The Russians refused Georgia's request for a cease fire. The UN says that the war is escalating and widening to Abkhazia. Interfax reports that "The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine of facilitating Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia and ethnic cleansing in the breakaway Georgian province by selling weapons to Tbilisi." I was talking about the conflict today with someone who commented (more or less) "I wonder if the Russians...

I'm unlikely to provide much in the way of news aggregation on the South Ossetian conflict tonight, so I wanted to make sure that I mentioned something about the Russian coverage of the conflict. If you're only reading the "western press," you may not be adequately aware of the kinds of accusations circulating in the Russian press and coming from Russian officials. In general, there's a lot of attention to the plight of South Ossetian refugees....

[This post includes a quick roundup of events and ends with some analysis; see also Rob Farley's morning summary of developments]Georgia has now declared a "state of war." This seems appropriate, as Russian bombs fall on communications, economic, and military targets throughout Georgia and Russian ground and naval forces advance. Bloomberg:Ships of Russia's Black Sea Fleet moved toward Abkhazia, another separatist region, and Russian jets are...

Rob Farley writes a very thoughtful post where he lays out his take, for the moment, on the Russia-Georgia conflict. Indeed, he leaves me feeling a bit embarrassed, as my own writing this afternoon was pretty inelegant.To be a bit less muddled, I am less sympathetic to the Georgian case because I think that escalating the war (and providing an excuse for Russian counter-escalation) was a damn stupid thing for Saakashvili to do, and a remarkably...

The first official U.S. statement on the escalating conflict backs Georgia and calls for cease fire:"We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia's territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.Rice issued her statement as Georgia, a former Soviet state that now wants to join NATO, said it would declare...

As I noted below, the situation is developing fast.[UPDATE: Bloomberg reports:Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said ``war has started'' over the breakaway region of South Ossetia as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accused its neighbor of a ``well-planned invasion.''Saakashvili said in a Bloomberg Television interview that his nation of 4.6 million people is ``fighting to secure its borders'' amid a ``full-blown military aggression''...

Over a year ago MG wrote: "if you want to put money on a hot war somewhere in the near-abroad, I'd advise you to give considerably more attention to relations between Russia and Georgia."After the Georgian attack on South Ossetia, Georgia and Russia are at, or already over, the precipice.Anne Barnard and Andrew Kramer of The New York Times: Russia sent troops rolling into South Ossetia on Friday, after Georgian troops attacked the capital of...