08/14/2008 | montrealais

Russians Still in Control of Gori
U.N. Officials Robbed at Russian Checkpoint
By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV
August 14, 2008 12:06 p.m.

GORI, Georgia -- A stocky man in camouflage fatigues who walked from behind a Russian tank seemed like any other Russian soldier at the main military checkpoint just inside this occupied Georgian city. Then, he pulled out a pistol, stuck it into the thigh of a United Nations official, and demanded the keys to a gleaming SUV parked nearby.

Seconds later, he pointed the gun at the feet of another international official, collected another pair of car keys, and -- unleashing a volley of obscenities -- fired two shots in the air. Suddenly, dozens of journalists, aid workers and diplomats rushed to their cars as Russian troops sat atop several tanks, watching the mayhem around them with amused detachment.

Three staffers of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, their vehicle seized at gunpoint, sought refuge in the back of a speeding Wall Street Journal car, breaking a window as they jumped inside. "This is not a very safe place," exhaled Nikolai Vanchev, the UNHCR field safety adviser, as he caught his breath and tried to relay a protest to the Russian Embassy.

Mr. Vanchev, a Bulgarian citizen, said that his agency lost two SUVs to the marauders at the Gori checkpoint.

The gunman's thin white armband meant that he was almost certainly a member of Russian-backed fighters from South Ossetia, the breakaway province of Georgia where fighting first erupted a weeka go.

His brazen behavior belied a series of claims made at the very same checkpoint by the top Russian commander in Gori, General Vyacheslav Borisov -- who assured reporters Wednesday night that there are no Ossetian irregulars in the city, that Russian forces have deployed in Gori to restore order, and that his soldiers would execute anyone found looting or marauding.

The most important of Gen. Borisov's promises was that Georgian police would be allowed to re-enter Gori on Thursday, and that Russian forces would start to withdraw. While Gori lies well outside South Ossetia and its pre-war population was overwhelmingly ethnic Georgian, the city is claimed by Russian-backed Ossetian nationalists as part of their homeland.

Russia has issued most South Ossetians with Russian passports, and has justified its intervention -- the biggest Russian military campaign abroad since the Soviet Union's collapse -- by the need to protect fellow citizens from what it described as "genocide" at the hands of Georgian forces.

Ossetian irregulars entered Gori on Wendesday, prompting an exodus of ethnic Georgian refugees who recounted tales of looting, burning and shooting. Most of central Gori is still held by Ossetian militias, while the Russian forces are deployed mostly in the outskirts.

In coordination with Russian authorities, a small contingent of Georgian police appeared on the outskirts of Gori Thursday morning. Georgian cops manned some checkpoints jointly with Russian troops for about an hour, but were not actually allowed inside the city, Georgian interior ministry spokesman Sota Utiashvili said.

Tensions began to rise by midday, as Georgian military units -- some riding in armored personnel carriers, and others carrying anti-tank missiles -- edged closer and closer to Russian positions. A Russian general then came out to announce that no armed Georgians would be allowed into Gori. Once journalists and international observers were chased off by marauders, Russian tanks roared their engines and inched forward, forcing Georgian personnel to retreat. A few explosions rang out.

Before this confrontation, Russian soldiers tersely answered some journalists' questions as they sat atop T-72 tanks that, they said, were previously deployed in Russia's volatile Chechen republic.

Some of them wore American-made armored vests that were marked in Georgian script with the names of their previous owners. The soldiers refused to explain how exactly these vests came into their possession.

One tank crewman, his machine parked under a gaudy billboard advertising Georgian lottery, smiled quizzically when asked when Russian troops will leave Gori. "You'll know it when you will see us leaving -- not before," he said.

Crouching with a heavy machine-gun behind a bush nearby, another Russian soldier pondered for a minute when asked whether his unit is likely to proceed from Gori to Georgian capital city Tbilisi. Then, he spat and answered firmly: "Anyone who stands up to Russia, we shall destroy them."