GORI, Georgia — Russian tanks and troops roamed freely around Gori on Monday and made forays toward the Georgian capital, keeping control of the highway that slices through Georgia’s midsection despite Russia’s announcement that a withdrawal had begun.

The movements of Russian forces around the key city of Gori raised questions about whether Russia was fulfilling its side of the cease-fire intended to end the short but intense fighting that reignited Cold War tensions.

The deputy chief of the Russian general staff, Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, told a briefing in that “today, according to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun” and said forces were leaving Gori.

But Russian military vehicles roared along roads in and around Gori on Monday and Russian troops were restricting access to the city, where shops were shut and people milled around on the central square with its statue of the Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin.

“The city is a cold place now. People are fearful,” said Nona Khizanishvili, 44, who fled Gori a week ago for an outlying village and returned Monday, trying to reach her son in Tbilisi.

And around Gori, the only movement seen by Associated Press reporters was in the opposite direction from Russia and South Ossetia — toward the Georgian capital Tbilisi, 55 miles to the east.

Four Russian armored personnel carriers, each carrying about 15 men, rolled Monday afternoon from Gori to Igoeti, a crossroads town even closer to Tbilisi. Passing Georgian soldiers who sat by the roadside, the Russians moved into Igoeti then turned off onto a side road. As the Russian APCs drove past a group of Georgian soldiers and policemen, one swerved and scraped a new Georgian police car, while the Georgians looked down at their fingernails.

“The Russians have not withdrawn,” said Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia.

Georgia’s Rustavi-2 television showed footage of what appeared to be Russian armored vehicles smashing through a group of Georgian police cars barricading a road, and said the incident took place Monday in Igoeti. One of the cars was dragged along the street by the Russian armor.

A U.S. official said Monday that the Russian military had moved missile launchers into the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Russian troops and tanks have controlled a wide swath of Georgia for days, including the country’s main east-west highway where Gori sits. The Russian presence essentially cuts the small Caucasus Mountain nation in half and threatens pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili’s efforts to keep it from falling apart after the war strengthened the Russian-backed separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

In Moscow, Nogovitsyn told a briefing that “today, according to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun.”

But there were also few signs of a withdrawal in western Georgia, where Russian troops continued to occupy a military base in the town of Senaki and convoys of trucks and armored vehicles moved in and out of the base throughout the day.

After a series of explosions were heard from the base in the afternoon, Russian forces blew up its runway with separate blasts that shook the leaves on trees more than a mile away. Plumes of smoke rose into the sky.

The RIA-Novosti news agency reported that the leader of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, asked Russia on Monday to establish a permanent base there.

According to the European Union-brokered peace plan signed by both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Saakashvili, both sides are to pull forces back to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7 in South Ossetia.

Nogovitsyn said the Russian troops were pulling back to South Ossetia and a security zone defined by a 1999 agreement of the “joint control commission” that had been nominally in charge of South Ossetia’s status since it split from Georgia in the early 1990s.

Georgian and Russian officials could not immediately clarify the dimensions of the security zone. Nogovitsyn said “troops should not be in the territory of Georgia,” but it was unclear if that excluded patrols.

“I think the Russians will pull out, but will damage Georgia strongly,” Tbilisi resident Givi Sikharulidze said. “Georgia will survive, but Russia has lost its credibility in the eyes of the world.”

Top American officials said Washington would have to rethink its relationship with Moscow.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, headed to Brussels, was expected to push NATO allies Tuesday to curtail high level meetings and military cooperation with Russia unless Moscow sticks to its cease-fire pledge to withdraw troops from Georgia.

“I think there needs to be a strong, unified response to Russia to send the message that this kind of behavior, characteristic of the Soviet period, has no place in the 21st century,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.

In Vladikavkaz, near the border with Georgia, Medvedev gave medals to 30 soldiers and servicemen involved in the conflict.

“It has been only 10 days since you faced a cowardly aggression,” he said, standing on a drill square in front of camouflage-clad soldiers and officers he called “heroes.”

“I am sure that such a well-done, effective and peacemaking operation aimed at protecting our citizens and other people will be among the most glorious deeds of the Russian military,” Medvedev said.

While Western leaders have called Russia’s response disproportionate, Medvedev repeated Russian accusations of genocide.

“The world realized that even now there are political freaks who were ready to kill innocent people for the sake of political fashions and who compensated for their own stupidity by eliminating a whole nation,” he said.

Rice, who was flying to Europe for talks Tuesday with NATO allies, said Russia can’t use “disproportionate force” against its neighbor and still be welcome at international institutions.

“It’s not going to happen that way,” she said. “Russia will pay a price.”

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that the Russian military moved SS-21 missile launchers into South Ossetia on Friday. From there, the missiles would have the capability of reaching Tbilisi.

Nogovitsyn, the Russian military official, disputed the claim, saying Russia “sees no necessity” to place SS-21s in the region.

The war broke out after Georgia tried to retake control of South Ossetia. Russia, which had peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, sent in thousands of reinforcements and immediately drove out the Georgian forces. Georgian troops also were forced out of another Russian-backed separatist region, the Black Sea province of Abkhazia.

Russian troops then pressed deep into Georgia and began a campaign to disable the Georgian military, destroying or carting away equipment. An AP photographer saw Russian troops guarding rows of captured Georgian military vehicles Sunday in Tskhinvali.

An Associated Press television cameraman was slightly injured outside Gori after four camouflage-clad men who appeared to be from an Ossetian militia pulled up in a car and told him to stop filming, and the driver pulled the camera away. When the cameraman resisted, the driver produced a pistol and started shooting at the ground. The cameraman, who received light ricochet wounds to his legs, handed over the cassette.

Bolstered by Western support, Georgia’s leader vowed never to abandon its claim to territory now firmly in the hands of Russia and its separatist allies. His pledge, echoed by Western insistence that Georgia must not be broken apart, portends further tensions over South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Georgia’s government minister for refugees, Koba Subeliani, said there were 140,000 displaced people in Tbilisi and the surrounding area.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Jon Miller arrived in Georgia to assess the need for further humanitarian aid. So far, at least six U.S. military flights carrying aid have arrived in Tbilisi.