August 9, 2008
Alex Nicholson, Bloomberg

Russia took control of the capital of the separatist South Ossetia region, rejecting calls by the international community to declare an immediate cease-fire as Georgia declared a ``state of war.''

Russian tanks pushed into the separatist South Ossetia region and, by morning today, reinforcements backed by bombers and artillery had forced Georgian units out of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, the Defense Ministry said on its Web site.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said 1,500 civilians and 15 Russian peacekeepers have been killed so far, while Deputy Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn confirmed that two Russian aircraft had been shot down. Georgia has shot down 10 planes, the secretary of the Georgian Security Council said. The pilot of the 10th plane is alive and has been sent to a hospital, the secretary, Kakha Lomaia, said.

``Whatever part of Georgia is used for this aggression is not safe,'' and Russia reserves the right to attack any part of Georgia used for the offensive in South Ossetia, Lavrov said. ``The source of the aggression must be hit to prevent the aggressor from doing that again,'' he said.

Russian warplanes bombed sites including the port of Poti and a military base at Senaki, in the west of the country, Georgian officials said. The town of Gori, the birthplace of late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, was also hit.

The conflict could endanger U.S. aspirations to secure an emerging energy corridor linking Central Asia to Europe and deals a blow to its plans for bringing the former Soviet republic into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's orbit.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the fighting was a response to Georgia's assault on Russian citizens and the peacekeepers Russia has had in the disputed region since the early 1990s.

State of War

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili today signed a decree declaring a state of war, Lomaia said. At least 40 Georgians, both civilian and military, have been killed, he said by mobile phone. This toll does not include casualties from a residential building in Gori that was bombed, he said.

South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s and exists now as a de facto independent state with Russian peacekeepers and economic support.

The Russian government said that 30,000 refugees had entered its territory from the region.

``The people responsible for this humanitarian catastrophe must bear responsibility for what they have done,'' including under international law, Medvedev was quoted by the RIA Novosti news service as saying at a Kremlin meeting.

The conflict ``absolutely'' dooms Georgia's chances for NATO membership, said Robert Hunter, U.S. ambassador to the Brussels- based alliance under President Bill Clinton and now a senior adviser at the policy-research group RAND Corp. in Washington. ``You don't bring in a country that has this sort of trouble.''

Peace Envoys

As those hopes evaporated, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to send an envoy to broker a cease-fire between the sides. President George W. Bush, attending the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games yesterday, said the U.S. backed the ``territorial integrity'' of Georgia.

The European Union and the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has a peacekeeping mission in Georgia, are also sending emissaries to seek a cease- fire, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement late yesterday. France, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, earlier called on behalf of the EU for negotiations to end the fighting.

Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte summoned Russian Charge d'Affaires Alexander Darchiyev to push for a Russian pullout, according to a statement issued yesterday by the State Department. Russia's attacks are a ``dangerous and disproportionate escalation of tension,'' and the U.S. calls for an ``immediate'' cease-fire and withdrawal of Russian troops, Negroponte said.

Russian Energy

EU help may not be as forthcoming as Saakashvili wants in part because of European dependence on Russian energy supplies.

``Countries like Germany and France were already resistant to the idea of giving a NATO security guarantee to a country with an open dispute with Russia,'' said Dominic Fean, a researcher at the French Institute of International Affairs in Paris. ``I can't see how they can get the consensus of 26 states anytime soon.''

Georgia's Ambassador to the U.S. Vasiil Sikharulidze told Bloomberg Television the conflict would make NATO entry for the country harder, ``but we are strongly convinced we have to continue this way and that we will be a NATO member.''

Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, came to power in the 2003 ``Rose Revolution'' backed by the U.S. He vowed to bring South Ossetia and two other separatist regions under central control in a challenge to Russia.

Russian Passports

South Ossetia has a population of about 70,000 and is connected to Russia's North Ossetia region by a tunnel through the Caucasus Mountains. Most residents hold Russian passports.

Georgia is a key link in a U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline to Turkey runs about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

The U.S. seeks to connect Central Asia natural gas supplies with European markets, skirting Russia in an attempt to weaken the grip of Russia's state-run OAO Gazprom energy company. One planned pipeline route runs from the Georgia-Turkey border.

NATO in April committed itself to bringing Georgia into the alliance without providing a timeframe or a clear path toward membership -- as Bush had pushed for -- out of concern it would antagonize Russia. Putin has called the expansion of NATO toward Russian frontiers a ``direct threat'' and likened South Ossetia's drive for independence to Kosovo's from Serbia.

Kosovo Precedent?

Sergei Mironov, a Putin ally who heads Russia's upper house of parliament, said the fighting is ``grounds'' to consider South Ossetia's appeal for international recognition, which cited Kosovo as a precedent, Interfax reported.

Russia hasn't recognized Kosovo since its declaration of independence.

The ruble dropped the most against the dollar in 8 1/2 years and Russian stocks tumbled yesterday on concern the fighting would worsen.

``This could be a prolonged and bloody conflict with an unpredictable end,'' said Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst in Moscow.

Hunter said flawed diplomacy was in part responsible for the clash. ``This is an issue that was allowed to get out of hand by people who haven't thought through what NATO membership really means, and on the Russian side doing too much muscle flexing over a country that is a pretty small place,'' he said.