Rice heads to Tbilisi as Russia questions US aid

US military planes delivered aid to Georgia on Thursday after George W. Bush ordered a “vigorous” humanitarian mission and dispatched Condolezza Rice to Tbilisi to convey America’s “unwavering support” for the democratically elected government.The US president also said he expected Russia to ensure that “all lines of communication and transport” were open to humanitarian supplies, and to withdraw “all Russian forces that entered Georgia in recent days”.The deputy chief of Russia’s armed forces, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, called on the US to disclose what was inside the cargoes Washington is shipping as humanitarian aid. ”Lets ask the Amercian side so that you are convinced of whether the cargo is humanitarian or not,” he said. ”Why don’t they lift the curtain for us about what is being supplied? Russia is very concerned about this.”Meanwhile, Russian troops and armour moved in or around at least three Georgian towns on Thursday, ignoring demands by Washington that Moscow respect Georgia’s territorial integrity. Reuters witnesses saw Russian troops in the key central Georgian town of Gori and outside the western town of Zugdidi. Residents in the Black Sea port of Poti saw a Russian incursion.Col-general Nogovitsyn told a news conference it was legitimate for Russian peacekeepers to be in the Georgian port town of Poti for intelligence operations.He also said Russia’s Black Sea fleet would take commands only from the Russian President after Ukraine’s president Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree requiring authorisation for Russian warships to return to their base in Sevastopol, a Crimean port which is part of Ukraine.While White House officials insisted the aid mission was purely humanitarian, the arrival of US forces marked an intensification of Washington’s response to the crisis after criticism of its relatively low-key role in previous days.Mr Bush expected Russia to ensure that “all lines of communication and transport” were open to humanitarian supplies, and to withdraw “all Russian forces that entered Georgia in recent days”.On Wednesday, Georgia accused Russia of breaking the terms of Tuesday’s ceasefire, when Russian forces destroyed an abandoned military base in Gori, near the pro-Russian enclave of South Ossetia where the conflict erupted.At an emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, European Union foreign ministers endorsed Tuesday’s peace deal and expressed broad support for sending peacekeepers to South Ossetia, subject to United Nations approval.Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said Moscow would not object to the addition of international peacekeepers to South Ossetia but insisted Russian forces would remain in the enclave.The UK on Wednesday pulled its Royal Navy out of a planned Nato military exercise involving Russia, saying it would be “highly inappropriate” to continue in the “current circumstances”.Mr Bush also issued a veiled threat to expel Russia from the Group of Eight industrialised nations and block its accession to the World Trade Organisation, warning that its actions in Georgia were “inconsistent with the principles” of such institutions.“Russia's ongoing action raises serious questions about its intentions in Georgia and the region,” he said. “To begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis.”Mr Lavrov said the US must choose between supporting its “special project” in Georgia and forging a “real partnership” with Moscow.Mr Saakashvili criticised western countries for not reacting strongly enough to Russian aggression, warning that Moscow was “fighting a proxy war with the west through us”.
Additional reporting by George Parker in London
By Andrew Ward in Washington, Stanley Pignal in Brussels and Catherine Belton in Moscow
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67ca36f6-6962-11dd-91bd-0000779fd18c.html
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