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Russians aims at port city despite pullback

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-24 08:56

Russian forces manned a checkpoint on the road into Georgia's main Black Sea port Saturday, signalling the Kremlin's intention to keep a grip on Georgia's heartland despite Western criticism.

Russian armoured vehicles prepare to be loaded on board a naval ship to leave for Russia, near Sukhumi August 23, 2008. [Agencies]

Georgian forces were once again controlling the country's biggest East-West highway, and a witness saw a large column of Russian tanks and armored cars leave a town near the Black Sea - evidence of Russia's promised pullback.

But the focus was shifting to the buffer zones stretching deep inside Georgia where Russia has said its troops will now maintain a permanent presence.

The Kremlin says it must stay on to prevent further bloodshed, but Georgia and its Western allies says the zones will give Russia a stranglehold over a country that lies on a transit route for energy exports from the Caspian Sea.

A reporter in Poti, Georgia's main Black Sea port, said he could see 20 soldiers at a Russian checkpoint at the entrance to the town, 100 m back from the road.

The conflict between Russia and pro-Western Georgia has left the United States, NATO and European Union groping for a response. Beyond freezing NATO's contacts with Russia, the West looks to have little influence over energy powerhouse Russia.

Georgia's busiest port for oil and oil products is to the south in Batumi, but Poti can load up to 100,000 barrels per day of oil products, which arrive by rail from Azerbaijan. Poti is also a major gateway for merchandise bound not only for Georgia but for other Caucasus republics and Central Asia.

In Moscow, a senior defense official said Russian troops would patrol Poti, even though it lies just outside the "zone of responsibility" Russia says is covered by its peacekeeping mandate in Georgia.

Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, told reporters those patrols were in line with a ceasefire deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Should we sit behind the fence? What use would we be then? They (Georgian forces) will drive around in Hummers, move munitions around in trucks, and are we supposed to just count them?" he said after a news briefing.

He said he had reports the Georgian military, crushed in the week-long war with Russia, was re-arming and planning special forces operations.

Hundreds were killed and tens of thousands displaced in the fighting that erupted on Aug 7-8. Moscow sent in troops after Georgia tried to retake its breakaway South Ossetia region.

Russia defeated the assault and pushed on further, crossing the main East-West highway and moving close to a Western-backed oil pipeline. They also moved into Western Georgia from Abkhazia, a second breakaway region on the Black Sea.

Across Georgia Saturday, Russian troops were pulling back but they left pockets of men and weapons inside the buffer zones which, observers say, could become the focus for a new confrontation.