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Russian troops redeploying after ceasefire
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Russian troops redeploying after ceasefire
Russian troops have begun regrouping around central Georgian cities, Tbilisi said yesterday, ahead of what the West hopes will be a swift withdrawal from the Black Sea state.
A senior Russian commander said troops had begun withdrawing from the pro-Russian separatist region of South Ossetia, focus of a 10-day conflict formally ended by a French-brokered ceasefire. But Russia?s Defence ministry said no pullback had begun and the general might be referring to preparations.
Major general Vyacheslav Borisov, frontline commander around Gori, which lies 30 kilometers beyond South Ossetia, in the Georgian heartland, said troops were already on the move. ?The columns are moving from (the South Ossetian capital of) Tskhinvali to Russia,? he told Reuters at the roadside. ?You must understand there are a large amount of troops.?
He said troops were maintaining positions around Gori, a city controlling the approach to South Ossetia and the main east-west highway, to protect Russia?s military pullout. ?We were the first in, so we?ll be the last out,? said Borisov, now a familiar figure touring the area of his command in his Georgian four-wheel-drive. A Russian Defence ministry spokesman, asked about reports of a withdrawal, said: ?It has not started yet ... What is going on is probably just preparation, not actual withdrawal.?
Western fuel supplies</B>
The West, concerned about the implications of the Russian invasion for the security of Western fuel supplies from the Caspian, will be looking primarily for signs of a withdrawal of Russian troops from the Georgian heartland.
There are few expectations Russia would yield its hold on South Ossetia, which broke with Tbilisi after the collapse of the Soviet Union, following attempts by then Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia to stifle its autonomy.
Months of tension between Georgia and Russia erupted on August 7, when Tbilisi launched an assault to seize back control of South Ossetia. Russia said 1,600 civilians, many of them Russian citizens, were killed in the Georgian bombardment.
Moscow struck back, crushing the Georgian military in the first invasion by Russian forces of a former Soviet republic since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Kakha Lomaia, secretary of the Georgian security council, told Reuters by telephone that some of the Russian force occupying Gori had been redeployed to the towns of Khashuri and Akhalgori, effectively widening their presence in Georgia.
In Gori, where wide avenues have been virtually deserted since Russian forces took control, aid workers arrived in trucks and distributed melons, bread and other food. Nearby, crowds of largely elderly people jostled to buy bread in a bakery.
The conflict has rattled the West. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has mediated a ceasefire, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has visited Tbilisi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to fly into Georgia yesterday after meeting Russia?s president on Friday.
<B>Matt ROBINSON</B>
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