U.S. aid ship avoids conflict with Russians
Cutter makes port 50 miles south of Poti
BATUMI, Georgia – Avoiding a potential confrontation with Moscow, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter ferrying humanitarian aid to Georgia steered away from the Russian-patrolled port of Poti on Wednesday and docked in this quieter southern harbor instead.
The U.S. decision came as Russia sent a naval task force armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles into the waters off Abkhazia on Wednesday on a “peace and stability” mission, the Russian Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The United States had intended to send the Coast Guard cutter Dallas to Poti, along with a U.S. destroyer, USS McFaul, as its escort. Poti is Georgia’s main commercial port on the Black Sea, and it is still under Georgian control, but Russian forces continue to man two checkpoints around the town, which lies 15 miles south of the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia.
Russian troops now occupy Abhkazia, whose independence President Dmitry Medvedev recognized a day earlier. In preparation for the arrival of the Dallas, the U.S. Embassy’s disaster assistance team was preparing to dispatch trucks to Poti to receive the cargo.
But late Tuesday night U.S. military officials decided to send the Dallas to Batumi, 50 miles to the south, where the McFaul anchored on Sunday with a small cargo of aid.
A U.S. official in Georgia said that the decision was made “at the highest levels of the Pentagon” but would not elaborate. The official requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the subject.
The ship’s arrival in Batumi just after noon – watched by dozens of Georgians who gathered at dockside with American and Georgian flags – ended 24 hours of uncertainty over how Russia would respond to a U.S. vessel coming so close to its forces at a time when the Russia-Georgia war has inflamed tensions between Washington and Moscow.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday that Russia would not block humanitarian aid, but that delivering it to Poti “does not make (the) situation more stable.” Russia did not disclose its decision to send in its naval task force until after the announcement of the U.S. plan to send the McFaul and the Dallas.
The crew of the Dallas – which carried 38 tons of bottled water, baby food, soap and other relief supplies – said it opted to dock in the same port that the McFaul used three days ago rather than attempt to make landing at an unfamiliar port.
“The question of safety didn’t come up. We had all the cards on the table,” said Navy Commodore John Moore, commander of the task force that includes the Dallas.
But Georgian officials acknowledged the sensitivity of sending the ship to Poti. Not including Abkhazia, which is controlled by Russian and Abhkaz forces, Western diplomats say there are a total of 11 Russian checkpoints in northwestern Georgia, including two on the outskirts of Poti. An additional three checkpoints sit within 25 miles of Poti, near a main highway leading to the capital, Tbilisi.
Western diplomats say seven of those checkpoints, including those in and around Poti, are far from the conflict zone and violate the terms of the French-brokered cease-fire agreement. Russia has defended the checkpoints.
“Of course it is safer in Batumi,” said Levan Varshalomidze, governor of the Ajara region, which includes Batumi. “There are no Russians here.”
The U.S. Embassy’s disaster assistance team said that the aid being offloaded from the Dallas would travel by road to Tbilisi this week and later be dispatched to the areas around the town of Gori and the separatist province of South Ossetia, where the worst damage of the two-week conflict occurred.