Russia to withdraw from Georgia tomorrow
Sunday, 17 Aug 2008 09:10
Georgia agrees ceasefire agreement with Russia
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has stated his forces will begin withdrawing from Georgia on Monday.
Mr Medvedev made the pledge in a telephone call to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered a Russian-Georgian ceasefire agreement.
The announcement follows a statement from the US and France which said it appeared Russia was defying the ceasefire brokered by the French President earlier this week.
Both Georgia and Russia have signed the ceasefire agreement which calls for all troops to be withdrawn and for the situation prior to the August 7th hostilities to be restored.
But Russian troops still appear to control two Georgian cities and the key east-west highway between them, cities well outside the breakaway provinces where earlier fighting was focused.
"From my point of view - and I am in contact with the French - the Russians are perhaps already not honouring their word," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
Earlier the Russian commander of frontline forces in Georgia told the BBC that a gradual withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia was under way.
Major General Vyacheslav Borisov told the BBC he had given the order for Russian soldiers to be replaced by peacekeepers.
But that was contradicted by other reports about the withdrawal with Reuters citing an unnamed official in Russia's defence ministry as saying that a pull-out from Georgian territory was under discussion, but yet to begin.
A spokesperson for the military told the news agency: "It [the withdrawal] has not started yet. The question of withdrawal is being considered now and the decision will be taken as the situation in the region is stabilised."
Meanwhile a Press Association report says Russian forces have built ramparts around tanks and posted sentries on a hill in central Georgia, digging in despite Western pressure for Moscow to withdraw its forces under the ceasefire deal signed by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev yeseterday.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, told the Press Association Mr Medvedev had signed the ceasefire deal and ordered its implementation, but would not withdraw troops until Moscow is satisfied that security measures allowed under the agreement are effective.
He said Russia would strengthen its peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia, the separatist Georgian region at the centre of more than a week of warfare that sharply soured relations between Moscow and the West.
Asked how much time it would take, he responded: "As much as is needed."
And Russian troops are still in the town of Gori, the Russian commander there saying his troops are staying to prevent looting and will leave the town when Georgian police are ready to take over.
Georgia says its police force would be able to maintain law and order if allowed into Gori, and that the presence of Russian forces so close to the capital is unacceptable.
Yesterday US President Bush said Russia’s signing of the ceasefire agreement was a "hopeful step" but warned the US still believed that "the disputed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are Georgian".
"There is no room for debate on this matter," the president told reporters at his Texas ranch.
Ms Rice is due in Brussels next week for a meeting of NATO countries where the situation will no doubt be top of the agenda.
Fierce clashes broke out in and around South Ossetia on August 7th after Georgia launched a surprise assault, aimed at bringing the breakaway region back under central control.