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Kansas City Star, MO
Aug 30 2008
Russian presence near key Georgian port causes concern
By SHASHANK BENGALI and DAVE MONTGOMERY
McClatchy Newspapers
POTI, Georgia | Weeks before Russia invaded Georgia this month,
excavators in this key Black Sea port began work on a $200 million
tax-free zone to triple the port's capacity, Georgian officials said.
Some of that soft green earth now is occupied by Russian tanks and
soldiers camped behind huge, freshly dug trenches, within firing range
of ships approaching the port. A second Russian checkpoint is about a
mile away, along a river that's sometimes used to ferry goods into
eastern Georgia.
The Russian presence is a stark illustration of how this 150-year-old
port, which handles millions of tons of cargo moving between Europe
and Central Asia, is now a key pressure point in the standoff between
Russia and the West.
The port is functioning normally again, despite numerous news reports
to the contrary and the claim by President Mikhail Saakashvili of
Georgia, most recently in Thursday's Financial Times, that Russia
continues `to occupy' Poti.
The Persian Gulf-funded expansion project ' with its aim of creating,
according to Georgian officials, the Dubai of the Caucasus ' is now on
hold, however. And major questions remain about the Kremlin's
intentions here.
On Wednesday the U.S. shelved plans to unload 38 tons of humanitarian
cargo at Poti, not because the port was closed, but to avoid a
potential confrontation with Moscow. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter
Dallas delivered its cargo instead to Batumi, 50 miles to the south.
Poti is a key element in a network of seaports, railroads, highways
and energy pipelines to Azerbaijan and Armenia that makes Georgia a
major transit link between the East and West. The U.S. Commerce
Department has described the sleepy, working-class town of 50,000
people as the most important port in the mountainous Caucasus region,
which stretches east and west along Russia's southern border.
The expansion of the port has enhanced Georgia's strategic importance,
and some U.S. analysts think that Russia wants to dominate its former
Soviet neighbor to seize control of those transportation assets or to
stifle Western commerce in the region.
`It's a huge deal,' said Ariel Cohen of The Heritage Foundation, a
conservative research center in Washington. `What Russia is trying to
do is to plug the east-west transportation corridor that includes
railroads and pipelines.
`By controlling Poti, they're controlling the strategic bottleneck of
the southern Caucasus.'
While Russian forces haven't stopped cargo from entering or leaving
Poti, port officials are worried about what could happen if the forces
are provoked or after world attention on Georgia fades.
Friday's developments
¢ABSORPTION: Russia intends to eventually absorb Georgia's
breakaway province of South Ossetia, a South Ossetian official said,
three days after Moscow recognized the region as independent and drew
criticism from the West. A Kremlin spokeswoman said there was `no
official information' on the matter.
¢PROTESTS: Georgia severed diplomatic ties with Moscow to protest
the presence of Russian troops on its territory. Russia said the move
would only make things worse. Georgia's diplomats in Russia will leave
Moscow today, the Foreign Ministry said.
¢ENVOY?: EU leaders are not expected to impose sanctions on Russia
at their summit on Monday but may name a special envoy to Georgia to
ensure that a cease-fire is observed, French and Belgian officials
said. The U.S. and Europe have closed ranks in condemning Russia's
actions but are struggling to find an effective response.
¢POLISH CONCERNS: Poland's prime minister sought to reassure
worried residents near the site of a planned U.S. missile defense
base, pledging that they and the country would be more secure, despite
threats from an angry Russia.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/sto ry/774080.html
Aug 30 2008
Russian presence near key Georgian port causes concern
By SHASHANK BENGALI and DAVE MONTGOMERY
McClatchy Newspapers
POTI, Georgia | Weeks before Russia invaded Georgia this month,
excavators in this key Black Sea port began work on a $200 million
tax-free zone to triple the port's capacity, Georgian officials said.
Some of that soft green earth now is occupied by Russian tanks and
soldiers camped behind huge, freshly dug trenches, within firing range
of ships approaching the port. A second Russian checkpoint is about a
mile away, along a river that's sometimes used to ferry goods into
eastern Georgia.
The Russian presence is a stark illustration of how this 150-year-old
port, which handles millions of tons of cargo moving between Europe
and Central Asia, is now a key pressure point in the standoff between
Russia and the West.
The port is functioning normally again, despite numerous news reports
to the contrary and the claim by President Mikhail Saakashvili of
Georgia, most recently in Thursday's Financial Times, that Russia
continues `to occupy' Poti.
The Persian Gulf-funded expansion project ' with its aim of creating,
according to Georgian officials, the Dubai of the Caucasus ' is now on
hold, however. And major questions remain about the Kremlin's
intentions here.
On Wednesday the U.S. shelved plans to unload 38 tons of humanitarian
cargo at Poti, not because the port was closed, but to avoid a
potential confrontation with Moscow. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter
Dallas delivered its cargo instead to Batumi, 50 miles to the south.
Poti is a key element in a network of seaports, railroads, highways
and energy pipelines to Azerbaijan and Armenia that makes Georgia a
major transit link between the East and West. The U.S. Commerce
Department has described the sleepy, working-class town of 50,000
people as the most important port in the mountainous Caucasus region,
which stretches east and west along Russia's southern border.
The expansion of the port has enhanced Georgia's strategic importance,
and some U.S. analysts think that Russia wants to dominate its former
Soviet neighbor to seize control of those transportation assets or to
stifle Western commerce in the region.
`It's a huge deal,' said Ariel Cohen of The Heritage Foundation, a
conservative research center in Washington. `What Russia is trying to
do is to plug the east-west transportation corridor that includes
railroads and pipelines.
`By controlling Poti, they're controlling the strategic bottleneck of
the southern Caucasus.'
While Russian forces haven't stopped cargo from entering or leaving
Poti, port officials are worried about what could happen if the forces
are provoked or after world attention on Georgia fades.
Friday's developments
¢ABSORPTION: Russia intends to eventually absorb Georgia's
breakaway province of South Ossetia, a South Ossetian official said,
three days after Moscow recognized the region as independent and drew
criticism from the West. A Kremlin spokeswoman said there was `no
official information' on the matter.
¢PROTESTS: Georgia severed diplomatic ties with Moscow to protest
the presence of Russian troops on its territory. Russia said the move
would only make things worse. Georgia's diplomats in Russia will leave
Moscow today, the Foreign Ministry said.
¢ENVOY?: EU leaders are not expected to impose sanctions on Russia
at their summit on Monday but may name a special envoy to Georgia to
ensure that a cease-fire is observed, French and Belgian officials
said. The U.S. and Europe have closed ranks in condemning Russia's
actions but are struggling to find an effective response.
¢POLISH CONCERNS: Poland's prime minister sought to reassure
worried residents near the site of a planned U.S. missile defense
base, pledging that they and the country would be more secure, despite
threats from an angry Russia.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/sto ry/774080.html