Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations?

[seemslikeadream]

2 hours ago: Dutch reporter Jeroen Akkermans (R) helps to carry an unidentified man in the centre of the town of Gori, after the bombing of the centre of the city some 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, August 12, 2008. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations in Georgia on Tuesday, after five days of fighting and just before French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to hold peace talks in Moscow.

[supernova]

1. That's what I'd like to know

Is this the first instance of Medvedev and Putin butting heads?

Medvedev was supposed to be Putin's little toadie in office, but is he now off the reservation?

[tekisui]

2. This from today (Wednesday in Gori) Georgian Gori blasted, several dead

Explosions in the Georgian town of Gori have killed at least five civilians, including a journalist, and injured several others.

A Reuters photographer said he saw five bodies and four wounded people in the street after the blasts.

Broadcaster RTL later said Dutch cameraman Stan Storimans had been killed and a Dutch correspondent wounded during a Russian attack on Gori.

In Moscow, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the General Staff, denied Russian forces had attacked the town.

A study of television footage from the scene showed that the explosions were probably caused by mortar fire and not by bombs dropped from aircraft, as witnesses initially thought.

more at link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/bayofplenty/4653479a13937.html