Russian forces at Georgian port despite pullback

POTI: Russia said on Saturday it would continue to patrol Georgia’s main Black Sea port, defying Western demands for a complete pullback to positions held before this month’s outbreak of fighting over a Georgian rebel region.

Russia said it had honoured a ceasefire deal by pulling back most of its forces, but soldiers and weapons remained deep inside Georgia to carry out what the Kremlin has called a peacekeeping operation.

And on the main road leading to the port town of Poti, around 20 Russian soldiers were manning a checkpoint, although not checking traffic.

In Moscow, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said Russian troops would patrol Poti, even though it lies just outside the security zone Russia says is covered by its peacekeeping mandate. He 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.

Georgia and its Western allies say the “security zones” staked out this week by the Russian peacekeepers will give Moscow a stranglehold over a country that lies on a transit route for energy exports from the Caspian Sea. Germany joined the United States on Saturday in demanding Russia pull back to the positions it held before the fighting.

Georgia’s parliament voted on Saturday to prolong a “state of war” until September 8.
This means Georgia’s armed forces remain in a state of heightened readiness and that reservists are kept mobilised.

The conflict has left the United States, NATO and the European Union groping for a response. Beyond freezing NATO’s contacts with Russia, the West looks to have little influence over Russia, one of its main energy suppliers.