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POTI — Russia has defended plans to keep its forces in the key Georgian port of Poti, saying it does not break terms of a French-brokered ceasefire deal.
The United States, France and UK say Russia has already failed to comply by creating buffer zones around the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia’s Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn said combat troops had now left Georgia and only peacekeepers remained. Georgia accuses Moscow of creating an economic stranglehold on the country. Georgian forces are reported to have taken control of the main east-west highway and residents are said to be returning to their homes in the town of Gori, the largest town close to the border with South Ossetia. Yesterday, about 1 000 Georgians held a demonstration just outside Poti against the Russian continued presence, the Associated Press reports. There are also reports of protesters marching on Russian positions outside Gori. Gen Nogovitsyn, who said Russia was not the Soviet Union or the Evil Empire, accused Georgia of preparing acts of sabotage in South Ossetia and preparing troops for "further actions". He also warned that should the US start rearming the Georgian army, Russia might enlarge its peacekeeping force.
Moscow intends to maintain what it describes as a peacekeeping presence of 2 600 troops in "buffer zones" around Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia insists it is allowed these zones under previous peacekeeping agreements that ended fighting in Abkhazia and South Ossetia when they first broke away from Tbilisi in the 1990s.
The zones include sections of the main highway from the capital Tbilisi to the Black Sea as well as Georgia’s main airbase at Senaki. Gen Nogovitsyn admitted that Poti, 32km south of Abkhazia, was outside this zone. The general accused Nato of increasing tensions by massing forces in the Black Sea. He said the arrival of Spanish, German, US and Polish ships in the Black Sea "did not contribute to the settlement of the situation". — BBCOnline.
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