From my research it seems this story is verified and true. This is an article in this mornings Jerusalem Post.

Aug 12, 2008 16:57 | Updated Aug 13, 2008 1:22
Georgia’s PM asks for rabbi’s blessing
By MATTHEW WAGNER

Georgian Prime Minister Vladimer (Lado) Gurgenidze made a special call to Israel Tuesday morning to receive a blessing from one of the haredi community’s most important rabbis and spiritual leaders, Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman.

The nonagenarian rabbi from Bnei Brak, known as the father of the yeshiva world, acquiesced to Gurgenidze’s request and blessed the Jewish community of Georgia “and all who live in that place.”

According to Steinman’s followers, shortly after the rabbi uttered the blessing Russia announced a cease-fire with war-torn Georgia.

During Tuesday’s morning prayers, Rabbi Shimon Bruk, the chairman of the Israel branch of The Council for Saving Lost Jews (Hava’ad L’hatzalat Nidchei Yisrael), a haredi organization that builds educational institutions in Eastern Europe, received a phone call from Georgia.

“I was in the middle of my prayers so all I could do was grunt into the phone,” recalled Bruk.

“Shortly after I finished praying the amida my phone rang again. ‘This is Prime Minister of Georgia Vladimer Gurgenidze speaking. You brought me a letter from a man named Stumen [sic]. Is he still alive? I’ve heard that he is a holy man. I want him to pray for us and our state.’”

Bruk said he had met with Steinman around noon on Tuesday and presented Gurgenidze’s request to the rabbi.

“There were a lot of raised eyebrows when shortly after Rabbi Steinman made the blessing, we heard about the cease-fire,” recalled Bruk.

Bruk had met with Georgia’s prime minister in March to thank him for his support for Jewish educational institutions built in Georgia by the council. During the meeting Bruk presented Gurgenidze with a letter from Steinman in which the rabbi referred to the Georgian government as a “regime of loving-kindness.”

Steinman’s letter is reportedly hanging on the wall of Gurgenidze’s office.

The council has been operating in Eastern Europe since before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

In Tbilisi, Georgia, the council runs a nursery school, two grade schools, a yeshiva for boys and a high school for girls. Many of Tbilisi’s Jewish educators and rabbis, including Chief Rabbi of Georgia Ariel Levine, are products of the local educational institutions.

... and from YNET: “You can’t ignore the fact that during the precise moments in which the meeting took place at Rabbi Shteinman’s house, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced a ceasefire,” the Vaad’s public relations representative, Betzalel Kahan, told Ynet.

Classic movie, that one.

very interesting.

Why is fighting still raging?

Because the Georgian PM failed to show a proper hakaras hatov?

Could be. Maybe that's why the cease fire ended up being Georgia standing down while Russia continues operations and increases its military stranglehold.

I never understood why a country would want to keep a specific territory if its inhabitants were hostile.

Didn't the people in the disputed province want out?

That's why (unless one is a religious Zionist) it makes no sense to hold on to Gaza, what good could come of it?

Did you see the Fox News item where they interviewed a 12 year old California girl and her aunt who were in Georgia at the time and were in a cafe' when the Georgians began the bombing and they kept trying to say that the Russians helped them get out and the Georgians were the first to bomb but the Anchor kept cutting them off? (My husband has a link to the clip, I'll get it later)

Not everybody wants out - even if a majority want out, there are minority rights. Secondly, a country is makpid on territorial integrity as a rule. Thirdly, the Georgians needed to exert control on what were almost lawless provinces - there was a lot of organized crime stemming from those two provinces.
You really think every time a majority in any geographic entity want out of a geographic region within a country, that's it, the central government should acquiesce? That was basically the argument of the Russians, using the precedent of the Republic of Kosovo, but it doesn't hold water as a rule.

Or a non-religious Zionists [assuming those exist].

Maybe so that there is a military presence there and those "hostile inhabitants" are not permitted to attack you with impunity???

It appears that the entire story may have been malquoted

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

There's a shock.
[/sarcasm]

The astonishing thing about this Russian argument is that the RUSSIANS are making it! The same Russians, who levelled Chechnya to regain control of it, killing some 100,000 civilian Russian citizens in the process.

It's really the most incredible example of hypocrisy by a head of state on my memory, just because of how blatant it is.

don't have cable... they usually make up a storyline for a development, and then cut off everything that does not fit in with the "Storyline". Otherwise the American people might get confused.