United States criticizes Russia over ‘disproportionate’ Georgia response

The United States criticized Russia on Monday over what it called a ‘disproportionate’ response to Georgia’s attack on the capital of breakaway South Ossetia on August 8. “I’ve expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia,” U.S. President George Bush told the NBC channel.

Reports in world media said that Russian planes have bombed the Georgian town of Gori and the outskirts of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in response to Georgia’s attack on Tskhinvali. U.S. ally Georgia has reported civilian casualties in Gori, and has claimed that a number of military facilities and airports close to Tbilisi have been hit by Russian planes. Russia has strongly denied however that its planes have bombed civilian targets. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that Russia is aiming to “force the Georgian side to accept peace.”

Russia has reported that some 2,000 civilians have been killed since Georgian forces launched an attack on Tskhinvali on Friday in an attempt to rein in the secessionist-minded region. It has also hit out at what it calls Western media bias in reports on the ongoing conflict.

U.S. Vice President, Dick Cheney told Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in a telephone conversation that Russia’s actions “must not go answered”. U.S. officials were unable to say however what measures Washington might take. “We have made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations,” U.S. deputy national security adviser Jim Jeffrey told reporters.

NBC reported on Monday that U.S. military transport planes had started to bring the 2,000 Georgian troops deployed in Iraq back home. After the U.S. and Britain, Georgia had the third largest amount of troops deployed in Iraq.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said on Sunday that Georgian forces had fully withdrawn from the separatist province. However, on Monday morning, a RIA Novosti correspondent quoted an unnamed peacekeeper spokesman as saying that Tskhinvali was once again being shelled and that around 7,500 Georgian troops were in or around the devastated city.

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On the day of the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games, Georgia has stolen the show by launching a military attack on South Ossetia, a separatist state that has had de facto independence since 1991. This act of aggression, presented by the Georgian side as a “response” to the supposed provocation on behalf of Ossetia, came as an unexpected blow for the Russian leaders to the country’s diplomatic prestige. Now, the Russian side is frantically looking for a way to retaliate without being accused of getting involved in someone else’s business.
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