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| Medvedev announced an end to hostilities, pre-empting the international mediators [AFP] |
Russia's president has halted a five-day military operation in Georgia as EU representatives flew to Moscow to propose a peace agreement.
Al Jazeera's Neave Barker was in Moscow, as Russian media conveyed the president's ceasefire order.
The Russian capital is a hotbed of diplomatic activity as EU delegates and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, convey Brussels' call for a brokered peace.
Along Moscow's boulevards, traffic came to a standstill as official cars screamed by at high speed.
Pre-empting a squeeze from the international community, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, announced an end to hostilities in Georgia.
Meanwhile, Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, has called for revenge.
Russian State television channels are awash with reports about the humanitarian crisis in southern Russia, as thousands of refugees spill over the border.
Information war
It has been hard for us to get independent information directly out of South Ossetia as many non-Russian journalists were denied access early on in the conflict, but as our colleagues at news agencies and elsewhere make bold attempts at crossing the border, it's becoming more and more apparent that there has been a devastating loss of life.
Other Russian TV reports, in what is an obvious information war, struggle to remain relevant.
On one Russian Channel a journalist analysed Saakashvili’s body language - slowly dissolving an image of the president into one of Adolf Hitler.
The report showed a graphic of the Georgian president's head. The flare of Saakashvili's nose, the journalist said, showed a lust for money, the glare in his eye, a hunger for power.
It's hard to see how a phrenological interpretation of the leader's face will add to our greater understanding of the violence.
However, the report is a clear sign of the intense suspicion with which many Russians view - or at least are encouraged to view - the Georgian leadership.
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