Troops to be pulled out from Georgia by Friday: Russia

In Gori, a strategic town on Georgia’s main east-west highway, six Russian armoured personnel carriers, three tanks and two other vehicles headed towards Russia on Tuesday in what Moscow said was the start of its promised withdrawal. But nearby other Russian troops were seen digging trenches near artillery positions. In parts of western Georgia, Russian forces showed no sign of preparing to depart.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in Tbilisi, said continued delays would seriously damage Moscow’s reputation.

The Kremlin quoted Medvedev as telling French President Nicolas Sarkozy that most Russian forces would withdraw to Russia or to South Ossetia by August 22, leaving some troops in a buffer zone around the breakaway region. Medvedev also told Sarkozy he agreed to the presence of observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the buffer zone.

NATO ministers, meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, agreed to suspend regular contacts with Russia. But they did not announce moves to speed up Georgian accession to the Western military alliance.

Meanwhile, the Russian Ambassador clashed with American and Georgian envoys in a Security Council meeting as he rejected a new draft on the conflict circulated by France, saying it was “one-sided”. France had called the emergency meeting of the Council to discuss its new six-point draft, which calls for immediate compliance with a ceasefire agreed to earlier and withdrawal of Russian forces to the lines held prior to the outbreak of hostilities and return of Georgian forces to their “usual bases”.

Rejecting the draft, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said, “Russia is explicitly complying with the six principles proclaimed in the Kremlin on August 12. We and the whole international community need the support of the Security Council.” Churkin accused Western nations of “turning the events on their head by making aggressor (Georgia) the victim and victim the aggressor”, and added that “it (the UNSC) is being distracted by propagandistic ventures. Some members of the Council are taking a position which is misleading”.

He alleged that the new resolution does not mention the history as to how the conflict began with Georgian aggression against South Ossetia.