ABOARD THE USS MOUNT WHITNEY (AP) — The flagship of the U.S. Navy's Mediterranean fleet has delivered 17 tons of humanitarian aid to a strategic Georgian port — and Russian troops have been watching every move. The delivery of aid Saturday by the USS Mount Whitney to the city of Poti is the latest in a series of aid shipments that have demonstrated U.S. support for Georgia and have angered Russia. U.S. Naval officers say a Russian warship trailed the American ship across the Black Sea. They also say Russian military forces onshore were keeping a close eye on the Mount Whitney from a position just 3 miles away.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Georgia accused Russia on Monday of a "campaign of harassment and persecution" in its two separatist regions and called on the International Court of Justice to impose emergency measures to halt killings and forced expulsions. Also on Monday, in a blunt demonstration of who is in charge in the tense zone around South Ossetia, Russian soldiers turned back a United Nations convoy. The case opened a new legal front in the battle between Georgia and Russia for control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and began as French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Moscow with a European Union delegation for talks aimed at easing the standoff. Ethnic Georgians "are being forced out of their homes by a campaign of harassment and persecution," Tina Burjaliani, Georgia's first Deputy Minister of Justice, told the court.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will station nearly 8,000 troops in two breakaway Georgian provinces, officials said Tuesday, announcing an imposing long-term presence less than a day after agreeing to pull forces back from areas surrounding the provinces. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that level of military staffing was needed to prevent Georgia from trying to regain control of the two regions, which Russia has recognized as independent.
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