French-brokered deal gives Russia grounds to advance
TBILISI, Georgia — It was early Wednesday when President Nicolas Sarkozy of France announced he had accomplished what seemed impossible: persuading Georgia and Russia to agree to a set of principles to stop the war.
But by the time the sun was up, Russian tanks were advancing, around strategic Gori, in central Georgia.
It soon became clear that the six-point deal not only failed to slow the Russian advance, it also allowed Russia to claim it could push deeper into Georgia as part of so-called additional security measures granted in the accord.
Sarkozy, said a senior Georgian official, also failed to persuade Russia to agree to any time limit on military action.
By midmorning, European officials warned of the risks of appeasing Russian aggression, while Georgian officials lamented the West's weak leverage.
"I'm talking about the impotence and inability of both Europe and the United States to be unified and to exert leverage, and to comprehend the level of the threat," said the Georgian official, who had sat in on the talks between Sarkozy and Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili.
The official later made a copy of the deal available to The New York Times with what he said were notes marking changes the Georgians had asked for but failed to attain.
Of gripping importance to Georgia is whether the agreement gave the Russians room to interpret the occupation of Gori and a zone around the city as agreed upon in the cease-fire, thus allowing them to control the main east-west road through the country, isolating the capital, Tbilisi, from the Black Sea coast and cutting off key supply routes.
France brokered the deal as the country holding the rotating presidency of the European Union. Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France, visited Tbilisi and left with a four-point cease-fire plan: no use of force; cease hostilities; open humanitarian corridors; and Georgian and Russian troops withdraw to their prewar positions.
In Moscow, the Russians, negotiating from a position of strength, insisted on two more points, the Georgian official said.
The Russians demanded that their troops be allowed to act in what was termed a peacekeeping role even outside the boundaries of the separatist enclaves where the war began. The vague language of the fifth point allows Russian peacekeepers to "implement additional security measures" while awaiting an international monitoring mechanism.
The Georgians asked that a timeline be included, but Russia rejected the proposal.
In the sixth point, both sides agreed to leave the future status of the contested separatist regions aside.
A senior U.S. official familiar with the talks also said the Russians insisted on the fifth point about the so-called additional security measures.
"I think it was presented as, 'You need to sign on to this,' " the official said of Sarkozy's appeal to the Georgians. "My guess is it was presented as, 'This is the best I can get.' "
French and Russian officials were unavailable to comment on the Georgian official's account of how the negotiations unfolded.
Both Sarkozy and Saakashvili announced the agreement around 2 a.m. Wednesday, and Russian tanks and troops moved toward Gori soon afterward.
The Russians cited the fifth provision, saying they had identified a threat to the local population that justified their troops assuming a peacekeeping role.
One senior U.S. official said the fifth point in the cease-fire deal could lead to further Russian advances, including on Tbilisi, to create panic and undermine support for Saakashvili.
This official said international acceptance of Russians as peacekeepers in Georgia "is absurd at this point."
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