A symphony for Tskhinvali

Eduard Kokoity looked like a happy man last night in Tskhinvali. The ex-wrestler and self-proclaimed president of South Ossetia was welcoming one of the world's most famous conductors to town for a victory concert disguised  as a requiem.

Candles burned on the makeshift stage and Russian soldiers stood atop armoured personnel carriers waving Russian and Ossetian flags, as Valery Gergiev conducted a patriotic programme of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich in front of the charred shell that once housed the South Ossetian government.

Gergiev has a reputation for a punishing schedule of nightly concerts, often on several different continents in any given week. The night before he had been conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he is principal conductor, at London's Albert Hall.

But Gergiev is an ethnic Ossetian - perhaps the world's only famous Ossetian - and he broke his international commitments to play in Tskhinvali, and stand together with his ethnic kin after the short but vicious war that left the South Ossetian capital devastated.

The Kremlin was quick to cash in on the PR value of the event, broadcasting the concert live on state television and bussing in foreign journalists to cover it.

Hundreds of locals turned out in their evening best - ­ borrowed from friends if their own wardrobes had been destroyed along with their houses by the Georgian assault - ­ to welcome Gergiev and the Maryinsky Orchestra of St Petersburg to town.

But this was not a case of letting the music do the talking. Addressing the crowd in Russian and English, Gergiev had plenty of words to say as well, condemning the Georgian aggression against his people and comparing it to 9/11.

A personal friend of Vladimir Putin, Gergiev accused the world of misinterpreting Moscow's actions. "It was a huge act of aggression on the part of Georgia," he said.

"I think Tskhinvali can be called a hero city, we know how much people suffered here. If it wasn't for the help of the Russian Army here, there would be thousands and thousands more victims. I am very grateful as an Ossetian to my country, Great Russia, for this help."

Kokoity, wearing a black T-shirt, navy jacket and trademark stubble, said the concert was one step on the way to making South Ossetia "a sovereign, independent state", and again reiterated that it has "far more right than Kosovo" to be recognised by the international community.

But nobody knows better than Kokoity that his tiny landlocked region can never be independent. Even the ribbon fluttering from his lapel, featuring the Russian and Ossetian flags together, betrayed that fact. The Kremlin may have promised to withdraw its combat troops from Georgian soil today, but it is leaving behind at least 500 'peacekeepers' in South Ossetia. The fact is, the Kremlin is getting ready to absorb South Ossetia, if not officially then at least de facto.

And that suits Valery Gergiev just fine, not to mention the Ossetians who flocked to the concert in their hundreds. They hope they have seen the last of war, and that the bombastic strains of Shostakovich's Seventh 'Leningrad' Symphony was no requiem ­ - but the soundtrack for a devastating yet satisfying victory over their old enemy, with the help of their friends in Moscow. ·