United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

Russia acquiesced to signing a ceasefire agreement with Georgia on Saturday but apparently continued to ravage military assets and infrastructure on Georgian soil as Georgian President Saakashvili continued to direct insults toward the Russian forces and their leadership, Reuters reported.[1] -- Though Russia denied it, the Los Angeles Times claimed an eyewitness verified that a key Georgian railroad bridge was blown up Saturday.[2] -- "The blast in the Kaspi region caused immediate economic chaos," Megan K. Stack said, "forcing Azerbaijan to suspend crude oil shipments to the Black Sea ports, and stranding 72 Armenia-bound freight cars in Georgia." -- Meanwhile, "Russian soldiers dug in at strategic posts along the country's main roadway." -- "Russia has appeared to be taunting Georgia, sending tank columns roaring toward the capital only to turn them back again." -- "But despite the constant commotion of redeployment, the trend has been a creeping entrenchment that has engulfed strategically crucial Gori and moved steadily in on the capital, creating a swath of nearly abandoned towns and villages," Stack said. -- AFP reported that on Sunday in an article in the Sunday Telegraph a former head of the British armed forces recommended that the West accept that "The 'Near Abroad' — the countries bordering Russia — are strategically vital to its security," said General Sir Mike Jackson.[3] -- "For me, the right course for the West — without compromising its own position and values — is to show a greater understanding of why Russia behaves as it does, to accept more willingly Russia's concerns for its Near Abroad. . . . This is the challenge for politicians and diplomats: strategic military hostility and confrontation must remain a thing of the past." ...

TBILISI -- Russia and Georgia have signed a ceasefire agreement to end their war, but Russian troops remained in many parts of the Black Sea state on Sunday and tensions ran high between the two leaderships.

”Look at them. They are looters, they are drunkards,” Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said of Russian soldiers during a televised meeting in one village affected by fighting.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday signed a French peace plan already endorsed by Georgia and the two pro-Russian rebel regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are at the heart of the conflict.

But Moscow said that before withdrawing it would take unspecified ”extra security measures” on Georgian territory. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declined to be drawn on how long a pullout would take, saying: ”This does not just depend on us.”

Georgia accused Russian soldiers and Abkhazian ”armed gangs” of occupying more than a dozen Georgian villages and a hydro power plant, and physically abusing and robbing local people.

”The Russian troops are certainly not in any hurry to leave the country,” Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told the BBC.

”The pattern that we see on the ground is unmistakeable,” he said. ”Systematic destruction of our military infrastructure and a seemingly random but no less painful . . . degradation of our civilian infrastructure.”

Months of tension between Georgia and Russia erupted on Aug. 7, when Tbilisi launched an assault to retake its breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Moscow responded with overwhelming military force and crushed Georgian forces in a six-day war, justifying its intervention by saying it was obliged to defend Russian nationals in the region.

Russian Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said on Saturday that Georgian snipers were still shooting in South Ossetia and that Russian forces had engaged a ”Georgian sabotage group” near the Roki tunnel, the main crossing point for Russian troops into Georgia.

He denied Russian responsibility for the destruction of a key railway bridge near the town of Kaspi, which villagers said was blown up by men in military uniform.

The blast severed Georgia’s main east-west rail link. Neighboring Azerbaijan said that had forced it to suspend oil exports by rail to ports in western Georgia.

That served as reminder of Georgia’s importance as a energy transit state -- it hosts key oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, bypassing Russia.

The crisis marks Russia’s first military action against a former Soviet republic since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. It has raised Western fears of a new Russian national assertiveness that could threaten Caspian fuel supplies, and prompted concern in other ex-Soviet states.

President George W. Bush said the ceasefire was a ”hopeful step” but that Moscow must now pull its forces out. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, fresh from talks with Medvedev in southern Russia, was due to meet Saakashvili on Sunday.

Russian troops withdrew from an area 45 km (30 miles) from the Georgian capital on Saturday afternoon and a foreign military observer said it appeared a partial pullout might be under way, although that was not officially confirmed. Saakashvili condemned the Kremlin at a televised meeting with villagers.

”They didn’t manage to destroy the country, to destroy the government, to realize their wishes and dreams,” he said, holding a small boy in his arms.

”I promise you we will rebuild your houses . . . Our villages will be the best in the world.”

(Additional reporting by Oleg Shchedrov in Sochi, Ralph Boulton in Tbilisi, Ron Popeski in Moscow and Adrian Croft in London; Editing by Mark Trevelyan.)

** Russia denies destroying the railroad bridge that connects Georgia's east with its Black Sea ports. Russian troops appear to be digging in for a long stay. **

[PHOTO CAPTION: A key railway bridge was blown up by Russia and its allied forces, effectively severing all east-west transportation routes within Georgia, officials said.]

IGOETI, Georgia -- Even as Russia signed a cease-fire agreement with Georgia on Saturday, its troops destroyed a key railroad bridge that links the Caucasus region to the Black Sea coast, cutting off east-west transportation routes through the country, the Georgian Foreign Ministry announced.

Russia denied blowing up the bridge, calling the charge "another unverified allegation" in the wake of large-scale fighting over a pro-Moscow separatist republic. A Los Angeles Times photographer traveling in the area Saturday saw explosives attached to the underbelly of a nearby railroad bridge, but it was still intact.

The blast in the Kaspi region caused immediate economic chaos, forcing Azerbaijan to suspend crude oil shipments to the Black Sea ports, and stranding 72 Armenia-bound freight cars in Georgia, Interfax news agency reported.

The bridge attack came as Russian soldiers dug in at strategic posts along the country's main roadway, setting up gun positions, camouflaging their hardware with tree branches and hiking into the sunburned hills. Russian soldiers interviewed between the garrison town of Gori and the capital, Tbilisi, said they had been deployed to protect the road.

Tanks flying Russian flags were parked in this small town, about 25 miles from the capital, during most of the day. A Russian tank convoy that streamed from Gori to Igoeti on Saturday afternoon left fields burning in its wake, apparently set on fire by Russian troops.

By late afternoon, the Russian tanks had fallen back, but were still holding positions at the edge of the nearby Lekhura River.

Russia has appeared to be taunting Georgia, sending tank columns roaring toward the capital only to turn them back again. But despite the constant commotion of redeployment, the trend has been a creeping entrenchment that has engulfed strategically crucial Gori and moved steadily in on the capital, creating a swath of nearly abandoned towns and villages.

Russia's aggressive troop movements call into question its commitment to a cease-fire, Georgian and international officials said Saturday.

"I don't see why they signed it if they don't want to implement it," said Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, who was trying to make his way from Tbilisi to Gori to evaluate the state of the cease-fire.

But Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, seemed unfazed, telling reporters that the Russian troops may stay in Georgia for some time to come.

The departure of Russian troops would come gradually, and would depend upon "extra security measures" for Russia's soldiers in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia, Lavrov said. Asked how long the withdrawal would take, he replied, "As much as is needed," Interfax reported.

"This does not depend on us alone because we are constantly coming up against some problems on the Georgian side," he said. "Everything depends on how effectively and quickly these problems are solved."

Last week's fighting has increased tensions between Russia and the West, and especially soured relations between Moscow and Washington to a degree not seen since the Cold War.

The mutual frustration is expected to rise as Russia and the United States square off diplomatically over the fate of South Ossetia and Georgia's other breakaway republic, Abkhazia.

Washington has called on Russia to respect Georgia's borders and territorial integrity. Moscow, however, has vowed to back the republics' drive for independence, which critics regard as a veiled annexation of the former Soviet regions, both of which border Russia.

President Bush said Saturday that Russia could not claim the republics. "There is no room for debate on this matter," he said.

A day earlier, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had vowed that Georgia would never get back its breakaway regions.

"Unfortunately, after what has happened it is unlikely that the Ossetians and the Abkhazians will be able to live in one state together with the Georgians," Medvedev said Friday at a news conference in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

For the time being, Russia's troop movements in Georgia are being closely scrutinized for hints of Moscow's intentions.

"If they violate their own agreement, that has even more serious consequences," said Richard Holbrooke, a prominent former U.S. diplomat now in Georgia. "Each hour, each day, is a test."

In the cool shade of an acacia tree, the elders from the tiny roadside farming village of Natareti clumped miserably around a Russian tank. The men had approached the Russian troops not only to inquire how long they would stay, but also because they were hungry, they said plaintively.

"We are very scared. We don't know what to do," said Suliko Usradze, a 60-year-old farmer. "We can stand the fear, but not the hunger."

The Russian occupation has interrupted their harvest. They had no fuel for the tractors, and the soldiers had taken over their farmlands. They were out of bread and flour. They had nothing left to eat but potatoes.

The Russian troops had given them some canned food, the villagers said sheepishly.

"Let them take Saakashvili with them," griped Giorgi Aptsiauri, another white-haired farmer, referring to the Georgian president. "Look what condition we're in! If he steps down, the Russians will stop everything."

Times photographer Michael Robinson Chavez contributed to this report from Kaspi, Georgia.

LONDON -- The West should make more effort to understand Moscow's concerns in responding to Russia's actions in Georgia, a former head of the British armed forces said Sunday.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is concerned about states surrounding Russia joining NATO and the European Union, General Sir Mike Jackson wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

"The 'Near Abroad' -- the countries bordering Russia -- are strategically vital to its security," said Jackson, who commanded the NATO-led KFOR troops in Kosovo and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Hercegovina.

"Rightly or wrongly, Russia sees this as a zero-sum game: Putin has criticized Western leaders for being still locked into a Cold War mentality, but the reverse also seems to be true -- at least in part."

In Kosovo, "NATO relied for its justification on the emerging doctrine in international law that the prevention of humanitarian disaster -- of ethnic cleansing -- being perpetrated by a government on its own people can be more important than sovereignty itself.

"Whether we like it or not, this is precisely the justification advanced by Moscow for its intervention in Georgia," said Jackson, who headed Britain's armed forces from 2003 to 2006.

The problems arising from minority enclaves in Georgia, such as South Ossetia or Abkhazia are fundamentally political, rather than purely military, he wrote.

"Putin is determined to rebuild Russia's stature, and he is being much helped in this by the surge in energy prices.

"There is also evidence that after a decade and more of decline, the Russian armed forces are starting to rebuild and modernize.

"For me, the right course for the West -- without compromising its own position and values -- is to show a greater understanding of why Russia behaves as it does, to accept more willingly Russia's concerns for its Near Abroad.

"While there are actions that we cannot condone, Russian perceptions exist and will take time to change.

"This is the challenge for politicians and diplomats: strategic military hostility and confrontation must remain a thing of the past."