Kiev/Moscow - Elements of Russia's Black Sea fleet shifted
locations on Wednesday in an possible move to avoid a confrontation
with a growing NATO warship flotilla near Georgia.
Russian naval vessels operating off of Georgia's coastline had
moved from a station in the vicinity of the Georgian port Poti into
'Abkhazian territorial waters,' said Sergei Menialo, commander of
Russia's Novorossisk naval base, according to an Interfax news agency
report.
The shift took a group of some six to eight Russian warships that
had been patrolling near the Georgian port of Poti out of the path of
US warships reportedly planning to make a humanitarian aid delivery
to the same location.
American officials on Tuesday said elements of the US 6th Fleet
would bring humanitarian aid to Poti for delivery to Georgian
refugees from the Russo-Georgian war.
The announcement put Washington on track for a Cold War-style
naval confrontation with Moscow, as elements of Russia's Black Sea
fleet have been enforcing a partial blockade on Poti since early
August.
The Russian squadron now off shore and tied up at Abkhazia, a
renegade Georgian province adjacent to the Georgia-owned port Poti,
was delivering humanitarian and other forms of aid via the Abkhazian
port Sukhumi, Menialo said.
The Russian guided missile cruiser and Black Sea fleet flagship
Moscow cancelled a planned return to its hope port Sevastopol in
Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, was at a Sukhumi pier as part of the
Russian naval operation, he added.
The Moscow, the largest warship operating on the Black Sea,
visited Sevastopol over the weekend, reloaded armaments and supplies,
and returned to sea immediately, Ukrainian naval intelligence sources
reported.
NATO led by the US began a dramatic increase to its naval presence
in the Black Sea in mid-August, after Russian refusal to abide by a
Russo-Georgian ceasefire plan engineered by French President Nicolas
Sarkozy.
The agreement among other conditions obliged all Russian and
Georgian forces to return to pre-war positions - a stipulation the
Kremlin has in some cases ignored.
Russian forces landed in early August near Poti now conduct
patrols into the port and continue hold road checkpoints inland. The
Russian occupation has made impossible most sea shipments between
Georgia and the rest of the world.
The NATO flotilla led by the American destroyer USS McFaul already
has exceeded ten warships and will reach eighteen vessels in coming
days, Kremlin officials citing Russian intelligence said Tuesday.
German, Polish, Spanish, and Canadian warships are among the
members of the multi-national squadron being assembled in the Black
Sea, according to Georgian media reports.
Russian admiral Sergei Kasatonov admitted the growing NATO naval
formation would soon be stronger than the Russian Black Sea warships
off Georgia and Abkhazia's shore, but added the Kremlin could in case
of a confrontation deal with the western vessels 'using other forms
of combat power, including aviation assets.'
Kasatonov's comments made in Moscow were among the first public
statements by a top Russian official of possible naval combat between
Russian and NATO forces in the Black Sea.
The motivation for the increasing NATO naval presence in the
region was 'primarily political and not military,' he added.
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