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Russia: Troop withdrawal to begin in 24 hours
 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says his troops will begin withdrawing from Georgia Monday. |
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told his French counterpart that he will start pulling back forces from Georgia on Monday, according to the Russian presidential press service.
He spoke to French President Nicolas Sarkozy — who brokered a cease-fire between Russia and Georgia — over the phone on Sunday, the press service said.
Medvedev said the troops would begin withdrawing to the buffer zone and into the breakaway province of South Ossetia, the press service said. The pullback is called for under a cease-fire agreement with Georgia.
Sarkozy, also currently head of the European Union, led negotiations on the initial cease-fire deal between Russia and Georgia.
Sarkozy and the U.S. had begun to criticize Russia for remaining in Georgia despite signing the cease-fire deal Saturday.
It is designed to end the conflict which began late last week when Georgia launched a military incursion into South Ossetia to rout separatist rebels.
Russia — which supports the separatists, many of whom claim Russian citizenship — has peacekeeping responsibilities for the region and responded by sending tanks into the province for what it said was peace enforcement. From there the violence spread into Georgia and Abkhazia.
Both sides have accused each other of violating the cease-fire, Georgia most recently claiming that Russian troops had destroyed a key railway bridge and started massive fires in the scenic Borjomi Gorge.
A senior Russian military official denied the allegations, saying any allegations it was still attacking Georgia were a “hoax.”
“Our work is devoted to peacekeeping problems,” said Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of staff of Russian Armed Forces.
Sarkozy had warned Russia’s leader of serious consequences for Moscow’s relations with the European Union if it did not comply with the cease-fire, The Associated Press reported.
Sarkozy’s office said he had told Medvedev during the phone conversation that there must be a “withdrawal, without delay, of all the Russian military forces that entered Georgia since Aug. 7.”
Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush warned Saturday that “Russia had put its aspirations at risk.”
“Russia needs to honor the agreement and withdraw its forces and of course end military operations,” he said from his ranch near Crawford, Texas.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Tiblisi Sunday where she will meet with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to discuss the situation.
Under the cease-fire, about 1,500 Russian peacekeepers are allowed to remain and can do patrols a short distance outside the “zone of conflict,” a reference to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
They are not permitted to patrol in Gori and other Georgian cities and cannot hamper aid distribution or control ports, highways or railroads, officials said.
It is unclear how many people have been killed in the conflict, but various claims put the figure in the thousands.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday that it estimated the fighting has displaced more than 118,000 people, citing statistics from the Russian and Georgian governments. Subscribe=>
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