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POTI, Georgia (AP) — Russian forces blocked the only land entrance to Georgia's main oil port city on Thursday, a day before Russia promised to complete a troop pullout from its ex-Soviet neighbor. Armored personnel carriers and troop trucks blocked the bridge to the Black Sea port city of Poti, and Russian forces excavated trenches and set up mortars facing the city. Another group of APCs and trucks were positioned in a nearby wooded area. Although Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has promised that his forces would pull back by Friday, Russian troops appear to be digging in, raising concern about...

Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia On August 19, 2008, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General A. Nogovitsyn stated that the Russian peacekeepers had apprehended and disarmed twenty heavily armed Georgian paramilitaries, who were driving Hummer type five military vehicles (HAMVEE). The above statement is slanderous and does not adequately reflect the real state of affairs. After Russian military forces have left the territory of the Poti civilian seaport, on August 19, at 01:00 am, twenty Georgian military servicemen, armed with light weapons, were introduced there in order to...

Excerpt - POTI, Georgia -- Russian troops briefly seized control of the economically vital Georgian port of Poti Tuesday morning, a day after Moscow said it had begun pulling its forces out of Georgia. ~ snip ~ The Russians also confiscated five jeeps and an armored Humvee belonging to the U.S. armed forces, according to Alan Middleton, CEO of Poti Sea Port Corp. He said the equipment was used for joint U.S.-Georgian military exercises and was sitting in the Poti container terminal ready to be shipped back to a U.S. base in Europe. "I suppose the U.S. won't be impressed...

Russian soldiers held blindfolded Georgian servicemen at gunpoint on top of military vehicles today and commandeered US Humvees in the key Black Sea port of Poti. Elsewhere, Russia exchanged POWs with Georgia and pulled back some troops from the strategic city of Gori. It was a day of deeply mixed messages that left the small, war-battered country full of anxiety about whether Russia was aiming for a long-term military presence in Georgia or was just trying to inflict the maximum damage before adhering to a troop withdrawal that Russia promised under a EU-brokered cease-fire. At an emergency meeting in Brussels,...

POTI, Georgia - Russian soldiers took about 20 Georgians in military uniform prisoner at a key Black Sea port in western Georgia on Tuesday, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United States.

Source: Reuters POTI, Georgia, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Georgia accused Russian forces on Tuesday of entering the oil shipment port of Poti on the Black Sea and detaining 20 Georgian police officers. "They entered the civlian port and kicked everyone out," said Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili. A Reuters cameraman saw several men blindfolded and placed in Russian armoured personnel carriers (APCs), which then headed east to the town of Senaki. (Reporting by Matt Robinson; Editing by Charles Dick)

<p>RUISI, Georgia - Russian soldiers took 20 Georgian troops prisoner at a key port in western Georgia on Tuesday, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United States.</p> <p>The move came as a small column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles left the strategic Georgian city of Gori in the first sign of a Russian pullback of troops from Georgia after a cease-fire intended to end fighting that reignited Cold War tensions. The two countries on Tuesday also exchanged prisoners captured during their brief war.</p>

US raises the stakes with missile shield pact to defend Poland The United States accused Russia yesterday of waging a campaign to cripple Georgia’s ability to defend itself in the future. As American military transport aircraft landed in Tbilisi to strong complaints from Moscow, the Russian Army undertook search-and-destroy missions on Georgian soil, defying the ceasefire agreement brokered by President Sarkozy of France. Tanks and soldiers continued to occupy Gori despite promising to leave by yesterday. A Georgian military base in the city was destroyed and the Georgian Ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe accused the...

TBILISI, Georgia — Georgia remained in a state of uncertainty Thursday as Russian troops retreated from and then returned to the city of Gori and spent much of the day destroying or carrying away captured Georgian military equipment. Elsewhere in the country, Russian tanks and trucks rolled along country roads toward unknown destinations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that Georgia could "forget about" ever regaining the two secessionist regions that are at the heart of the conflict. At the Kremlin, President Dmitry Medvedev warmly received the political leaders of the zones, which Georgia and the United States insist remain...

<p>GORI, Georgia (AP) - The Georgian Foreign Ministry says more Russian troops have moved into the strategically key city of Gori even though a withdrawal had appeared to be under way earlier in the day.</p> <p>Ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani also said Thursday that Russian troops had moved into the Black Sea oil port city of Poti, from which they had appeared to leave earlier.</p>