Georgians fear Russia won't fulfill pullout

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By Dan Catchpole

AKHALGORI, Georgia | Despite Russian pledges to withdraw to their positions prior to the August war with Georgia by the end of this week, Russian troops are upgrading a dirt road linking this town and South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, which could signal their intention to stay.

Akhalgori is in a valley on South Ossetia's periphery, cut off by thickly wooded ridges from the rest of the de facto independent state. The valley had been controlled by Georgia since fighting began in the early 1990s, but in the aftermath of the August fighting, most of the Georgians have fled.

To resupply and rotate troops in the valley, Russian and South Ossetian forces have had to either drive through Georgian-controlled territory or use helicopters.

In recent weeks, soldiers have arrived using a dirt mountain road connecting Akhalgori to the villages in the adjacent valley to the west. The road requires four-wheel-drive vehicles and is impassable in winter.

"There's no real road there yet, but they're building it," said an elderly woman who gave only her first name, Yevgenia.

Russia is building a road because it and South Ossetia's separatist government aren't going to withdraw, said Alexander Rondeli, president of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies.

The only Georgians left in Akhalgori are the old and the poor. Everyone else moved south toward the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, when Russian and South Ossetian forces occupied the town in August.

Those remaining have little else to do but stand on the colorless street outside the few shops still open, smoke cigarettes, talk and watch the soldiers pass by every half-hour on patrol.

"There is no economic activity. They destroyed the vineyards, shops closed, nothing," said a middle-aged man who would only give his first name, Shota.

Like the rest of Akhalgori's ethnic Georgians, Shota fears reprisal from the Russian and South Ossetians stationed here.