Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Russian soldiers are seen near the village of Khurvaleti, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. Russian control of the roads and uncertainty about the security situation has made it difficult for international groups to deliver aid, contributing to the desperation of Georgians in Gori and outlying villages.

Port City Looted, Starvation Growing

POTI, Georgia - Russian troops held their position in the key town of Gori and were digging in deeper in other strategic areas of Georgia on Friday, the day that Russia’s president said a pullback would be complete.

In western Georgia, near a base at the key Black Sea port of Poti, Russian troops were seen digging large trenches near a bridge that provides the only access to the city. Five trucks, several armored personnel carriers and a helicopter were parked nearby. Another Russian position was seen in a wooded area outside the city.

Around Poti—outside any security zone—signs seemed to point to a prolonged presence. Russian troops on Thursday excavated trenches, set up mortars and blocked a key bridge with armored personnel carriers and trucks. Other armored vehicles and trucks parked in a nearby forest.

Officials in Poti said the city had been looted by the Russians over the past week. Associated Press journalists saw Russian troops carry tables and chairs out on armored personnel carriers Thursday as residents protested.

A top Russian general said earlier it could be 10 days before the bulk of the troops is gone, and the mixed signals from Moscow left Georgians guessing about Russia’s intentions nearly a week after a cease-fire deal.

“The information I have is that if they’re leaving it is at a snail’s pace,” said Gen. John Craddock, commander of U.S. European Command, as he ended a two-day assessment trip in Georgia. “It is far too little and far too slow.”

A U.S. Army officer embraces a Georgian refugee boy at a temporary shelter in Tbilisi August 21, 2008.

Under the deal, Russian forces are to pull back to positions they held before intense fighting broke out Aug.7 in the Russian-backed Georgian separatist region of South Ossetia.

Russia says it will keep troops in South Ossetia—where Russia had a peacekeeping contingent for more than a decade—and in a buffer zone in Georgia proper around the region’s border.

Strains in relations between Russia and the West showed no improvement. NATO, Moscow’s Cold War foe, said Russia had halted military cooperation with the alliance, underscoring the growing division in a Europe that had seemed destined for unity after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Western leaders remained adamant that Russia remove its troops and do it quickly.

President Bush told Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili that the U.S. “expects Russia to abide by its agreement to withdraw forces,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. The Georgian leader called Bush on Thursday.

While refugees from the fighting crammed Georgian schools and office buildings, a scattering of people left in a half-empty village said they were badly in need of basics.

“There is no bread, there is no food, no medicine. People are dying,” said Nina Meladze, 45, in the village of Nadarbazevi, outside the key crossroads city of Gori. She said she stayed because she could not leave elderly relatives behind while other villagers fled to the capital, Tbilisi.

She said the village has been virtually abandoned since the war broke out. “I cannot go on like this anymore, I cry every day,” she said.

In Igoeti, a major checkpoint on the road from the capital Tbilisi to Gori, Russian troops were allowing aid organizations and local traffic through on Friday.

Red Cross vehicles, mine-clearing jeeps and trucks carrying peaches were seen heading into Gori early Friday. Russian military helicopters buzzed overhead as military trucks shuttled in and out of Gori past the checkpoint, where Russian flags were flapping in the wind.

Some Russian troops and military vehicles were on the move Thursday, including 21 tanks seen heading toward Russia from inside South Ossetia.

Outside the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, several ethnic Georgian villages were burning Thursday—many days after fighting ended—and bore evidence of destruction from looting. Some Ossetians said they were not prepared to live alongside ethnic Georgians anymore.

“It’s not they, it’s we who will erase them from the face of Earth,” said Alan Didurov, 46.

(AP)

U.S. General John Craddock, NATO’s top operational commander (C), meets Georgian refugees at a temporary shelter in Tbilisi August 21, 2008.