Georgia: Russian Conditional Withdrawal Planned

The BBC reports that after international outrage stemming from the invasion and occupation of Georgia last month, Moscow has finally agreed to withdraw all of its troops from Armenia’s northern neighbor with the exception of from the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The agreement is also dependent on the deployment of 200 international monitors in the territory separating the conflicting sides.

Among the measures announced after the Moscow talks, Mr Medvedev said there would be international talks on the conflict, which would take place in Geneva on 15 October.

And Russia agreed to remove a key checkpoint from near the port of Poti within a week.

[…]

Again Mr Medvedev made the agreement conditional on Georgia signing a pledge not to use force against Abkhazia.

Afterwards he said the EU delegation had handed him a letter, signed by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, pledging not to use force.

The Russian president confirmed that his troops would pull out “from the zones adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia to the line preceding the start of hostilities”.

“This withdrawal will be implemented within 10 days after the deployment in these zones of international mechanisms, including not less than 200 observers from the European Union, which must take place not later than 1 October 2008,” he said.

But he was uncompromising in his tone towards the Georgian government and the US.

“[Georgia] is trying to reinforce its military capability and some of our partners, especially the United States, are helping them in that.”

Photo: Russian soldiers, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008