New Georgia withdrawal pledge from Russia
Monday, 08 Sep 2008 18:36
Dmitry Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy met for talks in Moscow today
Dmitry Medvedev has said Russian troops will withdraw to Georgian breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia within one month.
The Russian president announced the vow at a press conference with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy following three hours of talks in Moscow.
Russia had already agreed to pull its troops back from Georgia under a French-brokered peace deal that brought a ten-day conflict between the two countries to an end.
But with little sign of the withdrawal on the ground, Mr Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, flew to Moscow ahead of a trip to Tbilisi.
He has now secured a fresh commitment from Mr Medvedev to order the Russian army to fall back to the breakaway regions of South Ossetia – Georgian shelling of which sparked the conflict – and Abkhazia, which have both been recognised as independent states by Russia.
But Mr Medvedev, talking to journalists alongside Mr Sarkozy and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, said the withdrawal would only take place once 200 EU monitors were deployed.
The two leaders also announced that international talks on the future of the rebel Georgian regions would take place in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 15th.