Defiant Russia inks peace deal

<![CDATA[ Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a peace deal with <a title=”Republic of Georgia” href=”/themes/?Theme=Republic+of+Georgia” >Georgia on Saturday, but his troops again underlined their grip by keeping hold of positions close to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

A broad withdrawal of Russian forces will come only with “additional security measures,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, calling into question how quickly the troops will be out.

“As these additional security measures are taken, the units of the Russian armed forces that were sent into the zone of the South Ossetian conflict … will be withdrawn,” Mr. Lavrov said.

Asked how much time it would take, he responded: “As much as is needed.”

Agence France-Presse reported that a confidential letter to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who negotiated the terms of the agreement, clarified the limits of the additional “security measures” Russia is allowed to take.

The measures “will take the form of patrols carried out only by Russian peacekeepers” in an area “only in the immediate proximity of South Ossetia and not in any other part of Georgian territory.”

The letter specifically referred to the flash-point city of Gori as being off-limits for the patrols, as were other “significant urban centers.”

President Bush said at his Crawford, Texas, ranch Saturday that the signing of the cease-fire plan was “a hopeful step.”

“Now, Russia needs to honor the agreement and withdraw its forces and, of course, end military operations,” he said, adding that Abkhazia and South Ossetia would remain part of Georgia.

“There is no room for debate on this matter,” Mr. Bush said.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, who has been mentioned as a possible vice-presidential running mate for White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, said Saturday he would visit Georgia this weekend.

The cease-fire deal, signed Friday by Mr. Saakashvili after lengthy talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calls for both Russian and Georgian forces to pull back to positions they held before fighting erupted Aug. 8.

But even if Russian forces do withdraw from Georgia proper, Moscow appears likely to maintain strong control over South Ossetia, whose leaders claim independence from Georgia and have sought to join Russia by merging with a neighboring Russian region also populated largely by ethnic Ossetians.

Mr. Lavrov said there is “no ceiling” on the number of peacekeepers Russia can have in South Ossetia.

He said Russia is in talks on what an international presence in South Ossetia would look like and suggested the number of international observers, including military observers, could be increased from the size of the small mission the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe had there before the hostilities erupted.

“These questions are not decided by Condoleezza Rice or somebody else. They are decided, first of all, by the side that has suffered in the conflict,” Mr. Lavrov said. “What peacekeepers from what countries are needed for the people of South Ossetia to feel comfortable is primarily up to the people of South Ossetia.”

Meanwhile, reports of hostilities continued Saturday, with Georgia’s Foreign Ministry saying rebels from the breakaway region of Abkhazia, backed by Russian forces, seized control of 13 Georgian villages and a power plant bordering the region.

“Armed gangs of the Abkhazian separatist regime, together with units of the Russian regular army, shifted the administrative border of … Abkhazia towards the Enguri River,” the ministry said in a statement.

They seized two villages in the Zugdidi region, 11 villages in the Tsalenjikha region and the Enguri hydroelectric power plant, the statement said.

Georgian officials also said that Russian forces on Saturday blew up a crucial railroad bridge. Georgia’s European integration minister, Georgy Baramidze, said the bombing of the bridge was “an economic disaster.”

“This is huge damage, not just for Georgia, but for Armenia and Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries, which are shipping goods and oil by Georgian railway.”

“The Russians, these barbarians, want to destroy our country economically,” he told reporters in emotional language characteristic of the conflict.

Russia’s general staff denied attacking the bridge, saying the hostilities were over.

A Reuters television crew interviewed villagers who blamed Russian forces, but the identity of the attackers could not immediately be verified. Irregular militias, based in South Ossetia, have also been operating against Georgian targets in recent days.

Mr. Lavrov accused Georgia of undermining security, citing the Russian military’s claim that it had averted an attack on a highway tunnel by stopping a car laden with grenade launchers and ammunition.

“We are constantly encountering problems from the Georgian side,” he said.

Russian soldiers early in the day dug shallow foxholes in the center of the town of Igoeti, some 30 miles from Tbilisi, but abandoned them later Saturday. But tanks and troops were still in place on a hillside on the edge of Igoeti, and there was no immediate sign of a pullout from the strategic central city of Gori, about 20 miles up the road.

Russian troops effectively control the main artery running through the western half of Georgia, because they surround Gori and the city and air base of Senaki in the west. Both cities sit on the main east-west highway that slices through two Georgian mountain ranges.

In the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, dozens of haggard Georgian captives, their heads bowed and their hands behind their backs, were seen being marched by armed guards. Many had bruised faces.

“I’m from Tbilisi. I was here working when the war broke out. I was taken in,” one bearded captive said before an armed guard told a reporter with Agence France-Presse to leave the area. Others appeared fearful and refused to talk.

Russian troops and their armed allies also forced Georgian men to clean the streets of Tskhinvali on Saturday. Three teams of ethnic-Georgian men in their 40s and 50s were seen hauling debris. When approached, one of them confirmed he was being forced to work.

“Labor even turns monkeys into humans,” said a Russian officer, who along with armed Ossetians escorted one group of about two dozen Georgians through the streets of the capital.

The Russian officer threatened to arrest an Associated Press photographer if he took pictures, and would not give his name.

It appeared to be the first sign of abuse of Georgians in the Russian-controlled province.

Georgia’s government says 182 people, including 67 civilians, were confirmed dead in parts of the country under its control - far fewer than Moscow’s overall estimate of 2,000 dead, most of them Russian citizens.