Despite Russia's vow to withdraw its forces from Georgia, implementing a French-brokered cease-fire, there was little evidence of such a pullback on Monday, and some Russian units thrust even deeper into Georgian territory.
Russia's military moves in Georgia, a former Soviet republic and a staunch U.S. ally, raised new doubts as to whether Moscow intends to abide by the cease-fire agreement that ended a short but intense war over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia last week. Russian forces have since fanned throughout Georgia proper, destroying infrastructure in the Black Sea port city of Poti and coming within about 20 miles of the capital, Tbilisi.
A Russian government spokesman in Vladikavkaz said the first small columns of military personnel had begun to withdraw on Sunday. He said the main withdrawal would start on Tuesday. 'It takes a long time to pack up a tank,' he said.
A trip from Vladikavkaz in Russia through South Ossetia to the Georgian town of Gori and back turned up few signs that Russian troops were withdrawing. A correspondent for The Wall Street Journal spotted only 16 troop trucks heading toward Russia. Their tarps were battened down and it was impossible to see who, if anyone, was in the back.
When asked when Russian troops would withdraw, government officials became irritable. Russian Army Capt. Vladimir Ivanov said it was 'a process.' It had taken a long time for them to deploy and it would take them a long time to withdraw, he added.
Late Monday afternoon, a column of Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers, dozens of soldiers sitting atop every vehicle, rumbled up to the town of Igoeti, the farthest line of the Russian advance on the main highway from Gori to Tbilisi. A Russian colonel came out to announce that all Georgian police and civilian vehicles had three minutes to clear out. The column then roared toward the previously unoccupied Georgian village of Lamiskana, one tank shearing off the side of a Georgian police patrol car that tried to block the way.
'We don't see any significant movement of the regular Russian army to north, that is to Russia, but we do see significant maneuvers south, to Georgia,' said Georgia's deputy interior minister, Eka Zghuladze. 'We are still waiting for the pullout.'
The cease-fire agreement, negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and signed by both sides in the conflict, requires Russian forces to withdraw from Georgia proper, but allows them to maintain a peacekeeping presence in the pro-Russian breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and to patrol a security zone along the enclaves' borders pending the arrival of European observers. Plans to dispatch these observers hit a new snag on Monday because Russia indicated it is 'not inclined to accept' the mission, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
Russia's deputy head of general staff, Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said at a news conference in Moscow that Russian forces had already started moving out of Georgia proper to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. 'We are talking only about a pullback. I hope you have noticed the nuance: We are not talking about a pullout,' he said.
Inside Georgia, there were signs of solidifying Russian control. In the western Georgian crossroads town of Teklati, a Russian soldier sitting atop an armored personnel carrier said his unit had just escorted a convoy of military trucks and fuel tankers from Abkhazia. The soldier declined to give his name.
Some Russian officers interviewed Monday at forward troop positions said they have been told that President Saakashvili hasn't signed a correct version of the cease-fire agreement, adding modifications that rendered the document invalid. |
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