Russia Announces Troop Withdrawal in Georgia

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- International observers are arriving in Georgia after Russia announced it had completed a troop pullout under terms of the cease-fire that ended its war with Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, chairman of the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in Tbilisi today the OSCE will deploy 20 armed observers and seven armored personnel carriers into the conflict zone ``this weekend.'' Some monitors have already arrived and another 80 will be deployed in coming weeks, the OSCE said.

Finally. I thought following the terms of a cease-fire were mandatory to begin with?

Russia Destroys Key Georgian Bridge

IGOETI, Georgia -- Russia and its allied forces today destroyed a key railway bridge linking war-weary Georgia's capital to the Black Sea coast, effectively severing all east-west transportation routes within the small country, the Georgian Foreign Ministry announced.

Russian soldiers occupying the central Georgian town of Gori also pushed forward 14 miles toward the capital, Tbilisi, setting up positions on the country's main east-west road 25 miles from the capital. Adjacent agricultural fields were set afire, apparently by Russian soldiers. - Los Angeles Times

Oh yeah about that cease-fire...

U.S Limited In Georgia Crisis

WASHINGTON - Russia's blitz into the former Soviet republic of Georgia has exposed starkly the limits of US military power and geopolitical influence in the era following the invasion of Iraq.

Georgia is one of the closest US allies in Eastern Europe. President Mikheil Saakashvili has visited the White House three times in the last four years. Yet this warm relationship did not stop the Kremlin from unleashing a ferocious military response after Georgian troops entered the separatist province of South Ossetia.

US efforts to expand Western influence and spread democracy along Russia's borders may now be threatened. US relations with Russia itself, at the least, are in flux. - Christian Science Monitor

Cover your heads, Atlanta. Russia's coming to get us!

August 12 Daily News

And make you check this out after watching (click it to open full size):