Russian forces in Georgia appear to begin pullout

Troops appear to be in the final stage of a pullback from positions outside South Ossetia.

A column of Russian troops prepares to leave the checkpoint at a bridge over the Inguri River in Western Georgia October 8, 2008.

KARALETI, GEORGIA // Russian forces appeared to begin the final stage of a pullback from positions outside Georgia's separatist South Ossetia region yesterday, bulldozing a camp at a key checkpoint as EU monitors looked on. Moscow must withdraw its troops from areas surrounding South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, by Friday under an agreement brokered by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy after Russia's war with Georgia in August.

The pullback may ease tensions somewhat in Georgia but will not resolve major disputes pitting Russia against Georgia and Western countries, which have condemned Moscow's invasion of Georgia and its recognition of the separatist regions as independent nations. The head of Russian peacekeeping troops based in South Ossetia said yesterday the withdrawal from a buffer zone surrounding South Ossetia would begin on Wednesday and be completed within 24 hours.

This morning, a small base that had stood at the Russian checkpoint in Karaleti was almost completely gone, with only a small yellow trailer remaining, and Russian solders were sweeping for mines as two bulldozers levelled the site. A Russian armoured personnel carrier blocked the road, which leads north from Georgian-controlled territory toward South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali. But the concrete slabs that had served as a roadblock were gone.

A handful of Russian military lorries stood by the road, apparently ready to remove the remaining troops, and four EU monitors stood by a pair of blue EU light-armoured vehicles. EU monitors have been patrolling the buffer zone since Oct 1 under the withdrawal agreement, a supplement to the initial cease-fire Mr Sarkozy brokered on behalf of the EU in August. Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe were also on hand at the six remaining posts that were to be withdrawn from the area outside South Ossetia, said Heikki Lehtonen, the deputy chief military officer for the OSCE mission to Georgia.

The war erupted when Georgian forces launched an attack targeting Tskhinvali on Aug 7 in a bid to take control of the region, which broke away in a war during the early 1990s. Russian troops, tanks and military planes swiftly repelled the attack and drove deep into Georgia in Moscow's first major military offensive beyond its borders since the 1991 Soviet collapse. Russian forces occupied large portions of Georgia for weeks after the war and reinforced positions around the edges of South Ossetia and Abkhazia even as troops pulled back from posts deeper in the ex-Soviet republic.

Russia has said it will keep nearly 8,000 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for the foreseeable future, plans the US, EU and Nato say violate a commitment to withdraw to pre-conflict positions under the cease-fire. The war broke out after years of increasing tension between Russia and Georgia, whose pro-Western president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has cultivated close ties with Washington and pushed to bring his nation into Nato.

Georgia straddles a key route for westward export of oil and gas from the Caspian Sea region, giving it added geopolitical importance amid deteriorating relations between Russia and the West over the past several years. *AP