WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON - Even as Russia pledged to begin withdrawing its forces from neighboring Georgia today, U.S. officials said the Russian military had been moving launchers for short-range ballistic missiles into South Ossetia, a step that appeared intended to tighten its hold on the breakaway territory.
The Russian military deployed several SS-21 missile launchers and supply vehicles to South Ossetia on Friday, according to U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports. From the new launching positions north of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, the missiles can reach much of Georgia, including Tbilisi, the capital.
The Kremlin announced yesterday that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev had promised to begin the troop withdrawal in a conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who negotiated a six-point cease-fire agreement. Medvedev did not specify the pace or scope of the withdrawal, saying only that troops would withdraw to South Ossetia and a so-called security zone on its periphery.
The United States and European leaders reacted with wariness, and Russia's recent military moves appeared to add an element of frustration.
"Well, I just know that the Russian president said several days ago Russian military operations would stop. They didn't," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on NBC's Meet the Press. "This time I hope he means it. You know the word of the Russian president needs to be upheld by his forces."
Russia's efforts to strengthen its military position in the region have important political and military implications. U.S. officials have demanded that Russian troops pull back from their positions inside Georgia and that the Russian military presence in the enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia be limited to the Russian peacekeeping force that was there before the conflict erupted earlier this month. Ultimately, U.S. officials say, the Russian peacekeepers themselves should be replaced by a neutral, international peacekeeping force.
But instead of thinning out their forces in South Ossetia, the Russians appear to have been consolidating their presence there by deploying SS-21 missile launchers and, U.S. officials say, by installing surface-to-air missiles near their military headquarters in Tskhinvali. Such moves appear to buttress assertions last week by Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are to be separated from Georgia.
