TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Russian Tanks Push Into Georgian Cities

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: August 15, 2008

GORI, Georgia - Russian troops searched selected cities, forests and fields in Georgia on Thursday, looking for military equipment left behind by Georgian forces. In Moscow, Russia's foreign minister declared Georgia could "forget about" regaining its two separatist provinces.

Late Thursday, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said a column of more than 100 Russian tanks and other vehicles was moving toward Kutaisi, Georgia's second-largest city. The convoy set out from Senaki, another city in western Georgia, he said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Washington he saw no need to invoke American military force in the war between Russia and Georgia but warned that U.S.-Russian relations could suffer lasting damage if Moscow doesn't retreat.

"The United States spent 45 years working very hard to avoid a military confrontation with Russia," Gates said. "I see no reason to change that approach today."

The latest developments presented a huge challenge to the EU-sponsored cease-fire agreement designed to end seven days of fighting. The accord had envisioned Russian and Georgian forces returning to their original positions.

"One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said as Russia's president met in the Kremlin with the two separatist leaders. The comments and meeting were a clear sign that Moscow is considering absorbing South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The Bush administration said it will ignore the "bluster" from Russia about the future of separatist regions.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was headed to Georgia to ask the U.S. ally to sign a cease-fire agreement with Russia that includes apparent concessions to Moscow but preserves Georgian borders, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The pact fleshes out a French-brokered agreement giving Russian peacekeepers the expressed right to patrol beyond South Ossetia, the disputed border region at the heart of the conflict.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the pact is not finalized, said there are important clarifications still to be made and the United States would support more powers for the Russian peacekeepers only if they were limited, well defined and temporary.

"The United States of America stands strongly, as the president of France just said, for the territorial integrity of Georgia," Rice said after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Still, analysts said there were holes in the EU plan to end the war between Georgia and Russia.

Robert Hunter, former ambassador to NATO under President Clinton, said the EU plan has halted much of the fighting but hardly commits the Russians to much.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT