Russian forces destroy key Georgian bridge
The move came a day after the Georgian president signed a French-backed cease-fire proposal during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
IGOETI, Georgia -- Russia and its allied forces today destroyed a key railway bridge linking this war-weary country's capital to the Western Black Sea coast, effectively severing all east-west transportation routes within the small country, the Georgian foreign ministry announced.
Russian soldiers occupying the central Georgian town of Gori also pushed forward 14 miles toward the capital, setting up positions on the country's main east-west road 25 miles from Tbilisi. Adjacent agricultural fields were set afire, apparently by Russian soldiers.
Russian soldiers interviewed along the road between Russian-controlled Gori and Igoeti said their mission was to protect the road. They could be seen hiking up toward hilltop positions and setting up checkpoints and tank positions and conducting what appeared to be foot patrols.
Nearby villagers were in a panic.
Russian troops in military convoys garrisoned in Gori for several days have numerous times moved toward the capital before heading quickly back. Today marked the first time they set up positions so close to the capital.
The destruction of the bridge in the country's Kaspi district "resulted in the severing of railway links between the east and west of Georgia and connections with Georgia's seaports," said a news release issued by the Georgian foreign ministry.
The Russian moves came a day after Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili signed a French-backed cease-fire proposal during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The U.S. envoy was the highest-ranking American official to visit Georgia since war over control of the Russian-backed separatist enclave in the country broke out Aug. 7. She called on Russia to remove troops and allied paramilitary forces out of Georgia proper or else face diplomatic and possible economic isolation.
"Russia needs to leave Georgia at once," she said at a news conference Friday. "This is no longer 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, when a great power invaded a small neighbor and overthrew its government," she added, in reference to the Soviet Union's crushing of the "Prague Spring" liberalization movement.
But Russian officials sounded ever more defiant, vowing again that Georgia would never get back its breakaway regions.
