Russia sends mixed signals

Troops were seen leaving a key city, but others paraded blindfolded Georgian men.

POTI, Georgia (AP) — Russia took the first steps toward a troop pullback from Georgia on Tuesday but at the same time paraded blindfolded and bound Georgian prisoners on armored vehicles and seized four U.S. humvees.

The mixed signals came as NATO allies met in emergency session in Belgium and demanded Russia fulfill its promise to withdraw its forces from the small former Soviet republic.

A small Russian column including three tanks, three trucks, five armored personnel carriers and a rocket-launcher left Gori, the central city that straddles a vital east-west highway. A Russian officer said they were headed for South Ossetia, the disputed province at the heart of the conflict, then home to Russia.

The move toward withdrawal came on the same day as a powerful image of Russia’s grip over Georgia: Russian trucks and armored vehicles carrying about 20 Georgian men, blindfolded, handcuffed and held at gunpoint.

They were taken from the western city of Poti to the nearby, Russian-controlled military base in Senaki, according to Poti’s mayor, who said he had been told they would be released today.

Mayor Vano Taginadze said the men, Georgian military and police troops, had been taken captive because the Georgians refused to let Russian armored vehicles into the port of Poti, along Georgia’s Black Sea coast.

A Georgian defense spokeswoman said eight servicemen detained while trying to guard the port were among those held.

Also in Poti, Russian soldiers commandeered four humvees that had been used in U.S.-Georgian military exercises and were destined to be shipped back to the United States.

The Pentagon said it was looking into the theft. Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said Russian forces seized the vehicles.

Russian forces in Poti also blocked access to the city’s naval and commercial ports Tuesday morning and towed the missile boat Dioskuria, one of the navy’s most sophisticated vessels, out of sight of observers. A loud explosion was heard minutes later, and a Georgian interior spokesman said the Russians had blown up the boat.

The acts of force demonstrated anew that Russia, days after agreeing to a cease-fire with Georgia, remained in control in much of the country, and that the state of the Georgian military was far from stable.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Russia was not only flouting its withdrawal commitment but that its forces were “not losing time” in damaging Georgia by destroying infrastructure.

Georgian television showed footage of a tense standoff at a military training base in northwestern Georgia, where Russian troops tried to enter but were turned away by Georgia police. There was no violence, but the report said the Russians threatened to return and destroy the base if they were not allowed in.

The two nations did exchange 20 prisoners of war — 15 Georgians and five Russians, according to the head of Georgia’s Security Council — in an effort to reduce tensions.

On the diplomatic front, NATO foreign ministers suspended their formal contacts with Russia as punishment. Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said “there can be no business as usual with Russia under present circumstances.”

But the NATO allies, bowing to pressure from European nations that depend heavily on Russia for energy, stopped short of more severe penalties being pushed by the United States.

The Russian Ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, dismissed the impact of the emergency meeting in Brussels, Belgium: “The mountain gave birth to a mouse.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said NATO was trying to make a victim of Georgia’s “criminal regime.” Georgia’s desire for NATO membership is strongly opposed by Russia.

Also Tuesday, Georgia pleaded for the U.N. Security Council to demand that Russia immediately withdraw its troops.

The ambassadors of Georgia, the U.S. and Britain charged in an emergency council session that Russia was destroying Georgian infrastructure in a continuing military offensive that went far beyond the original conflict over the Russian-backed separatist province of South Ossetia.

Speaking in favor of a draft resolution introduced by France, the envoys criticized Russia for keeping troops in Georgia despite agreeing Saturday to a cease-fire.