Russia starts troop pullback

KARALETI – Russian troops started pulling back from a buffer zone outside Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region yesterday, two months after a brief war that fuelled tension between Moscow and the West.

A Reuters reporter followed a convoy of about 20 military trucks and armoured vehicles as it left the main Karaleti checkpoint and crossed the de facto South Ossetia border 20 km further north. Russia said the pullback would be completed within the day.It has until Friday to pull back troops from buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region, under a ceasefire deal brokered by France on behalf of the European Union.The zones were set down after Russia sent in tanks and troops to repel a Georgian offensive to retake pro-Russian South Ossetia.Russia’s counter-offensive against its former Soviet neighbour drew condemnation from the West, and deepened fears over the security of the Caucasus as a transit route for oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to western Europe, bypassing Russia.”Russia has begun the withdrawal of its peacekeepers from all the six checkpoints located in the south of the security zone,” Igor Konashenkov, aide to the commander of the Russian military’s ground forces, told Reuters.A second line of Russian troops is located on or near the de facto border with South Ossetia, potentially complicating EU verification of whether Russia has met the terms of the deal.In western Georgia, a Reuters television reporter saw a column of 50 to 60 Russian military vehicles leave the Urta military base and cross the Inguri river into Abkhazia.An unarmed EU observer mission is monitoring the pullback.It said checkpoints were also being lifted near Abkhazia.Georgia said it would consider the pullback complete only when Russian forces leave Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”I am pleased that Russia appears to be fulfilling its obligation under the ceasefire to withdraw in compliance with Friday’s deadline in Georgia,” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on the sidelines of a meeting of defence ministers in Macedonia.Russia said the focus would shift to international talks in Geneva on October 15, where it will call for an embargo on the sale of offensive weapons to Tbilisi, and for a security mechanism around Abkhazia and South Ossetia to prevent Georgian attacks.The five-day war in August followed months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops.Pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has angered Russia by setting Tbilisi’s sights on Nato membership, sent in the army to retake South Ossetia more than 15 years after it threw off Georgian rule.Russian troops drove the Georgian army out of South Ossetia, and pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.- Nampa-ReutersRussia said the pullback would be completed within the day.It has until Friday to pull back troops from buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region, under a ceasefire deal brokered by France on behalf of the European Union.The zones were set down after Russia sent in tanks and troops to repel a Georgian offensive to retake pro-Russian South Ossetia.Russia’s counter-offensive against its former Soviet neighbour drew condemnation from the West, and deepened fears over the security of the Caucasus as a transit route for oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to western Europe, bypassing Russia.”Russia has begun the withdrawal of its peacekeepers from all the six checkpoints located in the south of the security zone,” Igor Konashenkov, aide to the commander of the Russian military’s ground forces, told Reuters.A second line of Russian troops is located on or near the de facto border with South Ossetia, potentially complicating EU verification of whether Russia has met the terms of the deal.In western Georgia, a Reuters television reporter saw a column of 50 to 60 Russian military vehicles leave the Urta military base and cross the Inguri river into Abkhazia.An unarmed EU observer mission is monitoring the pullback.It said checkpoints were also being lifted near Abkhazia.Georgia said it would consider the pullback complete only when Russian forces leave Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”I am pleased that Russia appears to be fulfilling its obligation under the ceasefire to withdraw in compliance with Friday’s deadline in Georgia,” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on the sidelines of a meeting of defence ministers in Macedonia.Russia said the focus would shift to international talks in Geneva on October 15, where it will call for an embargo on the sale of offensive weapons to Tbilisi, and for a security mechanism around Abkhazia and South Ossetia to prevent Georgian attacks.The five-day war in August followed months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops.Pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has angered Russia by setting Tbilisi’s sights on Nato membership, sent in the army to retake South Ossetia more than 15 years after it threw off Georgian rule.Russian troops drove the Georgian army out of South Ossetia, and pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.- Nampa-Reuters