National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the United States is seeing “early signs of some withdrawal” and that the pace of the withdrawal “needs to increase sooner rather than later.” He spoke on Air Force One as President George W. Bush flew from his vacation in Texas to a speech to veterans in Florida.

Johndroe also said the United States does not agree with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the United States or any other country has to choose between Russia and Georgia.

Earlier, Russian forces dug foxholes and built a sentry post in a part of central Georgia far outside the security zone they are authorized to remain in after a mandated pullout that is being carried out slowly, if at all.

Russian soldiers at a checkpoint waved through a convoy of flatbed trucks carrying badly needed food to one of the areas worst hit by the fighting that started Aug. 7. But conditions throughout much of the battered country remained tense amid uncertainty about the intentions of the Russian forces that drove deep into Georgian territory.

At a military training school in the mountain town of Sachkhere, a eorgian sentry said he fears Russian forces will make good on their threat to return after a tense confrontation the day before.

The sentry, who gave his name only as Corporal Vasily, said 23 Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy guns showed up at the base on Tuesday and demanded to be let in. The Georgians refused and the Russians left after a 30-minute standoff but vowed to return after blowing up facilities in the village of Osiauri, he said.

Georgia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Russian soldiers destroyed military logistics facilities in Osiauri, but the claim could not immediately be confirmed.

The Georgian sentry said the school itself had no heavy weapons or other significant strategic value, unlike the military base raided by Russians at Senaki, near the port city of Poti.

Russian soldiers were setting up camp in at least three positions in west-central Georgia. Further east, soldiers were building a sentry post on a hill outside Igoeti, the closest point to the capital, Tbilisi, where Russian troops have maintained a significant presence.

A top Russian general, meanwhile, said Russia plans to construct nearly a score of checkpoints to be manned by hundreds of soldiers in the so-called security zone around the border with South Ossetia, the Russian-backed Georgian separatist region that was the flashpoint of the fighting.

A cease-fire, which calls for both sides to pull back to their pre-fighting positions, allows Russia to maintain troops in a zone extending 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) into Georgia along the South Ossetian border.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email