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Georgia Retreats, Pleads for Truce; U.S. Condemns Russian Onslaught
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On Sunday, Russian forces pounded Georgian positions in the only section of Abkhazia that the Georgian government controls. Six Russian warships were positioned off the coast of Abkhazia, and Russian troops were deployed into the enclave from the vessels, according to Georgian and U.S. officials.
Russia transported ammunition and other supplies on trains that run on a rail line in Abkhazia that was recently repaired by Russian engineering troops, officials here said. The repairs were described by Russia at the time as a humanitarian action.
Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a colonel-general on Russia's General Staff, told reporters in Moscow that Russia was not involved in offensive operations in Abkhazia: "We are not going to undertake any actions which are going to lead to escalation of the situation in this region."
Russian officials also denied Georgian charges that two of its warships from the Black Sea fleet were blockading the Georgian port of Poti, which was also bombed this weekend. Georgia imports about 85 percent of its wheat, much of it passing through Poti, officials here say.
"This is a campaign to degrade our key civilian infrastructure to the point of making us extremely vulnerable," Lado Gurgenidze, Georgia's prime minister, said in an interview. "The population's tolerance for the anxiety, the uncertainty, are limited and being tested."
Georgian officials also said that Russian bombers have eight times attempted to hit an oil pipeline that crosses Georgia and connects Azerbaijan and Turkey, and is part of Europe's energy chain. "It is a direct attack on the energy security of Europe," Gurgenidze said. "Militarily, it makes absolutely no sense."
Staff writer Michael Abramowitz in Beijing contributed to this report.
