1. au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/5212203/russia-retakes-georgia-border-village/
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Russia retakes Georgia border village</b>
December 13, 2008, 9:34 pm
Boxer Klitschko dispatches Rahman in the seventh December 14, 2008, 10:25 am
Turkmens vote in election with little choice December 14, 2008, 10:54 am
TBILISI (Reuters) - Russian troops returned on Saturday to a disputed Georgian village they vacated a day earlier near breakaway South Ossetia, pushing back Georgian security forces.
Georgian police said between 500 and 600 Russian soldiers were in the village of Perevi, close to the de facto border with South Ossetia.
Russian forces pulled back in October from a buffer zone adjacent to South Ossetia after a five-day war in August, but kept soldiers in Perevi, which sits on the Georgian side of the de facto border.
The troops pulled out of the village on Friday. Georgian police moved in behind them, but the Russians were back by nightfall. Television pictures showed Russian soldiers unloading sandbags from a truck.
Georgia has condemned the Russian presence in Perevi as a violation of the cease-fire brokered by the European Union after the war, when Russia intervened in its former Soviet neighbour to halt a Georgian assault on pro-Russian South Ossetia.
EU cease-fire monitors, who took credit on Friday for the Russian withdrawal, confirmed Russian forces were in the village on Saturday, but could not say how many.
Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said police had withdrawn. "The Russians kicked the police out of Perevi this morning," he said.
South Ossetia accused Georgia of violating the cease-fire by deploying special forces to the boundary.
"About 60 special forces soldiers were deployed to the village of Perevi directly on the border with South Ossetia," Interfax news agency quoted a South Ossetian defence ministry official as saying. "EU monitors are turning a blind eye."
Pro-Western Georgia welcomed news that the Russian troops had moved 3 km (1.8 miles) east across the boundary on Friday. The village sits on a small mountain road entering South Ossetia from the west. Some of its 1,100 residents had left.
South Ossetia claims the village as its own. But the EU monitors say it clearly lies outside South Ossetia's de facto borders. The monitors said Friday's pullback followed discussions with the Russian foreign ministry and military.
Utiashvili said a delegation of European diplomats visiting the area on Saturday was barred from entering the village.
Russia has recognised South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states backed by Russian military protection. The two regions threw off Tbilisi's rule in the early 1990s.
Russia said it intervened in Georgia to save civilians from a Georgian military bid to retake South Ossetia after months of skirmishes and Georgian allegations of Russian provocation. The West condemned Moscow's response as disproportionate.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
2. au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/5212504/kasparov-forms-opposition-group-dismantle-putin-regime/
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Kasparov forms opposition group to 'dismantle' Putin regime</b>
December 14, 2008, 8:50 am
KHIMKI, Russia (AFP) - Kremlin critics led by former world chess champion Garry Kasparov launched Saturday a new opposition group called Solidarity, vowing to "dismantle" the regime of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
In a hand vote, about 100 delegates agreed in a hotel in a Moscow suburb to form Solidarnost (Solidarity), using the same name as the Polish union movement that pushed Poland's communist government to hold free elections in 1989..
(The dawaganda of using names, words, language that have established meaning to people, used on purpose to ride on their existing wave of popularity, to auto-inherit approval in the public consciousness by association.
The world already has enough doublespeak promising "equality, brotherhood, religion of love, religion of peace", but I guess that's not enough. And now recycling a significant Polish org's name to get maximum effect.)
"It is impossible to reform this regime," said Kasparov, one of the most high-profile critics of Putin, who became prime minister earlier this year after Dmitry Medvedev was elected to succeed him as president.
"Our first goal is to dismantle Putin's regime. This is the only way to restore <b>freedom</b> and political competition in the country," he said to applause at the new group's congress.
In another wink to the 1980s anti-Soviet movements, the new opposition group chose as its anthem the song "We're Waiting For Changes" by Russian rock icon Viktor Tsoi, whose tune was a favourite of young Russians during Perestroika.
On Friday, Kasparov had warned that Russia was "on the edge of catastrophe."
"This regime has a very short life expectancy and at the end of next year there will be tremors in Russia . We need ahead of this moment to create a powerful democratic coalition," he told a news conference.
The new opposition group includes an eclectic mix of political forces, including the former SPS liberal party, members of the RNDS party of former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who did not attend the congress, and human rights activists.
While Kasparov said he was "very optimistic" about the movement, at least one delegate was more cautious about its future.
"It does not please many people here, but we must participate because there is nothing else. If you consider yourself a democrat, you must be here," Ivan Fedorenko, an RNDS representative from Saint Petersburg, told AFP.
Fedorenko noted that the opposition hopes it can seize on the economic crisis, with Russia officially in recession, to gain ground.
"Many believe that the crisis opens a window of opportunity, that people will be unhappy because of the economy and that democratic organisations will be able to defend the economic interests and become as popular as the Polish Solidarnost," he said.
Other figures at the conference included Boris Nemtsov, a liberal who served as deputy prime minister in the 1990s.
But many leading Kremlin critics did not attend the congress, reflecting the long-running disunity of Russia's opposition.
Outside, pro-Kremlin youth activists -- who consistently disrupt opposition events in Russia -- protested, including some who wore monkey masks and threw bananas.
Shortly after his speech about 30 activists from Young Russia , a pro-Kremlin youth movement, rallied outside the conference hall, setting off smoke bombs and waving Russian flags and a banner that said "Enough lies".
Three of them wore monkey masks and tossed around bananas and leaflets saying "the monkeys are telling lies."
When the opposition opened its first congress Friday, delegates were greeted by the bizarre sight of a busload of dead or wounded sheep being dumped outside their conference centre.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Russia retakes Georgia border village</b>
December 13, 2008, 9:34 pm
Boxer Klitschko dispatches Rahman in the seventh December 14, 2008, 10:25 am
Turkmens vote in election with little choice December 14, 2008, 10:54 am
TBILISI (Reuters) - Russian troops returned on Saturday to a disputed Georgian village they vacated a day earlier near breakaway South Ossetia, pushing back Georgian security forces.
Georgian police said between 500 and 600 Russian soldiers were in the village of Perevi, close to the de facto border with South Ossetia.
Russian forces pulled back in October from a buffer zone adjacent to South Ossetia after a five-day war in August, but kept soldiers in Perevi, which sits on the Georgian side of the de facto border.
The troops pulled out of the village on Friday. Georgian police moved in behind them, but the Russians were back by nightfall. Television pictures showed Russian soldiers unloading sandbags from a truck.
Georgia has condemned the Russian presence in Perevi as a violation of the cease-fire brokered by the European Union after the war, when Russia intervened in its former Soviet neighbour to halt a Georgian assault on pro-Russian South Ossetia.
EU cease-fire monitors, who took credit on Friday for the Russian withdrawal, confirmed Russian forces were in the village on Saturday, but could not say how many.
Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said police had withdrawn. "The Russians kicked the police out of Perevi this morning," he said.
South Ossetia accused Georgia of violating the cease-fire by deploying special forces to the boundary.
"About 60 special forces soldiers were deployed to the village of Perevi directly on the border with South Ossetia," Interfax news agency quoted a South Ossetian defence ministry official as saying. "EU monitors are turning a blind eye."
Pro-Western Georgia welcomed news that the Russian troops had moved 3 km (1.8 miles) east across the boundary on Friday. The village sits on a small mountain road entering South Ossetia from the west. Some of its 1,100 residents had left.
South Ossetia claims the village as its own. But the EU monitors say it clearly lies outside South Ossetia's de facto borders. The monitors said Friday's pullback followed discussions with the Russian foreign ministry and military.
Utiashvili said a delegation of European diplomats visiting the area on Saturday was barred from entering the village.
Russia has recognised South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states backed by Russian military protection. The two regions threw off Tbilisi's rule in the early 1990s.
Russia said it intervened in Georgia to save civilians from a Georgian military bid to retake South Ossetia after months of skirmishes and Georgian allegations of Russian provocation. The West condemned Moscow's response as disproportionate.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
2. au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/5212504/kasparov-forms-opposition-group-dismantle-putin-regime/
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Kasparov forms opposition group to 'dismantle' Putin regime</b>
December 14, 2008, 8:50 am
KHIMKI, Russia (AFP) - Kremlin critics led by former world chess champion Garry Kasparov launched Saturday a new opposition group called Solidarity, vowing to "dismantle" the regime of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
In a hand vote, about 100 delegates agreed in a hotel in a Moscow suburb to form Solidarnost (Solidarity), using the same name as the Polish union movement that pushed Poland's communist government to hold free elections in 1989..
(The dawaganda of using names, words, language that have established meaning to people, used on purpose to ride on their existing wave of popularity, to auto-inherit approval in the public consciousness by association.
The world already has enough doublespeak promising "equality, brotherhood, religion of love, religion of peace", but I guess that's not enough. And now recycling a significant Polish org's name to get maximum effect.)
"It is impossible to reform this regime," said Kasparov, one of the most high-profile critics of Putin, who became prime minister earlier this year after Dmitry Medvedev was elected to succeed him as president.
"Our first goal is to dismantle Putin's regime. This is the only way to restore <b>freedom</b> and political competition in the country," he said to applause at the new group's congress.
In another wink to the 1980s anti-Soviet movements, the new opposition group chose as its anthem the song "We're Waiting For Changes" by Russian rock icon Viktor Tsoi, whose tune was a favourite of young Russians during Perestroika.
On Friday, Kasparov had warned that Russia was "on the edge of catastrophe."
"This regime has a very short life expectancy and at the end of next year there will be tremors in Russia . We need ahead of this moment to create a powerful democratic coalition," he told a news conference.
The new opposition group includes an eclectic mix of political forces, including the former SPS liberal party, members of the RNDS party of former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who did not attend the congress, and human rights activists.
While Kasparov said he was "very optimistic" about the movement, at least one delegate was more cautious about its future.
"It does not please many people here, but we must participate because there is nothing else. If you consider yourself a democrat, you must be here," Ivan Fedorenko, an RNDS representative from Saint Petersburg, told AFP.
Fedorenko noted that the opposition hopes it can seize on the economic crisis, with Russia officially in recession, to gain ground.
"Many believe that the crisis opens a window of opportunity, that people will be unhappy because of the economy and that democratic organisations will be able to defend the economic interests and become as popular as the Polish Solidarnost," he said.
Other figures at the conference included Boris Nemtsov, a liberal who served as deputy prime minister in the 1990s.
But many leading Kremlin critics did not attend the congress, reflecting the long-running disunity of Russia's opposition.
Outside, pro-Kremlin youth activists -- who consistently disrupt opposition events in Russia -- protested, including some who wore monkey masks and threw bananas.
Shortly after his speech about 30 activists from Young Russia , a pro-Kremlin youth movement, rallied outside the conference hall, setting off smoke bombs and waving Russian flags and a banner that said "Enough lies".
Three of them wore monkey masks and tossed around bananas and leaflets saying "the monkeys are telling lies."
When the opposition opened its first congress Friday, delegates were greeted by the bizarre sight of a busload of dead or wounded sheep being dumped outside their conference centre.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Death to traitors.