TSKHINVALI, GEORGIA — Russian flags waved and Russian music was performed at a patriotic concert Thursday in this war-torn city, the capital of Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia, as Moscow and its loyalists tightened their grip on territory that was the focus of clashes this month.
In front of a badly damaged government building, a Russian orchestra performed pieces by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich as 1,000 or so residents held up candles and the flags of Russia and South Ossetia, the catalyst in this month's conflict between Russia and Georgia.
"We are here today to express our admiration for you, to tell the whole world that we want it to know the truth about the horrible events in Tskhinvali," Valery Gergiev, an ethnic Ossetian Russian and well-known conductor who led the orchestra, told those gathered.
The concert was among the latest measures by Moscow to assert authority over territory that is technically part of Georgia, a small, staunchly pro-American Caucasus Mountains state that enraged Russia by pushing to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and attacking Russian positions in South Ossetia.
Moscow's punishment of Georgia extends beyond South Ossetia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that a contingent of 500 troops would remain at eight posts in Georgia proper, well outside South Ossetia, a pro-Moscow enclave that has been at odds with the central government in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.
If implemented, the plan would indefinitely place Russian soldiers where they could move against Georgian forces at a moment's notice. It would mean Russian troops would be deployed along Georgia's main east-west road, just outside the key transportation hub of Gori, near the country's railway line and the crucial U.S.-backed pipeline pumping Caspian Sea crude oil to tankers off the Turkish coast.
At a contentious meeting Thursday of the United Nations Security Council, Western envoys pressed Russia to clarify the role of the soldiers it intends to keep on Georgian soil.
"We have a presence of so-called Russian peacekeepers in key Georgian choke points that will control economic life, that will control humanitarian activities," Alejandro Wolff, the deputy U.S. representative to the U.N., said after the closed session. "It raises the question whether this is an effort to strangle the Georgian state."
