[LINK] The war in Georgia is over

[rfmcdonald]

Bloomberg's article "Russia Ends Offensive Against 'Aggressor' Georgia" carries (mostly) happy news.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev halted five days of military action in Georgia, Russia's first foreign offensive since the Cold War, defusing a dispute that threatened to draw in the West.

"The aggressor has been punished," Medvedev said today. Russia has secured the safety of its peacekeepers and citizens in the disputed regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Medvedev said on state television.

Russia sent tanks, troops and warplanes into Georgia on Aug. 8 in what it said was a response to a Georgian offensive on South Ossetia, which won de facto independence from Georgia after a war in the early 1990s. Russian forces crossed into Georgia's heartland for the first time yesterday and took several towns and a military base, drawing criticism from President George W. Bush. More than 2,000 people were killed in the fighting, according to Russian estimates.

The military thrust threatened to draw the U.S. into confrontation with its former Cold War foe. Bush backs Georgia's bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Russia views as a security threat. The West sees Georgia as a key ally in the region, in part because it has an oil pipeline that carries Caspian Sea crude oil to Western markets and bypasses Russia.

``Russia has come out looking like a victor. If it had continued, the war wouldn't have been popular in Russia, not to speak of the negative reaction in the West,'' said Alexei Malashenko, an analyst from the Moscow Carnegie Center.

[. . .]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said just before Medvedev's announcement that Georgia must sign a legally binding non-aggression pact with South Ossetia, a self-proclaimed republic of 70,000 people, most with Russian passports. Georgia must also withdraw its forces from military bases it used to stage its attack on the disputed region, which is about half the size of Kosovo, he said.

Lavrov also said that U.S.-backed Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili should step down. Russia refuses to negotiate with Saakashvili because it has "no trust" in him and because he's a "criminal,'' Lavrov said. "It will be best if he left."