On Tuesday, Russian forces took eight Georgian troops as prisoners after they refused to let Russian armored vehicles into the port of Poti. Russian troops also blew up one of Georgia’s most sophisticated naval vessels and seized four US military Humvees that had been used in recent training exercises. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized NATO’s actions.

Sergei Lavrov: “It seems like NATO is trying to make a victim of an aggressor and whitewash a criminal regime. It is trying to save a collapsing regime and is taking a path to the rearmament of the current leaders in Georgia.”