Britannia Radio

French drag EU into surrendering Georgia
The French are backing the Russians and are responsible for the
delays and for ‘fudging’ the peace deal in such a way as to leave
Georgia helpless in the face of Russian dominance of all
communications.

Then French Foreign Minister, Kouchner, succeeds in the next stage
of the Franco-Russian stitch-up by kicking the EU EU discussions into
the lomg grass for a minimum of 3 weeks. The man has surrendered
Europe (as well as Georgia) to Russia and a murderous Putin.

Christina
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FINANCIAL TIMES 14.8.08
Ukraine snubs Moscow on port
By Roman Olearchykin Tbilisi

Victor Yushchenko, on Wednesday announced restrictions on use of the
Crimean port of Sevastopol by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, a move that
follows a challenge by Kiev this week to Moscow’s naval operations
off Georgia’s coast.

The surprise decree by Ukraine’s pro-western president requires
Russian naval vessels to request permission 10 days in advance before
returning to the strategically important port, which Russia leases
from Ukraine. Russia’s defence ministry quickly denounced it as “not
serious”.
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INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE Europe 14.8.08
Peace plan offers Russia a rationale to advance
By Andrew E. Kramer

TBILISI, Georgia: It was nearly 2 a.m. on Wednesday when President
Nicolas Sarkozy of France announced he had accomplished what seemed
virtually impossible: Persuading the leaders of Georgia and Russia to
agree to a set of principles that would stop the war.

Handshakes and congratulations were offered all around. But by the
time the sun was up, Russian tanks were advancing again, this time
taking positions around the strategically important city of Gori, in
central Georgia.

It soon became clear that the six-point deal not only failed to slow
the Russian advance, but it also allowed Russia to claim that it
could push deeper into Georgia as part of so-called additional
security measures it was granted in the agreement. Sarkozy, according
to a senior Georgian official who witnessed the negotiations, also
failed to persuade the Russians to agree to any time limit on their
military action.

By mid-morning, European officials were warning of the risks of
appeasing Russian aggression, while Georgian officials lamented the
West's weak leverage.

"I'm talking about the impotence and inability of both Europe and the
United States to be unified and to exert leverage, and to comprehend
the level of the threat," said the senior Georgian official, who had
sat in on the talks between Sarkozy and Georgia's president, Mikheil
Saakashvili.

The senior Georgian official later made a copy of the deal available
to The New York Times with what he said were notes marking changes
the Georgians had asked for but failed to attain.

Of gripping importance to the Georgian government now, Western
diplomats and Georgian officials said, is whether the agreement gave
the Russians room to interpret the occupation of Gori and a zone
around the city as agreed upon in the cease-fire, thus allowing them
to control the main east-west road through the country, isolating the
capital, Tbilisi, from the Black Sea coast and cutting off important
supply routes.

In response, the United States began sending troops to Georgia to
oversee aid to the capital on Wednesday.

France brokered the deal as the country holding the rotating
presidency of the European Union. Bernard Kouchner, the foreign
minister of France, visited Tbilisi and left with a four-point cease-
fire plan.

The conditions were: no use of force; cease hostilities; open
humanitarian corridors in the conflict areas; and Georgian and
Russian troops withdraw to their pre-war positions.

In meetings in Moscow, the Russians insisted on two additional
points, the Georgian official said, and Sarkozy carried these demands
to Georgia, landing shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday and driving
straight to the Parliament building to meet Saakashvili.

Negotiating from a position of strength, the Russians demanded the
fifth point, allowing their troops to act in what was termed a
peacekeeping role, even outside the boundaries of the separatist
enclaves where the war began, with an understanding that later an
international agreement might obviate this need.

The vague language of the fifth point allows Russian peacekeepers to
"implement additional security measures" while awaiting an
international monitoring mechanism.

The Georgians asked that a timeline be included in the language for
these loosely defined Russian peacekeeping operations, but the
Georgian official said Sarkozy's response was that without an
agreement, a Russian tank assault on the capital could ensue: "He was
saying it's a difficult situation. He said, 'Their tanks are 40
kilometers from Tbilisi. This is where we are.' "

Sarkozy then tried to call Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian president, to
amend the point with a timeline. The adviser, who was present, said
the Russians did not take the call for two hours. When the French
president got through, the proposal was rejected.

Both sides agreed to leave the future status of the contested
separatist regions aside.

A senior American official familiar with the talks also said that the
Russians insisted on the fifth point about the so-called additional
security measures. "I think it was presented as, 'You need to sign on
to this,' " the official said of Sarkozy's appeal to the Georgians.
"My guess is it was presented as, 'This is the best I can get.' "

French and Russian officials were unavailable to comment on the
Georgian official's account of how the negotiations unfolded.

Sarkozy and Saakashvili announced the agreement around 2 a.m., and
Russian tanks and troops moved toward Gori soon afterward. The
Russians cited the fifth provision, saying they had identified a
threat to the local population that justified their troops assuming a
peacekeeping role in the city.

A spokesman for President Medvedev said they took up positions around
the town to protect locals from South Ossetians bent on revenge
against ethnic Georgians for what Russia says was Georgia's wholesale
destruction of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, and its
inflicting of civilian casualties. It said it was also there to
dispose of weapons left unattended by Georgian troops.