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Russia Is Showing Signs Of Pullout

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The New York Times

Published: August 20, 2008

POTI, Georgia - Russia showed the first signs of drawing down some of its troops in Georgia on Tuesday, but its forces bound and blindfolded 21 Georgian soldiers at the Black Sea port of Poti, displaying them along with five seized American Humvees.

Two days after President Dmitri Medvedev promised that the pullout would begin, signs of movement began.

A platoon of armored infantry was seen moving away from Georgia through the narrow mountain passes on the Russian side of the border. Meanwhile, however, a Russian engineering platoon was building reinforced trenches for a checkpoint just north of Gori, suggesting that Russian forces expect to be in Georgian territory for some time.

The most potent image of the day came from Poti, where Russians transported Georgian soldiers on top of armed personnel carriers after a three-hour blockade of the commercial port.

They drove the prisoners to their base in Senaki along with a caravan of seized American Humvees, which they then sent to Abkhazia, deep in Russian-held territory.

"They want everything - our bases, our ports, our roads," said Shalba Kuthava, a driver for the port.

A Russian military official said that the Georgians had been detained at a checkpoint, armed and driving the Humvees, in violation of a cease-fire agreement.

But the Georgians said that the soldiers were guarding the port against looters, and that the Humvees were U.S. property that had been used in a joint exercise earlier this year.

They said the vehicles had been crated up, ready to be shipped back to the United States.

NATO SLAPS RUSSIA'S HAND

BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO allies said they would not convene any more meetings of the NATO-Russia Council until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia. And the allies agreed to show support for Georgia's pro-Western government by creating a NATO-Georgia Commission to oversee the former Soviet republic's bid to join the alliance and begin providing military training to its army.

P.O.W. EXCHANGE

IGOETI, Georgia - Russia and Georgia exchanged prisoners. The exchange involved 15 Georgians and five Russians, including two pilots shot down over South Ossetia.

The Associated Press

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