BRUSSELS — The Western military alliance Tuesday began curtailing ties with Russia for its "disproportionate" use of force in Georgia, but the foreign ministers at an emergency gathering of North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries stopped short of agreeing to rearm the beleaguered state or to take other such tough measures.
A parallel debate at the United Nations ended in a standoff as Western powers pressed the Security Council to demand immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia. Russia, which holds a veto on the council, condemned the initiative, and it did not come to a vote.
Both diplomatic moves to isolate Moscow came as Russian troops continued to conduct potentially provocative military operations throughout Georgia and showed little sign of abiding by an agreement signed in Moscow over the weekend to withdraw from the country.
Russian reaction to the stepped-up Western pressure was dismissive. Its envoys called the emergency Security Council session "a waste of time" and NATO's statement irrelevant.
"The mountain gave birth to a mouse," said Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's envoy to NATO.
In the Black Sea city of Poti, Russian soldiers in armored vehicles stormed into Georgia's main civilian port and arrested 20 soldiers guarding the site, said Interior Ministry officials in Tbilisi, the capital. The Russians allegedly looted the site, swiping ammunition that belonged to the U.S. troops who were in Georgia as part of a military exercise conducted in July.
Russian armored vehicles also tried to enter a Georgian military base in the western city of Sachkhere before they were turned back by police, a Georgian Foreign Ministry news release said. The Russians allegedly warned that they would be back with reinforcements.
Despite the hostilities, the two sides exchanged prisoners of war Tuesday at a handoff near Igoeti, 25 miles west of the capital. Fifteen haggard but otherwise healthy Georgians were swapped for five Russians.
In response to the crisis, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, a group representing 56 nations, decided to dispatch as many as 100 unarmed peace monitors to Georgia as a possible prelude to deploying an international peacekeeping force, the group announced.
And NATO ministers said in a two-page statement that they were "considering seriously the implications of Russia's actions for the NATO-Russia relationship."
