MOSCOW: Georgian police have begun to surround the rugged Pankisi Gorge where suspected Al Qaeda fighters may be hiding out, while Georgia’s Army awaits the arrival later this month of up to 200 US elite troops who will provide training and equipment for a full military push into the lawless region.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, many say that the global war on terrorism has turned into a campaign to whittle away at Russia’s traditional sphere of influence.

Last week’s announcement that US forces will be deployed to the Caucasus republic of Georgia hit like a bomb in Moscow.

But top Russian experts say that since Sept 11, US influence has triumphantly marched through the oil-and-gas-rich former Soviet republics of Central Asia and is now taking root in Georgia, Russia’s southern bastion for 200 years. Georgia is also part of a proposed pipeline route that would carry oil from the Caspian Sea to international markets.

The escalating crisis around the Pankisi Gorge, where Russia says as many as 2,000 Chechen rebels and their foreign allies may be operating, reveals a fundamental Kremlin miscalculation, say a growing number of Russian experts.

Even pro-Western Russian legislators voice concern about the spread of American power into the former USSR. “If Georgian leaders make the mistake of orienting towards America, it could lead to the downfall of (President Eduard) Shevardnadze’s regime,” says Boris Nemtsov, leader of the liberal Union of Right Forces. “The Americans are welcome to help. But history has demonstrated repeatedly that Georgia cannot live without Russia. ” —Dawn/The Christian Science Monitor News Service.