US Navy ship delivers aid to Georgia

Move viewed as sending Russia message

Defense Minister David Kezerashvili of Georgia (left) greeted officers from the USS Mount Whitney with traditional wine on their arrival to the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti yesterday. The USS Mount Whitney is the flagship of the US Sixth Fleet. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

POTI, Georgia - The flagship of the US Navy's Mediterranean fleet anchored yesterday outside this key Georgian port, defiantly delivering humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged US ally in a slap at Moscow.

The USS Mount Whitney was the first Navy ship to travel to Poti since Georgia's five-day war with Russia last month. The continued presence of hundreds of Russian soldiers here has been a major point of friction between Russia and the West, which insists Moscow hasn't honored a cease-fire deal to pull back to positions held before fighting broke out Aug. 7.

Out on the water, the Mount Whitney rode at anchor in choppy seas and a brisk wind as Navy officers escorted visitors around. One of Poti's two Russian camps could be seen from the deck, the blue flag used by Russian peacekeeping forces flapping in the breeze.

Two US ships had already come and gone from Georgia carrying humanitarian aid, but they anchored at Batumi, a smaller port to the south with no Russian military presence.

The in-your-face anchorage at Poti came as Vice President Cheney visited nearby Ukraine, another former Soviet republic that feels threatened by Moscow's military belligerence.

In Portugal, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russia was "deepening its isolation" by not honoring commitments to withdraw its troops from Georgia.

But Russia delivered a diplomatic counterpunch, receiving support yesterday from the leaders of six other former Soviet republics who issued a joint statement condemning Georgia for using force to try to retake control of its separatist province of South Ossetia.

The declaration by members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization - linking Moscow with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - also praised Russia for "helping peace and security" in the region.

However, the allies did not go as far as the Kremlin and recognize Georgia's two separatist areas - South Ossetia and Abkhazia - as independent nations. Yesterday, the leftist president of Nicaragua made his Central American nation the only other state to offer such recognition.

Russia has voiced suspicion of the Mount Whitney and other US warships carrying aid. It says US military help in the past encouraged Georgia to launch its offensive in South Ossetia and argues the new shipments could be a cover for weapons deliveries.

US officials dismiss those accusations, saying the ships are carrying only humanitarian supplies such as blankets.

In an apparent reference to a $1 billion aid package for Georgia announced by Washington Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned against providing more help to Georgia.

"We don't want that Georgia, which acted as the aggressor, continues to arm itself in an uncontrolled way and with unknown aims and completely unclear consequences," he said.

The Mount Whitney carried more than 17 tons of humanitarian supplies, said Captain Owen Honors, the vessel's commander. But the huge ship could have accommodated far more aid, suggesting its mission was as much political as practical.

Georgian Defense Minister David Kezerashvili said that the command ship's arrival sent a strong message to Moscow. "It's very important for an American ship to stand for the defense of democracy against the totalitarian regime of Russia," he said.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry official Andrei Nesterenko said "There is no talk of military action," he said, but again questioned the use of Navy ships.