Russia calls off assault in Georgia

Both sides agree on terms to end war

TBILISI, Georgia - The presidents of Georgia and Russia agreed early today on a framework that could end the war that flared up here five days ago, after Russia reasserted its traditional dominance of the region.

Russian airstrikes continued during the day, however, and antagonism seethed on both sides.

Declaring that "the aggressor has been punished," President Dmitri A. Medvedev announced early yesterday that Russia would stop its campaign. By 2 a.m. today, he and his Georgian counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili, had agreed to a plan that would withdraw troops to the positions they had occupied before the fighting broke out.

Whether the agreement holds or not, Russia has achieved its goals, effectively creating a new reality on the ground, humiliating the Georgian military, and increasing the pressure on Saakashvili, a longtime antagonist.

Russian authorities make no secret of their desire to see Saakashvili tried on war crimes charges in The Hague and could well attempt other measures to undermine him. Medvedev also authorized Russian soldiers to fire on "hotbeds of resistance and other aggressive actions." As the conflict cools and hardens, the two separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, could wind up permanently annexed by Russia.

But in signing on to an accord, Russia appears to have stopped short of a full-scale invasion that would have triggered a broader Cold War-style confrontation with the West. Its actions already have aroused widespread alarm about Russia's redrawing of the geopolitical map, and some fear that Moscow's crackdown might have undermined democratic gains in a region that was once part of the Soviet sphere. But Saakashvili's military attack on the South Ossetians has also been criticized as needlessly provocative.

"The tanks should go. I hope they will," said Saakashvili, emerging from a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who carried the document from Moscow to Tbilisi.

"There was a degree of constructive ambiguity" in the document that allowed the announcement to be made today, said a senior European diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Western negotiators, who have shuttled between the Georgian and Russian governments for days, said they were optimistic that the crisis was under control.

"Traditionally, we will see a few skirmishes, but frontal attacks and positioning will end," said Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb of Finland, the chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The Bush administration is expected to cancel a scheduled naval exercise with Russia and to press NATO to prohibit a Russian warship from joining a separate alliance exercise. Cancellation would be the first concrete reprisal against Russia for its military actions in Georgia.

As the news of a cease-fire filtered across Georgia, citizens reacted with relief and defiance. At a rally in Tbilisi, a euphoric crowd waved signs that read "Stop Russia," and Saakashvili announced Georgia's withdrawal from the "Russia-dominated" Commonwealth of Independent States.

"I saw Russian planes bombing our villages and killing our soldiers, but I could not do anything, and this will always be with me," he said. "I promise that I will make them regret this."

The presidents of five former Soviet satellite states - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, and Poland - flew into Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, and appeared beside Saakashvili in a show of solidarity.

"I am a Georgian," said Toomas Hendrick Ilves, the president of Estonia.

In Gori, citizens ventured out of their hiding places and began to sweep up glass and debris. Cars began to move on the streets of the city, where five people, including a Dutch journalist, had been killed earlier in the day. Izmar Chivolidze sat on a curb that was stained with blood and strewn with broken glass.

"Putin did this," he said, speaking of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. "Putin created this circus."

Other areas of the country remained on a war footing. In the port of Poti, bombs were heard falling an hour after Medvedev's statement. Georgia withdrew its remaining forces from the Kodori Gorge after four days of attacks by Abkhaz and Russian forces, said Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for Georgia's Interior Ministry. He said 22 civilians had been killed during the day.

"Russia has said it has ended its invasion, but in reality, it has not," Utiashvili said. "We should all prepare for the worst."

The long-running dispute between Russia and Georgia boiled over Thursday, after Saakashvili ordered Georgian forces to move into South Ossetia, a breakaway region with strong ties to Russia. Russian authorities assert that 2,000 people were killed in fighting around Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, and that more than 30,000 refugees fled over the Russian border.

These numbers could not be confirmed independently.

By Tuesday morning, Georgian forces were in retreat. The road from Gori to Tbilisi was completely clear of Georgian forces later that day, and Georgians woke up fearing a full-scale invasion.

During the talks, Sarkozy was twice required to call Medvedev to clarify points that concerned the Georgian president. Saakashvili insisted that Russian peacekeepers remaining in the disputed territories should be the same ones previously stationed there - not crack troops swapped in anticipation of fighting. He also insisted that there should be no discussion of the breakaway regions seceding from Georgia. Finally, the two made a verbal agreement on a structure for further negotiations.

Once Russian and Georgian forces stand down, international mediators will have to confront a flurry of problems. Will Russian and Georgian troops withdraw to their positions last Thursday or to their positions in 1991, when the dispute over Georgia's enclaves began?

Who will enforce a cease-fire - the OSCE, which monitors South Ossetia, or the United Nations, which monitors Abkhazia?

Diplomats have tried to keep the parties to the conflict focused on short-term practical steps - first, a cease-fire; second, allowing humanitarian aid into the conflict zone; and third, withdrawing troops. Only then, Stubb said, would Russian and Georgian officials begin to address the actual causes of the conflict.

Sergei Markov, of Moscow's Institute for Political Studies, said Western pressure had some effect, but Kremlin strategists became worried about doing permanent damage to Moscow's already troubled relationship with Georgia. "Our relationship with Georgia is more important, so that Russia will have influence over the whole south Caucuses, just as it has for centuries," Markov said.