In front of a badly damaged Government building, a Russian orchestra performed pieces by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich as 1,000 or so residents held up candles and the flags of Russia and South Ossetia, the catalyst in this month’s conflict between Russia and Georgia.

“We are here today to express our admiration for you, to tell the whole world that we want it to know the truth about the horrible events in Tskhinvali,” Valery Gergiev, an ethnic Ossetian Russian and well-known conductor who led the orchestra, told those gathered.

The concert was among the latest measures by Moscow to assert authority over territory that is technically part of Georgia, a small, staunchly pro-American Caucasus Mountains state that enraged Russia by pushing to join the NATO and attacking Russian positions in South Ossetia.

Moscow’s punishment of Georgia extends beyond South Ossetia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that a contingent of 500 troops would remain at eight posts in Georgia proper, well outside South Ossetia.

If implemented, the plan would indefinitely place Russian soldiers where they could move against Georgian forces at a moment’s notice. It would mean Russian troops would be deployed along Georgia’s main east-west road, just outside the key transportation hub of Gori, near the country’s railway line and the crucial US-backed pipeline pumping Caspian Sea crude oil to tankers off the Turkish coast.

At a contentious meeting on Thursday of the United Nations Security Council, Western envoys pressed Russia to clarify the role of the soldiers it intends to keep on Georgian soil.

“We have a presence of so-called Russian peacekeepers in key Georgian choke points that will control economic life, that will control humanitarian activities,” Alejandro Wolff, the deputy US representative to the UN, said after the closed session. “It raises the question whether this is an effort to strangle the Georgian state.”

The council is debating a Russian draft resolution that would endorse a cease-fire deal permitting a continued Russian military presence in a vaguely defined security zone in and around South Ossetia. Western diplomats are insisting that Russia accept limits on its troops and recognise the region as part of Georgia.

Waves of hulking Russian military convoys rolled out of key positions in Georgia on Friday, and Russia announced it had fulfilled President Dmitry Medvedev’s promise to withdraw forces from the country’s small southern neighbour.

In western Georgia, a column of 83 Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers and trucks hauling artillery drove north from the Senaki military base toward the breakaway Abkhazia region on Friday afternoon.

But Russian units said they had orders only to fall back as far as South Ossetia and some platoons were still dug in near roads outside Gori, while Russian troops bearing new peacekeeping badges dominated the main east-west highway, a key trading artery. A senior Russian official said Russian military checkpoints ringing South Ossetia would be permanent.