Although there has been widespread coverage in the American media of the tragic events unfolding in
The result is a humanitarian disaster - hundreds of civilians dead, many of them Russian citizens; tens of thousands of refugees; and the destruction of many villages and the capital of
It also seems to have been largely forgotten in the Western press that this is the second time that such a tragedy has happened. In the early 1990s, President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, then the leader of Georgia, proclaimed a policy of "Georgia for Georgians," abolished the autonomous status of South Ossetia (even though two-thirds of the population of
It was after the resulting bloodshed (more that 1,000 killed and 2,500 wounded, many of them civilians) that a peacekeeping coalition comprised of Georgians, Ossetians, and Russians was established. Russian peacekeepers have been stationed in
On the opening day of the Olympic Games - a symbol of peace and international cooperation - Georgia for the second time unleashed war in South Ossetia, violating the cease-fire that it had agreed to earlier in the day by attacking Russian peacekeepers, civilians, residences and humanitarian convoys. In this situation,
One might expect
Our concerns were again ignored when
Evidently our Western friends believed Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili when he said: "It is ridiculous to ask us to do this because
On Tuesday, the president of
Now it's time for a comprehensive resolution of this conflict. Our position is clear and simple -
Vladimir Vinokurov is the consul general of the
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