Breakaway Georgian regions set for Moscow recognition
Russia says troops will leave Georgia on Friday as draft UN resolution calling for immediate withdrawal is rejected
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Wednesday, 20, Aug 2008 06:30
The tense political and military situation in Georgia is set to be tested by potential Russian recognition of two breakaway regions.
Moscow lawmakers urged the government on Wednesday to officially recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Georgian shelling of which sparked a ten-day conflict with Russia.
Russia earlier continued to ignore international pressure to withdraw troops immediately from Georgia.
Last night in the United Nations security council Moscow's envoy rejected a French-drafted statement calling the Russian army to leave Georgia at once.
Vitaly Churkin said the draft statement conflicted with a six-point ceasefire agreement signed by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and his Georgian counterpart Mikhail Saakashvili last week.
"The Russian Federation cannot support this," Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Mr Churkin as saying. "Putting it to a vote would be a waste of time.
"Taking separate parts of the Moscow plan and reinterpreting them for political propaganda - this is not a constructive route."
Nevertheless, Dmitry Medvedev promised late on Tuesday he would instruct army chiefs to pull troops out of Georgia by Friday following a phone call with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
"Part of the Russian peacekeeping contingent will withdraw to the security zone established by [the 1999 existing peace deal]," a statement from the Kremlin said.
"The remaining portion of the contingent that was sent to reinforce the Russian peacekeeping mission will withdraw to the territory of South Ossetia and to Russia."
At a press conference on Tuesday with Mr Saakashvili, UK foreign secretary David Miliband accused Mr Medvedev of reneging on the deal he signed with Mr Sarkozy last week.
Nato has already said ties with Russia have been severely strained by its actions in Georgia and Condoleezza Rice has accused Moscow of isolating itself from the international community.
But Moscow's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused Nato of saving a "criminal regime" in Tbilisi.
Georgian shelling of breakaway South Ossetia earlier this month sparked conflict with Moscow that saw the Russian army advance on Tbilisi and both sides accuse the other of genocide.
The French-brokered peace plan set out six principles to end the hostilities, including: a commitment by all parties to renounce the use of force; the immediate and definitive cessation of hostilities; free access to humanitarian aid; the withdrawal of Georgian forces to their places of permanent deployment; and the convening of international discussions on lasting security arrangements for Abkhazia and South Ossetia.