Russian Pullback to Begin Monday
August 17th, 2008Via: AP:
Russian troops will begin pulling back Monday from their positions throughout Georgia toward the country’s separatist-held region of South Ossetia, the Kremlin said Sunday.
Western pressure has been increasing on Moscow to withdraw its forces under a cease-fire deal signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. The United States and France have already accused Russia of defying the truce between the ex-Soviet neighbors, as Russian tanks and troops roamed freely across a wide swath of Georgian territory.
The EU-backed cease-fire agreement calls for Georgian and Russian troops to withdraw to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7.
Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a telephone conversation Sunday that Russian army troops will retreat toward the de facto Georgia-South Ossetia border on Monday, according to a Kremlin statement.
The troops will head toward a border between Georgia and South Ossetia that was delineated in a 1999 peacekeeping agreement signed by all parties, the Kremlin said. The statement did not say that the troops will return to Russia.
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