Русская версияDefense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced the pullout two weeks
after tanks and troops poured into South Ossetia to repel an
attempt by Georgia's army to seize back control of the
Moscow-backed breakaway region.
"On Friday, August 22, at 6:00 a.m.
local time, all Russian forces
will begin their withdrawal from Georgian territory to South
Ossetia," Serdyukov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news
agency. "Over the course of August 22, the retreat... will be
completed."
However, Serdyukov said only advance troops posted deep inside
Georgia would be affected -- not soldiers and heavy equipment in
Georgia's rebel South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions.
A senior Russian commander has said a full withdrawal of regular
Russian forces back into home territory would require over a week.
"They will require around 10 days to leave their current
positions," ITAR-TASS quoted General Vladimir Boldyrev, commander
of Russian ground forces in the region, as saying.
AP news agency is reporting that while some tank columns have been
rolling northwards home, some Russian forces have dug trenches and
built long-term fortifications in key areas of Georgia.
It was not immediately clear how the timetable announced by the
general would square with a previous Russian commitment to
pull back its forces to behind a buffer zone around South Ossetia
by late Friday.
German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said dialogue with Russia
has to be reopened after its troops are back on Russian soil.
However, in the interview with German public broadcaster ARD on
Friday, he added that Moscow's use of force in Georgia was "fully
disproportionate" to the severity of the situation.
Buffer zone a point of contention
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The Georgian President has rejected the idea of a buffer zone
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has promised that all but
500 Russian troops would be withdrawn from Georgia by then.
Moscow said those remaining troops would be stationed in what it
termed as "zone of responsibility" as part of a peacekeeping
operation to protect South Ossetia. This would leave Russian troops
present inside the Georgian heartland and close to its economically
vital east-west highway. Boldryev made no reference those 500
troops in his remarks.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has said he would not stand
for their presence.
"There will be no buffer zones," he told Reuters news agency in the
Georgian capital, Tbilisi. "We will never live with any buffer
zones. We'll never allow anything like this."
OSCE observers due Monday
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Refugee camp for Georgians from South Ossetia and Gori
Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) has announced that twenty of its observers will be ready to
start monitoring a ceasefire between Georgia and Russia from
Monday.
"By Monday most of the equipment will be in place -- especially the
armored vehicles -- we will have our staff here, we will have our
operational center set up and we can start sending out monitors
into various parts in Georgia and neighboring South Ossetia," said
Alexander Stubb, the pan-European security organization's chairman.
His comments came while visiting a refugee camp on the outskirts of
Tbilisi. He had earlier traveled through Russian-controlled
checkpoints to the city of Gori where Russian troops were still
present, deep inside Georgia.
Stubb, who is also the Finnish Foreign Minister, said he had
witnessed "atrocious sights."
"There are Russian Interior Ministry special forces bringing old
people from villages, basically emptying the villages on the South
Ossetian side and dumping them in Gori," he told Reuters.
No agreement at Security Council
Russia late Thursday submitted a formal text to the UN Security
Council aimed at ending the conflict in Georgia, but the United
States and Britain said they were not ready to vote for it.
The 15-nation council also had a second draft resolution for
consideration from France, the current president of the European
Union, which called for the immediate and definite withdrawal of
Russian troops from Georgia, including South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
a cease-fire and international negotiations to settle the issues
between Georgia and Russia.
British Ambassador John Sawers told reporters following a two-hour
closed-door discussion by the council that the body was not ready
to adopt either the Russian or the French draft because of the
unsettled conditions on the ground in Georgia.
"We do need to see real progress on the ground," Sawers said
referring to demands for Russia to pull out of Georgia.
(Deutsche Welle)
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