WASHINGTON - With President Bush warning Russia that its push into Georgia could jeopardize relations with the U.S. and Europe, the United States signaled yesterday that any retribution will be aimed at the Russian economy and prestige.
Russia's pummeling of Georgian troops has left Washington with few palatable military options, said administration officials who requested anonymity when discussing internal policy decisions. But while acknowledging that military aid to Georgia was off the table and sanctions against Russia were impractical, they insisted that the United States could take longer-term economic and diplomatic measures that would hit the Kremlin hard.
"Just because we are not rushing to place U.S. infantry in Tbilisi does not mean the world is impotent in the face of this aggression," said a senior Pentagon official.
The U.S. policy debate came as Russia's military forces opened new fronts in its conflict with Georgia yesterday, capturing strategic ground near the city of Gori beyond South Ossetia and overrunning a military base outside a separate breakaway province, Georgian authorities said.
The moves heightened fears in Georgia that the Kremlin's ultimate aim is to bring the West-allied nation back into Moscow's fold.
Georgian authorities said their troops and military vehicles based in Gori retreated to within 15 miles of the capital, Tbilisi, after Russian forces pushed into the central city.
Gori had been a staging point for Georgia's all-out assault on the separatist region of South Ossetia last week, setting off an international crisis that diplomats have been scrambling to contain. Russia responded with a display of military force that included bombing raids on Gori and other cities in Georgia where military facilities are based.
Russia's Defense Ministry denied that its troops were in Gori, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
The incursions into Gori and the region outside Abkhazia, Georgia's other separatist-controlled province, marked the first time that Russian troops have entered a part of Georgia not controlled by a Moscow-backed separatist government.
U.S. officials said the most likely options to pressure Russia were through global institutions. Russia is attempting to join the World Trade Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Membership is now likely to be blocked, they said.
