hardass in Ambassador Khalilzad.

The violence appeared to show gargantuan Russia’s determination to subdue diminutive, U.S.-backed Georgia, even at the risk of international reproach. Russia fended off a wave of international calls to observe Georgia’s cease-fire, saying it must first be assured that Georgian troops have indeed pulled back from South Ossetia.

International envoys were heading in to try to end the conflict before it spreads throughout the Caucasus, a region plagued by ethnic tensions. But it was unclear what inducements or pressure the envoys could bring to bear, or to what extent either side was truly sensitive to world opinion.

THE Georgian city of Gori is under “massive” attack from Russian artillery and planes and ground forces are preparing for an assault, according to the Georgian interior ministry.

“There was massive bombing of Gori all evening and now we are getting reports of an imminent attack by Russian tanks,” interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

“Gori is being bombed massively from the air and from artillery as well.”

About 65km northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Gori is just south of the border with the rebel region of South Ossetia, which has seen fierce fighting between Russian and Georgian forces in recent days.

It is the largest Georgian town close to the region and an important strategic link between eastern and western Georgia.

Mr Utiashvili said Russian troops were preparing a ground assault.

They “are not there yet but it looks like they are getting ready for it,” he said, adding that Georgian forces were returning fire on Russian positions.

A spokesman for Russia’s defence ministry said he could neither confirm nor deny the report.

The Russian army entered South Ossetia last week to repel a Georgian attempt to retake the province, which broke from central control in a war in the early 1990s.

Russian planes have since bombarded a number of sites around Georgia.

“I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected. All sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Georgia, and the United States, the United Nations Security Council, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.”

Observes Powerline:

Strongly! Obama found no reason to distinguish between Russia and Georgia in strongly condemning the outbreak of violence. Or perhaps he found it too difficult to do so.

Meanwhile, John McCain shows his grasp of the situation by issuing a strong condemnation while puting events in imformative perspective. Here’s John McCain’s statement in its entirity:

This afternoon I spoke, for the second time since the crisis began, with Georgian President Saakashvili. It is clear the situation is dire. Russian aggression against Georgia continues, with attacks occurring far beyond the Georgian region of South Ossetia. As casualties continue to mount, the international community must do all it can to avert further escalations. Tensions and hostilities between Georgians and Ossetians are in no way justification for Russian troops crossing an internationally recognized border. I again call on the Government of Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from the territory of Georgia.
Given this threat to Euro-Atlantic security, I am pleased to see the United States, the European Union, and NATO acting together by sending a delegation to the region, in an effort to broker a cease fire. This is an important first step.

The United Nations has been prevented from taking any meaningful action by Russian objections. In view of this, I welcome the statements of democratic nations defending the sovereignty of Georgia and condemning Russian actions.

I strongly support the declaration issued by the Presidents of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and their commitment that ‘aggression against a small country in Europe will not be passed over in silence or with meaningless statements equating the victims with the victimizers.’

I share their regret that NATO’s decision to withhold from Georgia a Membership Action Plan may have been viewed as a green light for aggression in the region. As they propose, a new international peacekeeping force should be created, in light of — as they observe — the ‘obvious bankruptcy of Russian “peacekeeping operations” in its immediate neighborhood.’ In addition, Finnish Foreign Minister Stubb, the Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has said there can be no return to the status quo in South Ossetia and that Russia cannot serve as a mediator in the South Ossetian conflict. Each of these leaders represents a country that has undergone what Georgia is now experiencing.

Thanks to Powerline again for issuing McCain’s entire statement.

Acts of war in South Ossetia are, in fact, a war of the USA against Russia, and Georgia is a stupid tool. And the fact that events unfolded immediately before the Olympics in Beijing is also not an accident. The USA dislikes China no less than Russia, and, obviously, decided to “kill two rabbits with one shot.” The war in South Ossetia affects Russia directly. Also, a severe aggravation in the Caucasus could interfere with the 2014 Olympics in Sochi (a town in the Russian Caucasus region, on the Black Sea) and that affects money and image. For China the 2008 Olympics that have just started are not so much a sporting event as a political event. The Chinese see in them a chance to show themselves in a new role — as a safe, technologically advanced, well-organized state. With everyone distracted by the Ossetian war they’ll hardly be able to use this chance fully. (COMMENT: Aren’t conspiracy theories fun? No wonder people enjoy coming up with them. No need for evidence; of course the plotters cover their tracks!)

another here:

More than anyone else it is South Ossetia, which is not at all a significant players on the international stage, that suffers from the under-cover geopolitical games of the Americans. True, some observers think that actually the scale of the war is exaggerated, and it’s obviously not being understated in the information war. Some are inclined to think that no significant military actions are taking place, but then the propaganda machine is working at full strength. (COMMENT: I didn’t quite understand what “propaganda machine” is being referred to.)

And from a real radical here. And its scary as the interpreter was unsure whether or not the writer was calling for genecide.

One of the most radical, and also most widespread, opinions was voiced by user Vran: “Georgia must be expunged from Russian history forever. Otherwise it will poison with its corpse stench another decade.” (COMMENT: Bad translation; I didn’t quite get it. I’m not sure whether this is a call for genocide. Logically, “expunge Georgia from Russian history” would be best achieved by withdrawing, no? Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be what Vran means.)

And finally, a moderate voice:

User Guest64 shows a rational caution. In his opinion, “Russia now should not get into a war with Georgia, but should give Ossetians and Abkhazians as much military equipment, as is necessary, to destroy Georgian machinery and weapons… The Olympics continue for two weeks, and another week to forget about them. And then it will make sense to deliver a bombing attack with the goal of annihilating all the potential of the aggressor. Like in Iraq, Yugoslavia — bomb and say, that that’s how it was.” (???)
(COMMENT: Would the Ossetians and Abkhazians be able to beat Georgia with any amount of military equipment? Seems uncertain.)

A plurality of Russian commentors appear to support the Putin regime aggression into Georgia – at least in this blogging post.

Now the Kremlin is reacting strongly. Russian warplanes are reportedly striking targets in Georgia. Reinforcements are pouring in. And the Kremlin’s mighty propaganda machine is lumbering into action while a cyber-attack appears to have crippled Georgia’s websites.

For it is the information war, not what happens on the ground, that will determine the victor of this conflict. Russia is portraying Georgia as the aggressor, an intransigent and unpredictable country determined to restore its supremacy over an unwilling province by means of military force and “ethnic cleansing”. Such a country, clearly, would be unfit to receive Western support.

The propoganda campaign seems to have been working, but writing in Times Online, Edward Lucas says European fears for Georgia are misplaced:

These are misplaced: Georgia is not perfect, but it is not a dictatorship. Its leadership does not peddle a phoney ideology, such as the Kremlin’s mishmash of Soviet nostalgia and tsarist-era chauvinism. It has a thriving civil society, vocal opposition and ardently wants to be in the EU and Nato. Moral grounds alone would be enough reason for supporting it against Russian aggression.

This is not good news at all for US and western interests.

As things stand, Georgia will be fighting not to regain South Ossetia or even to deter aggression, but to survive. It is hard to see any good outcome. Georgia has failed to win a quick victory: crucially, it failed to block the Roki tunnel under the Caucasus mountains, normally used as a smugglers’ highway, but now the route for Russian heavy weapons that Georgia cannot counter for long. Worse, the authorities in Abkhazia, Georgia’s other breakaway region, may mount an attack, either on its own or with Russian help.

The fighting should be a deafening wake-up call to the West. Our fatal mistake was made at the Nato summit in Bucharest in April, when Georgia’s attempt to get a clear path to membership of the alliance was rebuffed. Mr Saakashvili warned us then that Russia would take advantage of any display of Western weakness or indecision. And it has.

The Soviets are back.

UPDATE Links:

Here
Here