Russia 'breaks cease-fire deal'

Russia apparently went back on its word to quit the key Georgian city of Gori today.

Initially Russian forces were reported to be leaving the city that they had taken the day before despite a cease-fire.

Georgian officials had entered it today and believed it empty.

But after they began to leave they were confronted by Russian tanks and soldiers.

The Georgian Defence Ministry also said that Russian troops had moved into the Black Sea oil port city of Poti, from which they had appeared to leave earlier.

The Russians entered Gori yesterday hours after both sides signed a cease-fire agreement that called for their forces to be pulled back to the positions they held before the fighting started a week ago.

The truce allows Russian forces to take unspecified “security measures,” raising the possibility they could try to stay in Georgia proper under the justification of protecting their troops in the nearby breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Gori was battered by sporadic Russian bombing before the cease-fire, with Russia saying it was targeting a military base near the city. The city sits along the country’s only significant east-west road, and the arrival of Russian troops sparked suspicion that Russia would effectively try to cut the country in half.

The confused situation was yet another example of how the West’s intelligence on developments in the war-battered country has been hampered by confusing reports from the ground.

White House press spokeswoman Dana Perino admitted: “We are working to get concrete information. It’s not the easiest thing in the world given the geography and the cutoff of information.”

Meanwhile the US began sending in humanitarian aid. The first shipment arrived on a military C-17, a reminder of the close US-Georgia military cooperation that has angered Russia.