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Top Russian general names Israel as Georgian arms supplier

Aug. 19, 2008
Jpost.com staff and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST

Russian Deputy Chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn

Russian Deputy Chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn accused Israel in a Moscow press conference on Tuesday of arming the Georgian military with mines, explosive charges, special explosives for clearing minefields and eight kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

"In 2007, Israeli experts trained Georgian commandos in Georgia and there were plans to supply heavy weaponry, electronic weapons, tanks and other arms at a later date, but the deal didn't work out," Nogovitsyn said.

Georgia's Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia previously said that "Georgian corporals and sergeants train with Germans, alpine units and the navy work with French instructors, and special operations and urban warfare troops are taught by Israelis."

Nogovitsyn also said that the Russian soldiers had detained 20 mercenaries near the Georgian city of Poti, including three Arabs, all wearing Georgian army uniforms.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russia and Georgia exchanged prisoners of war, a move that could bring a substantial reduction in tensions and that Georgia hopes will expedite a Russian troop withdrawal from its territory.

Yet as NATO foreign ministers prepared to hold an emergency meeting in Brussels over a unified response to Russia's invasion of its tiny neighbor, there still was no sign of the Russian troop pullout from Georgia that was supposed to have begun Monday.

The prisoner exchange began as two Russian military helicopters landed in the village of Igoeti, the closest that Russian forces have advanced to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Soldiers and men in unmarked clothing got off and two people on stretchers were unloaded and taken to Georgian officials.

Georgian ambulances later brought two other people to the scene and took them to the Russian choppers. One was on a gurney.

Georgian Security Council head Alexander Lomaia told reporters in Igoeti that 15 Georgians and five Russians were exchanged. "It went smoothly," he said. The operation also witnessed by Russian Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Borisov, who commands troops in the area.

Lomaia said the exchange removed any pretext for Russians to keep holding positions in Igoeti, 50 kilometers west of Tbilisi, or anywhere else on Georgia' only significant east-west highway.

Russia announced Monday it had begun to pull back forces after a cease-fire agreement, but as of Tuesday morning there was no sign of significant movement in Igoeti or in the nearby strategically key city of Gori, which are among the deepest Russian military penetrations into Georgian territory.

Georgia tried to retake its separatist province of South Ossetia on Aug. 7, launching a heavy artillery barrage. Russian forces immediately came to the aid of their separatist allies, drove Georgian forces out of South Ossetia, and continued their military advance until they had a military stranglehold on their tiny neighbor.

With Western leaders anxiously watching for a withdrawal and puzzling over how to punish Moscow for what they called a "disproportionate" reaction, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev icily defended Russia's actions.

"Anyone who tries anything like that will face a crushing response," he said Monday. Later Medvedev handed out military medals to Russian soldiers involved in the fighting in the short but intense war which has stroked tensions between the West and a resurgent Russia.

The Russians appeared determined to interpret the cease-fire and promised withdrawal as they see fit. One Russian defense official indicated Tuesday a withdrawal from Georgia proper is not imminent - and on the ground there were few signs of a withdrawal.

"Rear units, as well as second- and third-echelon units are being pulled back first. The vanguard units will be pulled back at the final stage," Col. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for Russia's land forces, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Nogovitsyn said the withdrawal began Monday and that Russian forcing were leaving Gori.

Russian troops restricted access Monday to Gori, where most shops were shut and people mobbed a gate where relief supplies of bread were being handed out. Others milled around the central square, which features a statue of former Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin.

"The city is a cold place now. People are fearful," said Nona Khizanishvili, 44, who fled Gori a week ago for an outlying village and returned Monday, trying to reach her son in Tbilisi.

Four Russian armored personnel carriers, each carrying about 15 men, rolled Monday afternoon from Gori to Igoeti.

Russian troops were not afraid of demonstrating their superiority, either.

Georgia's Rustavi-2 television showed footage of a Russian armored vehicle smashing through Georgian police cars barricading the road to Gori on Monday. One of the cars was dragged along the street by the Russian armor. Georgian police stood by without raising their guns.

Russian troops and tanks have controlled a wide swath of Georgia for days, including the country's main east-west highway where Gori sits. The Russian presence cuts the small Caucasus Mountains nation in half and threatens pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili's efforts to keep it from falling apart after the war bolstered the chances that South Ossetia and another Russian-backed separatist region, Abkhazia, will remain free of Georgian rule.

In Brussels, Belgium, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to push NATO allies Tuesday to curtail high level meetings and military cooperation with Russia unless Moscow sticks to its cease-fire pledge to withdraw troops from Georgia.

US diplomats denied Russian claims that Washington wants to break up the NATO-Russian Council which was set up in 2002 to improve relations between the former Cold War foes.

But in a reflection of American anger over the Russian invasion of its small, pro-Western neighbor, a senior US official said Monday the alliance would have to rethink a range of planned activities _ from a meeting with Russia's defense minister foreseen in October, to regular military consultations in areas like counterterrorism, managing air space or rescue at sea.

The United States had called the emergency meeting of alliance foreign ministers, despite wariness among some European allies about further damaging relations with Moscow.

In western Georgia, convoys of Russian trucks and armored vehicles moved in and out of the base at Senaki all day Monday.

A series of explosions were heard from the base in the afternoon; later, three separate blasts that appeared to destroy the base's runway shook the leaves off trees more than 2 kilometers away, sending plumes of smoke into the sky.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said Russian forces had blown up the runway. There was no confirmation from Russian military officials.

According to the European Union-brokered peace plan signed by both Medvedev and Saakashvili, both sides are to pull forces back to the positions they held before fighting broke out.

But Nogovitsyn said the Russian troops were pulling back to South Ossetia and a security zone defined by a 1999 agreement of the "joint control commission" that had been nominally in charge of South Ossetia's status since it split from Georgia in the early 1990s.

Georgian and Russian officials could not immediately clarify the dimensions of the security zone, but Georgian government documents suggest it extends seven kilometers (4.4 miles) into Georgia beyond the border of South Ossetia.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy - who brokered the cease-fire deal - has said the operations it permits Russian peacekeepers to do until an international mechanism is in place cannot be conducted beyond the "immediate proximity of South Ossetia."

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