WASHINGTON (AP) -
Hours later, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered a halt to the military action, saying it had brought security for civilians and Russian peacekeepers in the breakaway South Ossetia region.
“The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. Its military has been disorganized,” Medvedev said Tuesday in a nationally televised statement.
On Monday, in his strongest comments since the fighting erupted, Bush told Russia to end a “dramatic and brutal escalation” of violence in Georgia and accept international mediation to end the crisis.
“Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century,” Bush said from the White House just an hour after he returned to Washington from attending the Olympics in China.Bush said Russia’s escalation had “raised serious questions about its intentions in Georgia and the region” and had “substantially damaged Russia’s standing in the world.”
Earlier Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili must leave office, and demanded that Georgian troops stay out of the breakaway South Ossetia region for good.
A senior U.S. official said Monday that the United States and its allies suspected Russia had been planning an invasion for some time and deliberately instigated the conflict through attacks on Georgian villages by pro-Russian forces in South Ossetia despite outwardly appealing for calm and promising to rein in the separatists…
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