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U.S. Warship Anchors Off Georgia
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About 60 are stationed at two checkpoints along the roads leading in and out of Poti, said Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry. The troops occasionally enter Poti to buy or steal food and vodka, he said.
Utiashvili said the troops have not impeded commercial traffic to and from the port, and he expressed confidence they would not try to stop the American aid shipment.
Maj. Rob James, a spokesman for the U.S. European Command who was in Poti, said he had not seen any sign of Russian troops in his movements in and around the city. "And we're making every effort and expending every energy to make sure we don't," he said. "That's one of our major goals -- to make sure we avoid confronting any Russians."
Because Poti's port is too shallow for the U.S. ship, the supplies will be unloaded onto a barge for delivery to shore. U.S. officials said that aid agency workers, not military personnel, will drive the trucks delivering the supplies, about 17 tons of blankets, juice, condensed milk and other goods.
At a news briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko questioned the legality and purpose of the Mount Whitney visit but said, "We are not talking about any possibility of military action or anything like that."
Speaking a day after Cheney visited Georgia and pledged U.S. help to rebuild the nation and bring it into the NATO alliance, Nesterenko accused the vice president of encouraging aggression by the government of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
"Such statements and, most importantly, the new promises to Georgia of its relatively fast accession to NATO only strengthen in Mr. Saakashvili's regime the dangerous feeling of impunity," he said.
After arriving in Kiev, Cheney renewed U.S. support for letting Ukraine join NATO as well, and urged the country's political leaders to put aside differences that threaten to bring down the country's government.
Bahrampour reported from Tbilisi, Georgia.
