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Tom Foreman asks Michael for an update. The Russian troops are now only 29 miles east of Tbilisi. They are now controlling not only the two breakaway regions, but the land between. Michael believes that they will go to the bargaining table that way, and then 'negotiate' down to only keeping the two disputed regions. Pretty damned slick.
TOM
FOREMAN: The anger and suffering in Georgia is
growing by the day. The U.N. says almost 120,000
people have been uprooted, most of them Georgians, a
week after Russia intervened in a dispute over
breakaway provinces.
CNN's Michael Ware is on the ground in Georgia.
Michael, what have you seen today?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well,
Tom, what I can tell you is that America's demand for
a Russian troop withdrawal is not only going
unheeded, it's actually being defied. As I stand here
speaking to you from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi,
Russian forces are closer than they've ever been,
about 29 miles away from the city.
Now, also, that's on the eastern front of this war.
Remember, the Russians attacked across two fronts.
Today we went and visited the western front, which
has received very little attention.
Now, at stake over there, on the Black Sea coast, is
the all-important seaport of Poti. Now, whilst that
was thought to be under Russian occupation, when we
got there, we found that indeed, yes, the Russians
were there, but only in a very small presence.
They had sunk a number of Georgian vessels, coast
guard and navy vessels. They were conducting armored
patrols of the city. But they were not controlling
the city as such.
Now, we've since heard from Georgian officials that
that small element has just pulled out of the
seaport. However, there's a much greater concern,
Tom.
What we discovered as we continued to explore the
western front is that in fact a much larger Russian
force is in presence in the west of the country. And
in fact, they are digging in.
We saw Russian artillery dug into fields and covered
by camouflage. We saw numerous tanks and armored
vehicles and hundreds of troops that seem to have
taken up barracks on a key intersection that cuts the
country, commands the rail lines, and still holds the
seaport's oil tankers at their mercy.
So the Russians are doing quite the opposite of what
America wants, and they seem to be pressing their
advantage -- Tom.
FOREMAN: Michael, I want to bring the map up here and
talk about what you just said and ask you a very
important question in all of this.
The location you're in right now, if you went north,
you would wind up in the Ossetia region that we
talked about, where the Russians first seemed to be
hitting hard. The area you're talking about over here
on the Black Sea near the oil ports is the other
part, Abkhazia. And what you're describing is a
situation where the Russians have a substantial
presence in the entire upper western quadrant of this
country right now.
With that in mind, can this cease-fire work?
WARE: Well, it can, but I suspect that it's going to
work much more on Russia's terms than certainly the
Georgian government or Washington would like. Very
much, the cards remain in Russia's favor.
And as we see on the western front, when the flash
point started in South Ossetia, here in the east,
Russia used that as an invitation to also invade in
the west, into another breakaway enclave, as you say,
Abkhazia. But they didn't stop there. As they did
here, near the capital, they pressed further south
into Georgia proper. And as we say, we witnessed near
the western town of Senaki, they dug in, in force.
Now, that's going to have major implications to any
cease-fire. And it's certainly going to be an
extremely effective bargaining tool.
With the Russian presence on the eastern and western
fronts, deeper inside Georgia, that allows the
Russians room to maneuver at the negotiating table.
They can hold out, they can keep their troops here,
and use it as a so-called compromise to merely pull
their troops back to the breakaway enclaves.
It's going to be a very effective negotiating
technique -- Tom.
FOREMAN: And that close to Tbilisi, certainly
something to watch.
Thanks so much, Michael.