Russia Seizes Georgian Base, Opens Second Front
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TBILISI, Georgia — Russia opened a second front of fighting in Georgia today, sending armored vehicles beyond two breakaway provinces and seizing a military base and police stations in the country’s west, the Georgian government and a Russian official said.
The new forays into Georgia — even as Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili signed a cease-fire pledge — appeared to show Russian determination to subdue the small, American-backed country, which has been pressing for NATO membership.
The latest developments indicate that Russian troops have invaded Georgia proper from the separatist province of Abkhazia while most Georgian forces are locked up in fighting around another breakaway region of South Ossetia.
The West has sharply criticized Russia’s military response to Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia as disproportionate, and the world’s seven largest economic powers urged Russia today to accept an immediate cease-fire and agree to international mediation.
Secretary of State Rice and her colleagues from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations spoke by telephone and pledged their support for a negotiated solution to the conflict that has been raging since Friday between the former Soviet state and Russia, a State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the call had not yet been formally announced.
The Georgian Defense Ministry’s spokeswoman, Nana Intskerveli, said Russian armored personnel carriers rolled into the base at Senaki, about 20 miles inland from the Black Sea port of Poti.
A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman, Shota Utiashvili, said Russian forces also took over police stations in the town of Zugdidi — about 20 miles from the base and also outside Abkhazia.
At Moscow, a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name, confirmed the move into Senaki and said it was intended to prevent Georgian troops from concentrating.
The move followed Russia’s warning to Georgian forces west of Abkhazia to lay down arms or face a Russian military action. Senaki is located about 30 miles east of the Inguri River, which separates Abkhazia from Georgia proper.
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Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
