Russia opens new front, drives deeper into Georgia

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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hV2N6fVKS5slf10A13Dj_uIdaZ4QD92GE8780

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and DAVID NOWAK – 56 minutes ago

ZUGDIDI, Georgia (AP) — Russian tanks roared deep into Georgia on Monday, launching a new western front in the conflict, and Russian planes staged air raids that sent people screaming and fleeing for cover in some towns.

The escalating warfare brought sharp words from President Bush, who pressed Moscow to accept an immediate cease-fire and pull its troops out to avert a "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence in the former Soviet republic.

Russian forces for the first time moved well outside the two restive, pro-Russian provinces claimed by Georgia that lie at the heart of the dispute. An Associated Press reporter saw Russian troops in control of government buildings in this town just miles from the frontier and Russian troops were reported in nearby Senaki.

Georgia's president said his country had been sliced in half with the capture of a critical highway crossroads near the central city of Gori, and Russian warplanes launched new air raids across the country.

The Russian Defense Ministry, through news agencies, denied it had captured Gori and also denied any intentions to advance on the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

The western assault expanded the days-old war beyond the central breakaway region of South Ossetia, where a crackdown by Georgia last week drew a military response from Russia.

While most Georgian forces were still busy fighting there, Russian troops opened the western attack by invading from a second separatist province, Abkhazia, that occupies Georgia's coastal northwest arm.

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1. Russian Offensive Imperils U.S. Aims on Iran, Energy

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUdIVS.rsV5w&refer=home

Russian Offensive Imperils U.S. Aims on Iran, Energy

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Russia's widening military campaign in Georgia may end up threatening the U.S. strategic aims of preventing Iran from building a nuclear bomb and securing Central Asian energy supplies for Europe.

``A Russian-Georgian war will imperil U.S.-Russian diplomacy no matter what,'' said Cliff Kupchan of New York-based Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm. The U.S. and European reactions will make Russia ``more obstinate at the Security Council,'' where President George W. Bush seeks to impose tougher United Nations sanctions on the Iranian government, he added.

Georgia's role in a U.S.-backed energy corridor to Europe for oil and natural gas from former Soviet areas of Central Asia, a route that skirts Russia, also may be in doubt. That strategy counted on Russia respecting Georgia's sovereignty.

Bush returned from China and expressed concerns that Russian forces may be engaged in an effort ``to depose Georgia's duly elected government.''

As Russian troops, backed by air power, pushed deeper into Georgian territory yesterday, efforts by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her European counterparts to broker a cease-fire showed no sign of bearing fruit.

Peace Mission

The U.S. is backing a peace mission led by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who will meet with Russian officials in Moscow today and seek agreement on a package that includes a cease-fire. The offer also calls for the withdrawal of Russian forces, the dispatch of international observers to replace Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia and a pledge not to use force, a senior U.S. official told reporters in Washington late yesterday.

The official likened Russia's military operation to past Soviet invasions of Afghanistan and Czechoslovakia and said it appeared the Russians were planning the incursion for some time.

American assumptions about Russian acquiescence in major policy issues may now be undercut, said Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.