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U.S. Getting Heat Over Presence in Georgia
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
(10:49 AM ET)
The Associated Press

President Vladimir Putin and most other high-ranking Russian officials have said American troops are necessary in Central Asia to defeat terrorists in Afghanistan. But officials seemed less inclined to go along quietly with the U.S. presence in Georgia.

TBILISI, Georgia -- AP
Russia expressed concern Wednesday over U.S. plans to train troops in Georgia to fight rebels allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network. A Georgian defense official said a few American advisers were already in the former Soviet republic.

Russian officials have grown increasingly nervous about the U.S. presence in formerly Soviet Central Asia, which Russia considers its sphere of influence. U.S. forces have been deployed in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to support the campaign in Afghanistan.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told state-controlled ORT television Wednesday that the U.S. military presence in Georgia could "further aggravate the already complicated situation" in the region.

Defense officials in Washington said the United States is considering sending 100 to 200 U.S. soldiers to Georgia to provide anti-terrorist training.

U.S. and Russian officials say al-Qaeda-linked militants -- including several dozen who had been in Afghanistan -- are operating in the area of the Pankisi Gorge, near Georgia's border with Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya.

Georgian defense official Paapa Gaprindashvili said there were currently five American "military experts" in Georgia to help set up "an anti-terrorist subdivision" that could go after the militants in Pankisi Gorge.
(More: USA TODAY News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

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