News

A number of Russian human rights and oppositional organizations have moved the Antiwar Manifesto, announcing a termless antiwar campaign of civil protest until durable peace is established in Georgia.

In the south of Russia, over 17,000 refugees from South Ossetia have been officially registered, as reports the Federal Operative Staff for liquidating the consequences of the armed conflict in South Ossetia.

Today in the Kremlin, in the presence of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Presidents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia Eduard Kokoity and Sergey Bagapsh have signed six principles of settling the conflicts in Georgia.

Today, local policemen have returned to Gori and will now maintain the law and order in the city. It has become possible as a result of the arrangements reached during the meeting last night in Gori of Kakha Lomaya, Secretary of the Security Council of Georgia, with the command of the Russian troops present in the region.

During the armed conflict, the Tskhinvali city hospital accepted 44 casualties and 273 wounded residents of South Ossetia, the hospital doctors have reported to the employees of the Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Ruslan Kishmariya, Plenipotentiary Envoy of President of Abkhazia in the Gali District, has stated that on August 12, when Abkhazia announced forcing Georgian policemen out of the Kodori Gorge, Russian families ousted from the Zugdidi District of Georgia started to arrive to Abkhazia.

Nadira Isaeva, editor-in-chief of the Dagestan weekly "Chernovik" (Blueprint), who came on August 13 for interrogation to the Investigatory Department of the ICPO for Dagestan, has refused to evidence.

The Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of Russia has initiated a criminal case on the fact of mass assassinations of Russian citizens in South Ossetia, under which Georgia is accused of genocide, as Igor Komissarov, assistant of the chairman of the ICPO, has reported.

After the failed "blitzkrieg" against South Ossetia, Georgia will face new economic problems, President Mikhail Saakashvili - attacks of the opposition and criminal prosecution, and Russia - possible isolation by international organizations, Russian media write today.

The emergency meeting of the heads of Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the 26 NATO member-states on Georgia, convoked on the US initiative, will take place on Tuesday, August 19, in Brussels. It became known from sources in the Belgian capital.

Georgia has lodged claims against Russia to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of the United Nations. Among other things, Georgia accuses Russia of ethnic cleanings.

The information about the march of Russian armoured machines on Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, widespread by foreign media, has nothing to do with reality, said Ekaterina (Eka) Zguladze, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

Russian losses in the conflict zone of South Ossetia with Georgia make 74 persons killed, 171 persons wounded and 19 persons registered as missing. Sandro Kvitashvili, Minister of Public Health of Georgia, has declared today that as a result of warfare after August 8 the Georgian casualties made 175 persons.

President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili is ready to accept five out of six ceasefire conditions in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone and to sign the document coordinated on August 12 by Russian and French leaders.

In Armenia, the opposition party named "Heritage" asserts that the authorities of the country became accomplices of beating a journalist of the "Aikakan Zhamanak" newspaper.

President of Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh has announced the establishment of Abkhazia's jurisdiction in the upper section of the Kodori Gorge to be a great victory. In his television address to the people of Abkhazia, Mr Bagapsh has noted that "we've been waiting for this for the latest 15 years of our independence."

Under the criminal case on explosion on August 13, 2007, of the "Neva-Express" train, Pavel Kosolapov, suspected by the investigation of organizing and performing the terror act, has been announced into search.

Georgia has announced three-day mourning after the recent events that led to loss of militaries and peaceful residents. The decision was made public by Elias the Second, Catholicos-Patriarch of Whole Georgia, at his sermon in the Sacred Trinity Cathedral.

The Moscow City Court has upheld the ruling of the Kuntsevo District Court on illegality of the activities of the website "Ingushetia.Ru". Rosa Malsagova, editor-in-chief of the website, who is now in Paris, where she applied for political shelter to French authorities, has stated that the "Ingushetia.Ru" website will go on despite the court ruling.

Russia is bewildered with the silent stand of Belarusian authorities on Georgian-Ossetian conflict, said Alexander Surikov, Russian Ambassador to Belarus.