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IGOETI, GEORGIA–Even as Russia signed a ceasefire agreement with Georgia yesterday, the Georgian foreign ministry accused Russian troops of destroying a key railroad bridge that links the Caucasus region to the Black Sea coast, effectively cutting off east-west transportation through the country.
Russia denied blowing up the bridge, calling the charge "another unverified allegation" in the wake of large-scale fighting over a pro-Moscow separatist republic.
A Los Angeles Times photographer travelling in the area saw explosives attached to the underbelly of a nearby railroad bridge, but it was still intact. The blast in the Kaspi region forced Azerbaijan to suspend the transport of crude oil to the Black Sea ports and stranded 72 Armenia-bound freight cars in Georgia, Interfax reported.
The bridge attack came as Russian soldiers dug into strategic posts along the country's main roadway, setting up gun positions, camouflaging their hardware with tree branches and hiking on foot into the sunburned hills.
Russian soldiers interviewed between the garrison town of Gori and the capital, Tbilisi, said they had been deployed to protect the road. Tanks flying Russian flags were parked in this small town, about 40 kilometres from the capital, for most of the day.
A Russian tank convoy that streamed from Gori to Igoeti yesterday left fields burning in its wake, apparently lit on fire by Russian troops. By late afternoon, the Russian tanks had fallen back but were holding positions at the edge of the nearby Lekhura River.
Russia's aggressive troop movements in Georgia proper call into question its commitment to a ceasefire, Georgian and international officials said.
"I don't see why they signed it if they don't want to implement it," said Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, who was trying to make his way from Tbilisi to Gori to evaluate the state of the ceasefire.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Russian troops might stay put in Georgia for some time.
Any departure would come gradually and would depend upon "extra security measures" for Russia's soldiers in the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, Lavrov said. Asked how long the withdrawal would take, Lavrov replied: "As much as is needed," Interfax reported.
Last week's fighting has ramped up tensions between Russia and the West and soured relations between Moscow and Washington to a degree not seen since the Cold War.
The mutual frustration probably will rise as Russia and the United States square off diplomatically over the fate of South Ossetia and Georgia's other breakaway republic, Abkhazia. Washington has called for Georgia's borders and territorial integrity to be respected. Moscow has vowed to back the republics' drive for independence, which critics regard as a veiled annexation of the former Soviet lands.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who spoke by phone yesterday to President George W. Bush about the situation in Georgia, said he hoped Russian troops would withdraw quickly, according to a spokesperson.
But the Prime Minister's Office wouldn't say whether Harper would be willing or able to commit Canada to participating in any peacekeeping force called for by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
With files from Star wire services
