Medvedev: Peacemaking Operation Almost Completed

Russian President Dimitri Medvedev said that, what he called, Russian peacekeepers had almost completed their "peace enforcement operation in Georgia," Interfax news agency reported on August 11."The task of forcing the Georgian side, the Georgian authorities, to [accept] peace in South Ossetia has almost been achieved. Tskhinvali is under the control of the reinforced Russian peacekeeping contingent," Medvedev said at a meeting with PM Putin, as well as members of the general staff of the Russian armed forces."We – I mean the Russian peacekeepers – will take all further necessary measures to protect the lives and dignity of Russian citizens," he added.President Medvedev told his French counterpart Nikola Sarkozy during a phone conversation on August 10 that Georgia’s moves had ruined process of peace settlement of the South Ossetian conflict.“From the political point of view Georgia’s aggression has ruined the process of searching of the peaceful solution for the Georgian-Ossetian problem. As a result Georgia has hit an irreparable damage to its territorial integrity,” the Kremlin reported quoting President Medvedev.