GORI, Georgia — Russia pledged Sunday to begin removing its troops from Georgia today, but the streets of this occupied city reflected a broadening, not a waning, of Russia’s military incursion.
President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to “begin the withdrawal of the military contingent” starting today. Russian leaders have made contradictory and at times clearly false statements about their troops’ plans and positions ever since the Georgia operation began. On Saturday, a top Russian general told reporters that his country had no troops in Gori.
During a reporter’s 24-hour stay in the city this weekend, Russian soldiers roamed the streets in armored personnel carriers and waved Kalashnikov rifles to prevent entry to a captured Georgian military base that is now the Russian headquarters. Russian soldiers dug fortified positions for tanks along highways east and west of Gori and trucked in television and radio equipment to begin broadcasting in their own language.
“We have stopped firing, be glad about that,” said a young Russian captain, when asked if troops would soon withdraw.
Russian tanks and troops continued to control a wide swath of Georgia, including the main highway running through the country, the western city of Senaki and the Senaki air base as well as Gori.
The New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. officials who were familiar with intelligence reports, reported Sunday that the Russian military moved missile launchers into South Ossetia on Friday.
Increasingly rapacious crowds have greeted aid shipments, such as eight busloads of rice, beans and other staples from the Turkish Red Crescent that arrived Sunday morning in Gori’s main square.
The long-simmering conflict escalated Aug. 7 when Georgian troops crossed into South Ossetia, a Georgian region that separatists have held for the past decade and a half. The Georgians were quickly repelled by Russian forces who then advanced out of South Ossetia to Gori and other undisputed parts of Georgia as well as the separatist region of Abkhazia.
Medvedev’s promise to pull out stopped short of promising withdrawn troops would return to Russia.
The cease-fire agreement calls for Georgian and Russian troops to withdraw to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7.
But Medvedev’s silence on South Ossetia has fueled fears that Russia could annex the region, which — like Abkhazia — broke from Georgia government control in the 1990s and has declared independence.
Top American officials said Washington would rethink its relationship with Moscow and called for a swift Russian withdrawal.
“I think there needs to be a strong, unified response to Russia to send the message that this kind of behavior, characteristic of the Soviet period, has no place in the 21st century,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
But neither Gates nor Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be specific about what punitive actions the U.S. or the international community might take.
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