Russia, U.S. tangle at U.N. over hostilities in Georgia.

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United States on Sunday accused Russia of trying to overthrow the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where Russian troops have been battling Georgian forces over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia.

At an emergency session of the United Nations' Security Council, the U.S. alleged Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili "must go."

"This is completely unacceptable and crosses a line," said the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, who made the allegation.

In a crackling exchange of a type rarely seen since the end of the Cold War, Khalilzad asked Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin whether the Russians were seeking "regime change" in Georgia with the military operation they launched Friday.

In response, Churkin objected to the disclosure of a confidential phone call between top diplomats and said "regime change" was "an American expression."

The term was one the Bush administration used to describe its goals in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which Russia opposed. But Churkin said some leaders "become an obstacle" to their own people, and "some situations take courageous decisions with regard to the political future."

"Sometimes there are democratically elected or semi-democratically elected leaders who do things which create grave problems for their countries," Churkin told reporters after the meeting. "So sometimes, those leaders should contemplate how useful they have become to their people."

Georgia's ambassador, Irakli Alasania, said Churkin's meaning was clear enough.

"For me, it confirms that what the Russian Federation is seeking through this military aggression and invasion is to change the democratically elected Georgian government," Alasania said.

Khalilzad said the United States plans to offer a draft resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Georgia, accusing Russian forces of impeding the withdrawal of Georgian troops from the territory. Though Russia could veto the measure in the Security Council, he said Moscow "is on the wrong side here" and risked damaging its ties with Washington and the West.

"The days of overthrowing leaders by military means in Europe -- those days are gone," Khalilzad said.

Churkin repeated Russia's position that it is responding to Thursday's Georgian attack on South Ossetia, which, although inside Georgia, has an autonomous government that is backed by Moscow.

Churkin said Russia's military action is a humanitarian campaign aimed at blocking the "ethnic cleansing" of Ossetians by ethnic Georgians.

He also challenged Khalilzad's argument that Russian forces were waging a "campaign of terror" there, essentially telling council members to consider the source.

"This statement, ambassador, is absolutely unacceptable -- particularly from the lips of the permanent representative of a country whose actions we are aware of, including with regard to civilian populations in Iraq and Afghanistan and Serbia," Churkin said.

But Churkin drew a rebuke from other Security Council members, including its current president, after he questioned the objectivity of a top U.N. official who briefed ambassadors on the conflict in Georgia.

The Security Council's president, Belgium's Jan Grauls, said he was "surprised and dismayed" by Churkin's swipe at Lynn Pascoe, the U.N. undersecretary for political affairs.

Churkin said Pascoe's briefing, which included a statement from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "shows that the Secretariat of the United Nations and its leadership was not able to adopt that objective position that is required by the substance of this conflict."

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[Iberi1]

Dear All:

Unlike most of you, I am on both sides of the fence. Unlike most of you, I also know something of what I am talking about.

Those sympathetic to Georgia can point out the hypocrisy of Russia brutally suppressing separatism in Chechnya while fostering it in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But others recall the parallels the Russians continually emphasized over Kosovo with the breakaway regions of the Georgian state that have enjoyed de facto independence since the early 1990s.

[Iberi1]

History Repeats: Background Information about so called South Osetia and Soviet Invasion in Georgia.

FACT: South Ossetia is part of Georgia, as every country on earth recognises. You cannot invade your own country.

The region, which is one and a half times the area of Luxembourg[34] (roughly 6% of the total territory of Georgia) broke away from Georgia in the 1991--1992 war .

[Iberi1]

The Osetians are originally descendants of the Alans. They became Christians during the early Middle Ages, under Georgian and Byzantine influences. Under Mongol rule, they were pushed out of their homeland south in present-day Republic of Alania (north Caucasus) under Russian rule from 1767.

[Iberi1]

Another part of Osetians migrated towards and over the Caucasus mountains, to Georgia in the central region of Georgia - Shida Kartli -- Under rule of the Georgian Royal Dynasty Bagrationi. Little part of Osetians also moved to in Western Georgian Kingdom -- Imereti, Rulled by another branch of Bagrationi Dynasty.

[Iberi1]

Georgians always lived in the region even 2000 years before the Alans/Ossetian arrival there in the 14th-17th centuries as well as after newcomers settled.

[Iberi1]

In 1801, During the Annexation of the Eastern Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kaxeti, Georgian villages populated by Osetians minority (current so called South Osetia) automatically become part of Tiflis (Tbilisi) Gubernia under Imperial Russia, since the territory where they lived was territory of the above mentioned Georgian Kingdom with the capital city in Tbilisi.

[theanglian]

The Russian ambassador speaks English better than America's ambassador to the United Nations.

[txgato]

SO let me get this straight, American Forces can invade and overthrow middle eastern Governments, but Russia is not allowed to do so. This Hypocrisy is going to bite us hard.

[jakascott21]

@aviomaster america is not all jewish retard, there is mostly christians and patriots but isreal, isreal is jewish

[aviomaster]

-- USA is bunch of crazy JEWS looking for fight around the world ...

[maximizer23]

hahaha, yea that explains why its the most likely candidate of the three caucasus states to be admitted to the EU right? You do realize that the E in EU stands for European... would be quite difficult for a country in asia to join the EUROPEAN union dont you think?

[tarasov12]

US r cowards

[DoubleDrink]

Yesss!!! Those days were gone! IN EUROPE! But in the Middle East it's ... a morning in America))) (c) Dayly show.

[freedafreeman]

At this time of crisis.one may thnk, that almst evrything r not as they seem to be. People r being disinformed, fed-up by information  based on a grand design. These questions..Why is leading Media such as CNN, BBC, Fox news r reporting in a biased manner? Why there r many instances when infos unfavorable to the west & put Russia in good light are being cut or interupted. Why is these Intl TV, respectable as they appear is not capable of bringing balance and impartial coverage of the conflict?

[ffgkbrrg]

I would forbid Mcdonalds in general. There meal for vagabonds. It in general can not be named a meal.

[potz555]

I think the world will survive without McDonalds and KFC, I doubt the 1% of the people that have 90% of the wealth will think twice about the USA if it goes down the drain and quits being "profitable"

[iwatchmassvideo]

Actually, you are wrong. The world does revolve around the U.S.A., Russia is a big power, but not comparible to the U.S.A., Russia has problems defending it's own country, while America is a military,economic,cultural, and industrial giant. Ever hear of McDonalds.. Burger King.. U.S. celeberties, Hollywood made movies.. that's our cultural domination. Military, don't need to go into detail. Economically, we rule the world, no doubt about it, the world goes down when we go down, get used to it.

[Serbpride4lif]

'The days of overthrowing leaders in europe are gone'maybe in europe but not in the world,nations like the US still believe its okay to do so in the middle east and since that is the case then Russia should take it as their right as an independent world power to take down any government anywhere in the world as it pleases.The americans dont ask for permission and neither should a grand nation as russia seek the permission to act politically and militarily.The world does not revolve around the US