Russia says troops are exiting Georgia
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
GORI, Georgia — Russia said Monday that it had begun withdrawing from the conflict zone in Georgia, but it held fast to key positions and sent some of its troops in the opposite direction — closer to the Georgian capital.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russia is playing a “very dangerous game” with the U. S. and its allies and warned that NATO would not allow Moscow to win in Georgia, destabilize Europe or draw a new Iron Curtain through the continent.
Russian troops and vehicles roamed freely around the strategically located central city of Gori, and Russian forces appeared to blow up the runway at a military base in the western town of Senaki.
There were few signs Russia was following the terms of a cease-fire to end the short war, which has driven tensions between Russia and the West.
In Paris, the French foreign minister said it appeared “we are witnessing the start” of a Russian withdrawal, but warned France would call an emergency meeting of the European Council to talk about consequences for Russia if that was not the case. But U. S. defense and military officials said they had seen no significant movement yet of Russian troops withdrawing from Georgia. The U. S. will “continue to closely monitor” Russia’s withdrawal, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. “This is something that should be achieved without delay,” Johndroe told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is vacationing at his ranch. Russia must “honor its agreement,” Johndroe said.
WARNING FROM RICE On her way to an emergency NATO foreign ministers meeting on the crisis, Rice said the alliance would punish Russia for its invasion of Georgia and deny its ambitions by rebuilding and fully backing Georgia and other Eastern European democracies. “We are determined to deny them their strategic objective,” Rice told reporters aboard her plane, adding that any attempt to re-create the Cold War by drawing a “new line” through Europe and intimidating former Soviet republics and exsatellite states would fail. “We are not going to allow Russia to draw a new line at those states that are not yet integrated into the trans-Atlantic structures,” she said, referring to Georgia and Ukraine, which have not yet joined NATO or the European Union but would like to. Rice could not say what NATO would eventually decide to do to make its position clear but said the alliance would speak with one voice “to clearly indicate that we are not accepting a new line.” At today’s meeting, the NATO ministers will discuss support for a planned international monitoring mission in the region and a package of support to help Georgia rebuild infrastructure damaged in its devastating defeat at the hands of Russian armed forces. They also will consider a range of forthcoming activities planned with Russia — from military exercises to ministerial meetings — and decide caseby-case whether to go ahead or cancel each. The European Union-brokered peace plan signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili calls for both sides to pull forces back to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7. Medvedev had told French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday that Russian troops would begin pulling back on Monday, but stopped short of promising they would return to Russia.
TROOPS, TANKS ROAM Russia sent its tanks and troops into Georgia after Georgia cracked down on the separatist, pro-Russian province of South Ossetia. Fighting also has flared in a second breakaway region, Abkhazia.
In Moscow, the deputy chief of the Russian general staff, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said at a briefing that “today, according to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun” and said forces were leaving Gori.
But Russian tanks and troops roamed freely around the city and made forays toward the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, 55 miles to the southeast. Russia also kept control of the critical highway that slices through Georgia’s midsection.
AP reporters saw four Russian armored personnel carriers, each carrying about 15 men, rolling from Gori to Igoeti, a crossroads town even closer to Tbilisi, passing Georgian soldiers who sat by the roadside.
The Russians moved into Igoeti then turned off onto a side road. As the Russian vehicles rolled past a group of Georgian soldiers and policemen, one swerved and scraped a new Georgian police car. The Georgians looked down at their fingernails.
U. S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing intelligence reports, said at least one Russian battalion equipped with more than a dozen SS-21 missile launchers had moved into South Ossetia, within range of Tbilisi. Nogovitsyn disputed the claim.
The RIA-Novosti news agency reported that the leader of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, asked Russia on Monday to establish a permanent base there.
Nogovitsyn said the Russian troops were pulling back to South Ossetia, but the boundaries of the Russian presence remained unclear. He said “troops should not be in the territory of Georgia,” but it was unclear whether that excluded patrols.
Russian troops were restricting access to Gori, where shops were shut and people milled around on the central square. “The city is a cold place now. People are fearful,” said Nona Khizanishvili, 44, who fled Gori a week ago for an outlying village and returned Monday, trying to reach her son in Tbilisi. In Senaki, explosions were heard from the military base in the afternoon. Later, three separate blasts that appeared to destroy the airport runway shook the leaves on trees more than a mile away. Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said Russian forces had blown up the runway. There was no confirmation from Russian military officials. Earlier, Russian troops had allowed displaced people to get to the base to retrieve their belongings. Cars emerged loaded with goods, including televisions and refrigerators. A planned exchange of prisoners captured during the fighting fell through, with each side blaming the other. It was not clear how many prisoners were to be exchanged. Georgian officials said another attempt could take place today.
MONITORS ON HOLD Russia is blocking the deployment of up to 100 extra unarmed European military monitors to observe the ceasefire, according to an official at the Vienna, Austria-based Organization for Security and Cooperation, which is trying to organize the team. The organization already has a 200-member observer mission in Georgia. “No agreement has been reached so far,” Aleksi Harkonen, a Finnish diplomat who is the senior representative for his country’s chairmanship of the organization, said after talks at the organization’s base. “The differences are fairly wide... we are not there yet.” Harkonen said he did not want to “play the blame game” in discussing the lack of quick movement, but he also said Russia wouldn’t agree to the reinforcement without a deal laying out specifics on the observers’ funding and security, among other things. The arrival of those monitors would end a special security mandate given to the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia that under the cease-fire allows them limited patrols on undisputed Georgian territory.
MEDALS FOR 30 In Vladikavkaz, near the border with Georgia, Medvedev gave medals to 30 soldiers and servicemen involved in the conflict. He called them heroes and said they had fought “a cowardly aggression. “ I am sure that such a wellconducted, effective peacemaking operation aimed at protecting our citizens and other people will be among the most glorious deeds of the Russian military,” Medvedev said. While Western leaders have called Russia’s response disproportionate, Medvedev repeated Russian accusations of genocide.
“The world realized that even now there are political freaks who were ready to kill innocent people for the sake of political fashions and who compensated for their own stupidity by eliminating a whole nation,” he said.
The Pentagon said that up to five C-130 aircraft are expected to fly into Georgia today with supplies and that three had landed Monday as part of the relief effort. In addition to food, medical aid, tents and bedding, the U. S. is sending forklifts to help unload and move the supplies.
The United Nations refugee agency said more than 158, 000 people had been displaced by the conflict, most of them within Georgia.
“I think the Russians will pull out, but will damage Georgia strongly,” said Givi Sikharulidze, who lives in Tbilisi. “Georgia will survive, but Russia has lost its credibility in the eyes of the world.” Information for this article was contributed by Mike Eckel, David Nowak Jim Heintz, Steve Gutterman, Jill Lawless, Matti Friedman, Christopher Torchia, Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili Bela Szandelszky, Mansur Mirovalev, Lolita C. Baldor, Pauline Jelinek Matthew Lee, Paul Ames, Deb Reichmann, Brett J. Blackledge and Veronika Oleksyn of The Associated Press and by Holly Rosenkrantz of Bloomberg News.
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