Topic: President Confronts Russian Peacekeepers

Washington Post
October 31, 2007
Pg. 16

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili made his dispute with neighboring Russia personal Tuesday when he strode up to a Russian peacekeeping commander and ordered him off Georgian soil. The confrontation, recorded by television cameras, happened in a Black Sea village near Abkhazia, a breakaway Georgian territory patrolled by Russian troops.
Earlier, television footage showed Georgian security forces who accompanied Saakashvili pushing and wrestling with Russian peacekeepers, who at several points pointed their rifles at the Georgians to warn them to stay back. The footage also showed Russian soldiers fired rounds into the air from machine guns. They later left the area.