Map of the conflict region
The BBC is reporting this on the US Secretary of State’s visit to Tbilisi:
“Ms Rice will present President Mikhail Saakashvili with a European Union-brokered ceasefire deal, but he has said he would need ‘a closer look’ before signing. The Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has demanded that Georgia sign the deal immediately - but said only Russia could guarantee peace in the region.”
But we were told several days ago, and everyone has assumed, that President Sarkozy, when he arrived in Tbilisi with the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan, already succeeded in getting President Saakashvili’s signature on the document. Now it seems to remain an open option.
If the BBC report is true, there is no ceasefire between the Russian and Georgia forces.
UPDATE August, 15, 10:40 AM:
Guardian reports:
"Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili said today that he had signed a ceasefire deal with Russia, ending hostilities over the breakaway region of South Ossetia."
Patrick Armstrong received a PhD from Kings College, University of London, England in 1976 and retired in 2008 after 30 years as an analyst for the Canadian government. He was Political Counsellor for the Canadian Embassy in Moscow from 1993 to 1996. He has been a frequent speaker at the Wilton Park conferences in the UK.
Comments
So what has happened to the piece of paper Saakashvili was widely reported to have signed on Tuesday when Sarkozy presented it to him?
This is getting pretty weird.
Posted by: Patrick Armstrong | August 15, 2008 11:43 AM
Anything the US can trumpet, even if its full of holes, they will trumpet. Who is going to stop them? They are playing the one ace card they have, their dominance of Western media.
Thanks to this blog I can find a balancing view.
Posted by: Roger | August 15, 2008 5:44 PM
Patrick Armstrong,
More speculation about La Russophobe and who may be funding this fulltime blog here:
http://www.timothypost.com/2008/08/13/la-russophobe-uncovered/
While Mr. Post is incorrect to say that plenty of fundamentalist Christians would not gladly invite him or an agnostic person over for Easter dinner, he does point to a disturbing fundamentalist Russophobia in D.C., fueled by the desire for more arms contracts to new NATO members and lobbying cash.
Senator McCain's statement on Friday, for example, talked about Ukraine and Georgia as captive nations for "centuries" which obviously would go beyond just the fact that they were sometimes forcibly kept inside the Soviet Union, but to the Russian empire as well.
Any reporter worth his salt should be asking Randy Scheunemann: does Senator McCain believe that it is America's mission and national interest to see that every part of Russia that wants to secede can, but NEVER vice versa (parts of former Soviet republics that may want to rejoin Russia, like far eastern Ukraine, Crimea, etc. can NEVER GO BACK? lest this be aggression).
Posted by: Dirk | August 16, 2008 7:33 AM
More on Scheunemann here. It's a shame Democrat Party hacks in D.C. are practically the only ones asking what the heck is going on here.
The WaPost has been in the pocket of the Russophobes for too long (over at the Nixon Center, they counted no less than 12 eidtorials or op-eds about Georgia in 2008 before the war started) and the New York Times, ironically enough considering its silly domestic liberal bias, has been better than the Wall Street Journal on Russia. But the WSJ is caught between Wall Street's growing financial ties to Russia and its political friends hardline against the Russians.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/randy_scheunemann/
Posted by: Dirk | August 16, 2008 8:11 AM
Timothy Post's comments regarding LaRussiaphobe are very interesting. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was indeed a product of "Perception Management". That's the great big DC America Media machine! Powered by lots of money to keep us all ignorant and anxious.
In this morning's newspaper, there was an article about the Saddleback Church Forum with McCain and Obama. Clearly, one candidate knows how to think and articulate, using more than one-word catch phase answers. MaCain gave some very canned, dogmatic- but vague answers to some of the toughest questions we face.
I am sure he wold be a very good puppet for the continuation of the Neocon agenda.
I should send him a whole lot of POWDERED SUGAR from a small village in Russia!!!
Posted by: Tanya | August 17, 2008 11:37 AM
This was second cease-fire deal.
The one arranged by Sarkozy was a preliminary cease-fire deal(to stop active military actions immediately).
Posted by: Misha Amashukeli | August 18, 2008 5:11 AM