RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Dmitry Medvedev yesterday announced an end to the Russian "operation" in Georgia and its two breakaway enclaves, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But hopes for a rapid conclusion to the six-day-old war in the Caucasus may be premature.
In televised remarks the day after his US counterpart George W Bush warned that the war endangered Russia's relations with the West, Mr Medvedev said Georgia had been sufficiently "punished" for trying to retake South Ossetia, which has enjoyed de facto autonomy since a war in the early 1990s.
But Georgia accused Russia of bombarding villages after Mr Medvedev's declaration, and Abkhazian rebels drove Georgian troops out of the Kodori Gorge.
Nor was Mr Medvedev's language diplomatic. At a press conference with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, the Russian head of state called Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili a "lunatic bastard", and accused him of killing civilians, lying and breaking ceasefire promises.
For its part, Georgia filed a lawsuit against Russia for "ethnic cleansing" at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Mr Medvedev upstaged Mr Sarkozy by announcing his ceasefire before Mr Sarkozy arrived in Moscow. The French leader, the current president of the European Council, then flew to Tbilisi to see Mr Saakashvili.
Mr Medvedev said he agreed to a six-point peace plan, which evolved from an earlier joint proposal by the EU and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The plan includes an agreement to renounce the use of force, the cessation of all military action, free access to humanitarian aid and the return of troops to pre-war positions.
Mr Medvedev also foresaw international discussions on the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia says the enclaves have the "right to self-determination", like Kosovo, while Tbilisi's western allies say Georgia's "territorial integrity" must be respected.
Georgian officials stressed that nothing would be settled until a formal peace deal was signed. Georgia has virtually lost the war and is not in a position to make demands, yet Mr Saakashvili said Moscow should know Georgia will not quit. "Georgia will never surrender," he told CNN.
The Georgian leader accepted the earlier EU-OSCE plan which called for a return to pre-conflict positions, a Russian-Georgian peacekeeping force and OSCE monitoring. He is likely to baulk at the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov's demand that Georgian forces be excluded from a future peacekeeping force.
A tripartite peacekeeping mechanism comprising Russians, their South Ossetian allies, and Georgians has been in place since the early 1990s. But the Georgians always felt it was two against one, and the "peacekeepers" have sporadically attacked each other.
Hoping to seize victory from the jaws of defeat, Mr Saakashvili yesterday staged a rally in front of the parliament building, where he led Georgia's 2003 "rose revolution". Georgians must remain united, he warned, telling his compatriots they were "winners". Though he has revolutionised his country's economy and is the darling of the Bush administration, Mr Saakashvili's political future is now in doubt.
Mr Lavrov denied Georgian and US claims that Moscow wanted to overthrow Mr Saakashvili, although he added: "It would be better if he went".
The Russian foreign minister also said Russia would have difficulty "not just holding negotiations with Saakashvili, but simply talking to him".
Georgia's hopes of joining Nato may be the first casualty of the six-day-old war. "What Nato members would want such an unstable part of the world in Nato?" asked a European ambassador. "This is Russia telling the West, 'Don't go there'," the ambassador said.