Georgia Claims Russians Have Cut Country in Half

MOSCOW (AP) — Georgia's president says Russia's troops have effectively cut the country in half by seizing a strategic city that straddles the country's main east-west highway.

President Mikhail Saakashvili made the statement in a national security council meeting on Monday, about an hour after officials claimed Russian troops had captured Gori, about 60 miles west of the capital Tbilisi.

The news agency Interfax cited a Russian Defense Ministry official as denying the reports of the seizure.

But a top official at the Georgian embassy in Moscow, Givi Shugarov, said Russian troops appeared to be moving toward Tbilisi and he alleged Russia's goal was "complete liquidation" of the Georgian government.

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Russia has expanded its military efforts in Georgia, seizing police stations in Zugdidi and a military base in the town of Senaki.

This incursion into Zugdidi, which is located near the separatist province of Abkhazia comes when most of the Georgian forces are locked down in conflict in South Ossetia, the region which has been trying to gain independence from of Georgia since the 1990's and was attacked by the Georgian government four days ago in an attempt to reassert full control.

A Georgian Defense Ministry's spokeswoman, Nana Intskerveli, said Russian armored personnel carriers rolled into a military base in Senaki, close to the Black Sea port of Poti.

An anonymous Moscow government official confirmed the expansion of troops into Senaki and said it was intended to prevent Georgian troops from concentrating their numbers and fire power. \

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