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Russia Continues to Invade Georgia

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Georgia Says Russian Troops Move Beyond Conflict Zone (Update2)

By Henry Meyer and Lucian Kim
Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Georgia accused Russia of sending troops beyond the South Ossetia conflict zone in violation of a cease-fire. A Russian official denied the claim, saying the troops are eliminating Georgia's ability to renew attacks.
Georgian Security Council chief Kakha Lomaia said a column of Russian troops may be moving from the city of Gori toward the Uplistsikhe military base, which Georgian forces abandoned earlier in the conflict. The Russians are advancing ``well beyond the conflict zone,'' he said today.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian troops near South Ossetia are ``demilitarizing'' the area to prevent Georgia from attacking again. Russian forces seized Georgian tanks at a military facility outside Gori and are moving them to another location, he said.
The Russian troop movements come one day after Georgia and Russia agreed to a European Union-brokered peace plan to end five days of fighting. EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels to push the peace deal forward. The 27-nation bloc may send military personnel to monitor the cease-fire, said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country brokered the accord.
Looting Claim
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russian tanks continue to operate within Georgia, destroying ``infrastructure,'' as Russia said it was responding to sporadic attacks by Georgian snipers while observing the terms of a cease-fire declared by President Dmitry Medvedev.
Lomaia said South Ossetians and Cossacks are looting the city of Gori, near the conflict zone. The Kremlin declined immediate comment, saying it needed to investigate the claim.
``Large-scale weapons are being used,'' Saakashvili told reporters today in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. ``Russian tanks are in the streets, and Russian soldiers are behaving extremely aggressively.'' Russian deputy chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn said in Moscow that the cease-fire was ``not being fully observed'' by Georgia.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria said Russian tanks in the city of Gori this morning destroyed military facilities. Nogovitsyn said no tanks were in Gori and that Russian forces have observed the cease-fire since 3 p.m. yesterday. A Russian Foreign Ministry official said no Russian troops are in the city. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the country's forces will withdraw only after Georgian troops return to their barracks.
Peace Plan
Nogovitsyn said 74 Russian soldiers died in the fighting and 171 were wounded. Nineteen soldiers are missing in action, he said. Temur Iakobashvili, Georgia's minister for reintegration issues, said 175 of the country's soldiers died. Saakashvili said 180,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.
Early this morning, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Georgia agreed to a six-point plan to end fighting after the former Soviet republic's military was routed by Russia in the five-day conflict.
Medvedev ordered a halt to the military campaign, which was sparked by fighting between Georgia and South Ossetia on Aug. 7. Saakashvili said Russia launched a ``well-planned invasion'' of Georgia the next day. Nogovitsyn said Georgia planned its incursion into South Ossetia in advance and expected to meet resistance only from Ossetian forces and the 588 Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region.
Breakaway Regions
The war, Russia's first major foreign offensive since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has further strained relations between the U.S., which considers Georgia one of its closest allies in the region, and its former Cold War foe.
The plan calls for the withdrawal of Georgian and Russian troops, renunciation of the use of force, an end to all military operations and a commitment to making humanitarian aid freely available in the conflict zone.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia broke away from Georgian control in wars in the early 1990s and Russian forces have been stationed as peacekeepers in the regions under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate. Most people living in both regions have Russian passports. Saakashvili yesterday said Georgia is quitting the CIS, a loose association of all former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states.
NATO Bid
Georgia will be unable to reunify its territory a long way into the future, sabotaging its bid for NATO membership, Alexander Rahr, head of the Russia-Eurasia program at Berlin's German Council on Foreign Relations, said in an N24 television interview.
``Georgia's chances of joining NATO are going to be delayed for many, many years,'' said Rahr.
The West sees Georgia as a key ally in the region, in part because it has a pipeline that carries Caspian Sea crude oil to Western markets, bypassing Russia. U.S. President George W. Bush backs Georgia's bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Russia views as a security threat.
NATO should affirm the potential of Georgia and Ukraine to become alliance members in the face of the Russian incursion, said U.S. government officials who spoke to reporters in Washington yesterday on condition they not be identified.
Medvedev declared a day of mourning for today, ordering state flags to be flown at half-mast and canceling entertainment programs on radio, television and in theaters. Georgia also declared a period of mourning.
Russian officials say about 2,000 people died in South Ossetia during the fighting.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lucian Kim in Tbilisi via the Moscow newsroom at [email protected]; Henry Meyer in Moscow at [email protected]
Last Updated: August 13, 2008 10:03 EDT
 
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