Russian conductor denounces Georgian 'aggression'

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

TSKHINVALI, Russia (AFP) — Ossetian-born Russian conductor Valery Gergiev on Thursday lambasted Georgia for its "huge aggression" as he opened a concert in the battered capital of South Ossetia.

The principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra spoke of the "horrible destruction" of Tskhinvali, evoking the World War II battle of Stalingrad, to describe the damage left from fighting between Georgian and Russian forces.

"It was a huge aggression on the part of the Georgian army," Gergiev told a crowd gathered in a central square in front of a bombed-out administrative building.

Speaking in Russian and in English, Gergiev described Tskhinvali as a "hero-town" and said 2,000 people had died when Georgian forces launched an offensive against separatists on...