Russia captures 20 at Georgian port city

RUSSIAN soldiers took about 20 Georgians in military uniform prisoner at a key Black Sea port in western Georgia yesterday, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and commandeered American military vehicles awaiting shipment back to the US.

The move came as a small column of Russian tanks and armoured vehicles left the strategic city of Gori in the first sign of a Russian pullback of troops from Georgia.

The two countries yesterday also exchanged prisoners, 15 Georgians and five Russians. However, Russian soldiers seized Georgians in Poti — the country’s key oil port city — and commandeered four US Humvees that had been used in US- Georgian military exercises.