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// Republics
// Adygea, Republic of >>
// Altai (Gorno-Altai), Republic of >>
// Bashkortostan, Republic of >>
// Buryatia, Republic of >>
// Chechnya, Republic of >>
// Chuvashia, Republic of >>
// Dagestan, Republic of >>
// Ingushetia, Republic of >>
// Kabardino-Balkaria, Republic of >>
// Kalmykia, Republic of >>
// Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Republic of >>
// Karelia, Republic of >>
// Khakassia, Republic of >>
// Komi, Republic of >>
// Mari El, Republic of >>
// Mordovia, Republic of >>
// North Ossetia, Republic of
// Sakha (Yakutia), Republic of >>
// Tatarstan, Republic of >>
// Tuva, Republic of >>
// Udmurtia, Republic of >>
// Territories (Krai)
// Altai Territory >>
// Khabarovsk Territory >>
// Krasnodar Territory >>
// Krasnoyarsk Territory >>
// Primorye (Maritime) Territory >>
// Stavropol Territory >>
// Regions
// Amur Region >>
// Arkhangelsk Region >>
// Astrakhan Region >>
// Belgorod Region >>
// Bryansk Region >>
// Chelyabinsk Region >>
// Chita Region >>
// Irkutsk Region >>
// Ivanovo Region >>
// Kaliningrad Region >>
// Kaluga Region >>
// Kamchatka Region >>
// Kemerovo Region >>
// Kirov Region >>
// Kostroma Region >>
// Kurgan Region >>
// Kursk Region >>
// Leningrad Region >>
// Lipetsk Region >>
// Magadan Region >>
// Moscow Region >>
// Murmansk Region >>
// Nizhny Novgorod Region >>
// Novgorod Region >>
// Novosibirsk Region >>
// Omsk Region >>
// Orel Region >>
// Orenburg Region >>
// Penza Region >>
// Perm Region >>
// Pskov Region >>
// Rostov Region >>
// Ryazan Region >>
// Sakhalin Region >>
// Samara Region >>
// Saratov Region >>
// Smolensk Region >>
// Sverdlovsk Region >>
// Tambov Region >>
// Tomsk Region >>
// Tula Region >>
// Tver Region >>
// Tyumen Region >>
// Ulyanovsk Region >>
// Vladimir Region >>
// Volgograd Region >>
// Vologda Region >>
// Voronezh Region >>
// Yaroslavl Region >>
// Federal Cities
// Moscow >>
// St. Petersburg >>
// Autonomous Areas (Okrugs)
// Agin-Buryatia Autonomous Area >>
// Chukotka Autonomous Area >>
// Evenk Autonomous Area >>
// Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area >>
// Komi-Permyak Autonomous Area >>
// Koryak Autonomous Area >>
// Nenets Autonomous Area >>
// Taimyr (Dolgan-Nenets) Autonomous Area >>
// Ust-Ordynsky Buryat Autonomous Area >>
// Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area >>
// Autonomous Regions
// Jewish Autonomous Region >>
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Celebration With Mortar Rounds
// Independence Day of Osetia was marked with explosions
Yesterday South Osetia and Abkhazia found themselves on the brink of war with Georgia. Yesterday, when the celebration of the 15th Anniversary of Osetia in Tskhinval was coming to the end, three mortar rounds exploded in the center of the city. Seven people were hurt. About the same time, Georgian troops blocked the road leading to South Osetia and tried to arrest Abkhazian President Sergey Bagapsh. "Georgian people need to perform a surgery to get rid of the cancer metastases, and this operation will be done by us," Eduard Kokoity, President of South Osetia, promised. Kommersant correspondent Olga ALLENOVA reports from the South Osetia.
"Georgian people need to perform a surgery operation"
The explosions rang out at 7 p.m. More than 1,000 people gathered at this time in the central square of Tskhinval. Everybody was waiting for the concert. The explosions went off close to the square – in the vicinity of the school No. 5. Nobody doubted that it came from the Georgian mortars.
"There were three explosions," Anatoly Barankevich, Defense Minister of South Osetia, told me. "One mortar round hit the yard of a bread baking plant, and two more exploded in the territories of private homes."
The minister left to raise the troops in emergency. Soon, the news came that seven people got hurt from the explosions, including two children.
When I arrived to the Street of Heroes, where one explosion went off, there was an operative investigation group already working there. The officers of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs pulled out from a shed a leftover of the mortar round and showed it to the peacekeepers. The soldiers said they wish police would wait for them first and only then, together they should look for the mortar fragments.
The owner of house No. 4 Zaira Janaeva took me to the room, the walls of which were pockmarked with the mortar fragments, and said: "I left for five minutes. How lucky am I?"
The presidents of Abkhazia and South Osetia arrived at the house. Before that, they visited the wounded in the hospital.
"I gave the order to the Defense Ministry to prepare the troops," Sergey
Bagapsh, President of Abkhazia, said somberly. "If another mortar will fall, our troops will move in direction of Zugdidi - with all the weapons and under cover of aviation. Okruashvili was saying that he wanted to arrest the President of Abkhazia.
We'll see who is going to arrest whom."
Bagapsh meant the incident, which happen right before the shelling. Special forces under the command of Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili blocked the highway Tskhinval -Vladikavkaz and stopped the Russian delegation for allegedly breaking the visa regime. After the peacekeepers got involved, the members of the delegation were released. "We tried to catch a bigger fish," minister Okruashvili admitted. In the same time, he rejected any involvement of the Georgian side in the mortar shelling of Tskhinval.
The President of Osetia Eduard Kokoity, who was standing next to Bagapsh, said even more harshly: “Georgian people need to perform a surgery to get rid off the cancer metastases, and this operation will be done by us."
"Surrounded by enemy forces"
Nobody could foresee yesterday such course of events. From the morning the delegations from Abkhazia, North Osetia, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Kemerovo Region and Moscow were arriving to the House of Government. Then, they all went to lay flowers in the School No. 5 -- on its territory there is a cemetery for victims the Georgian-Osetian conflict of 1991-1992. The cemetery appeared in the part of the soccer field belonging to the school because in 1991 people could not bury the dead on the city cemetery -- it was a war zone. The flowers were laid on the graves in silence. The North-Osetian delegation was headed by the Prime Minister Alexander Merkulov. The head of the republic, Taimurz Mansurov, after signing his first agreement with South Osetia to "eliminate the separation barriers between South and North of Osetia," returned to Vladikavkaz.
When the delegates came back from the cemetery to the central city's street, the military parade awaited them there. They followed President Kokoity to the observation podium. The president of the self-proclaimed republic proudly looked at his troops -- new uniforms, white parade gloves, and shining weapons. Defense Minister Barankevich was appointed to command the parade. After this general arrived from Moscow, the poor and broke South Osetian army went through the drastic transformation.. Now these armed forces have everything -- arms, equipment and uniforms. Recently, Kokoity ceremonially
awarded his minister of defense with the rank of General Lieutenant. The journalists were not invited to the ceremony. Also, some Russian military personnel received rewards and thanked the South Osetian president "from all Special Forces."
"For us, this day is an important landmark, showing the achievements of our people," Kokoity said in his speech. He was talking about the historical justice, about "fundamental and undeniable right for freedom and independence." He said that "Osetians defended their motherland in a hard struggle." "While we are surrounded by enemy forces, this holiday has a special meaning,” he pointed out. "We intend to continue with our course. And we will see South Osetia free and democratic." In the end, the president said that he is proud of his Osetian origins and added: "Long Live Republic of South Osetia! Long Live Great Russia!"
"Putin is our President!"
While the music played national anthems of South Osetia and Russia, Ruslan Bzarov, famous Osetian historian and one of the ideologists of independent South Osetia, explained to me: "Do you see these banners 'Putin is our President'? This is not about Putin - it is about the respect to Russia, to our history. Putin is symbol of Russia. And I am sure, that Putin is more liked here than anywhere else in Russia"
In the mean time, the military in white gloves marched in front of the president’s podium. They were followed by horsemen dressed like Alans. Then, the column of armored personnel carriers appeared and three self-propelled artillery systems were behind them. Red carnations were sticking out of the cannon barrels. Right behind them were tanks with letters on the turrets "We need peace!" The tanks looked brand new and it was evident they just arrived from Russia - just like all other machines. This fact became a point of yesterday's irritation of Georgy Khaindrava, Georgian Minister of State. He said that the transfer of armor from Russia is breaking agreements, which were reached during the sessions of mixed control commission for the conflict regulation. Georgian sides saw the parade as the demonstration of force. However, if it was a demonstration of force -- it was not directed to Georgians but to Osetians themselves. The people in the crowd, who saw these new tanks, Russian generals and Russian parliamentarians, knew that they are protected now.
After the tanks, a turn came for the performers from the local theater. They were wearing chain mails and Alan hats. They performed sword fighting. Little boys in national Osetian hats approached to them and kneeled. The adults put their hands on the boys' heads and blessed them. Then, the boys took the swords from the hands of the adults, raised them high and slowly walked pass the podium. This symbolized multiple Alan tribes, which were living in the Caucuses centuries ago, giving their direct descendents - small people of Osetia - the famous Alan bravery and honor.
The column from the School No. 5 approached with the sound of lonely bells tolling. Women in black were forming the column. These were mothers and wives of the fallen. They were followed by the children, carrying the portraits of the dead. In 1991-1992 South Osetia lost about 700 people.
Finally, the last column was carrying big banners: "Long Live Great Russia!," "Russia, We are Your Future!," "Our Goal is Unity!," "Forever With Russia!"
"If they will come, then we'll attack!"
When the columns passed and the banners were carried away from the central square, the delegation members from Russia presented their gifts. The representatives of Kemerovo Region delivered the greetings of their governor Aman Tuleev and awarded President Kokoity with an eight-star medal, decorated by diamonds and a rare blade. They also rewarded best the Osetian pupils with one thousand rubles for each kid, and gave five thousands rubles to the families of fallen. The President of Karachaevo-Cherkessia Mustafa Batdyev gave his South Osetian colleague a black sport utility vehicle. S. Djigkaeva, aide of Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was speaking with the Kokoity and the crowd in Osetian language. The Osetian president thanked Yuri Luzhkov for his help to South Osetia. The president meant the columns of humanitarian aid and agricultural
equipment, which arrived recently from Moscow.
Abkhazian President Sergey Bagapsh, who arrived in Tskhinval among the first ones , gave his colleague a sword made from Damascus steel and said: "Georgia is saying that Kokoity and Bagapsh are always arming themselves. They are partially right -- Tuleev gave him a knife, and I presented him with a sword. But it is all for defense. However, if they will try to come, then we'll attack!"
Archbishop of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz presented the icon of Saint George to Kokoity. The high church official on his turn was rewarded by the president with the Order of Honor. The same orders were given to Batdyev and Bagapsh. Mikhail Markelov, Duma's Deputy from "Motherland" faction, gave a speech and received long applause. He delivered the greetings from the party leader Dmitry Rogozin: "Nothing connects us anymore to Georgia, because we withdrew our military bases from there and thus we did not leave Georgians any of our hostages. Now we can demand recognition of South Osetia!"
by
Olga Allenova, Tskhinval
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 21, 2005
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