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Georgia seeks international monitors for Russian pullout
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
Tags: Georgia, Russia 

President Mikhail Saakashvili said on Sunday that Georgia wanted international monitors to supervise the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory.

Saakashvili was speaking at a news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, just after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced Russian troops would begin pulling out of Georgia around midday on Monday.

The 10-day confrontation around the Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia has brought accusations from both sides of attempted genocide.
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"We need immediate withdrawal, we need verification of withdrawal and ceasefire, preferably by EU [European Union] and OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] monitors," Saakashvili said.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Georgia was planning a "major provocative act" in the Georgian town of Gori, Russia's RIA news agency reported.

Georgia denied the accusation. "Such provocation would only be staged by the Russian side, with the aim of keeping Russian military units in the conflict zone," the Georgian Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Medvedev announced Russia's scheduled withdrawal after French President Nicolas Sarkozy rang himto warn of serious consequences for relations with the European Union if Russian forces did not pull out, in accordance with the cease-fire agreement both sides have signed.

"President Medvedev announced to the President of the Republic that the withdrawal of Russian troops would begin tomorrow, Monday August 18 in the middle of the day," Sarkozy's office said in a statement.

Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier Sunday it had not yet begun withdrawing troops from Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, contradicting a top military commander who hours earlier declared that the withdrawal from the Georgian town of Gori was underway.

"It has not started yet. The question of withdrawal is being considered now and the decision will be taken as the situation in the region is stabilized," said a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, who asked not to be identified.

The Russian commander on the frontline, Major-General Vyachislav Borisov, said prior to the ministry's announcement that Russian forces had alerady started to pull out of Georgia.

"The columns are moving from Tskhinvali to Russia," he told Reuters near the central Georgian town of Gori. "Medvedev has said we are to withdraw... You must understand there are a large amount of troops," he said.

A Reuters correspondent saw fewer soldiers than normal at the main Russian checkpoint outside Gori. A Georgian official said the Russian soldiers had not withdrawn but had instead redeployed in the area.

Russian forces pulled back on Saturday from the center of a town not far from Georgia's capital after Medvedev signed a cease-fire deal - but his foreign minister said a broader withdrawal would depend on security measures, calling into question how quickly the troops will be withdrawn.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said Russia would strengthen its peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian region at the center of more than a week of warfare that has sharply soured relations between Moscow and the West.

Lavrov signaled Russia's determination to set the rules for peace in an area where it has long viewed growing U.S. influence as an encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence.

U.S. slams Russia for failing to stick to truce

The U.S. on Sunday increased its verbal pressure on Russia, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates declaring that Russia's past and its invasion of Georgia would require the U.S. to re-evaluate the strategic relationship between the superpowers.

Shadows of the Cold War emerged as the Bush administration struggled for the appropriate response to Russia's aggression against its smaller U.S.-backed neighbor, which Moscow ruled for most of the two centuries before the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

"There's a real concern that Russia has turned a corner here and is headed back to its past rather than its future," Gates said.

"The fact is we have worked hard to bring them [the Russians] into the
community of nations. ... We thought they were headed in that direction," he added. Now we have to re-evaluate all that.

Joining in the hard-line rhetoric, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of failing to honoring a promise to withdrawing troops quickly from Georgia under terms of a cease-fire he signed Saturday.

"I hope this time he'll keep his word," Rice said.

Meanwhile, late on Saturday Georgia's Foreign Ministry said that Russian-backed separatists from another breakaway region, the province of Abkhazia, had seized a power plant and 13 villages in Georgia.

A ministry statement said Russian army units and separatist militants shifted the border of breakaway Abkhazia toward the Inguri River. It said they had set up temporary administration in 13 villages and put the Inguri hydropower plant under separatist control.

The claim could not immediately be independently confirmed.

Russian-backed Abkhazian fighters forced Georgians out of their last stronghold in the province earlier this week.

Earlier Saturday, Russian soldiers dug shallow foxholes in the center of Igoeti, some 50 kilometers from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, but later abandoned them. However, tanks and troops were still in place on a hillside on the edge of the town, with no immediate signs of a pullout from the strategic city of Gori, 30 kilometers up the road.

Officials said Medvedev signed a cease-fire deal - a day after his Georgian counterpart ¬ setting the stage for a Russian withdrawal from positions in the former Soviet republic at the heart of rising tensions between an increasingly assertive Russia and a wary U.S. and Europe.

The agreement, signed Friday in Tbilisi by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, calls for both Russian and Georgian forces to pull back to positions they held before fighting erupted on Aug. 8.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday night had not yet taken off from Tbilisi, where she supported Saakashvili's signing of a cease-fire agreement when Russia moved is troops to Igoeti, between Gori and Tbilisi, the furthest they had moved so far.

For days, Russian spokesmen denied that they were in Gori at all, where violence was being committed against inhabitants and journalists by militias. The Russian presence is now more organized. The soldiers were in full combat uniforms and their commanding officers usually spoke with some politeness to civilians and reporters. Some refugees were returning to their homes.

In the morning another armored column left Gori, accompanying trucks filled with soldiers and supplies and ambulances. The column left little doubt: While Medvedev was signing the cease-fire agreement, his forces were digging in and threatening Tbilisi. In the port city of Poti they had already sunk Georgian coast guard vessels.

The Russians have begun allowing supplies to enter the besieged city, although the Red Cross was still not allowed in.

The Georgian national security adviser, Alexander Lomaia, was allowed into Gori to coordinate the passage of humanitarian aid, but his request to allow Georgian police into the city was denied. He told reporters that quiet has returned to the city but that the Russian occupation was total.

He also said the militias were continuing to operate in the villages in the area and Russian forces were not prepared to deal with them. Lomaia declined to say what point the Georgian forces would hold out and fight the Russians, and would only say that the Georgians were maintaining the cease-fire.

The slight Russian pullback Saturday afternoon did not seem to be part of a withdrawal from the area. The Russians had bombed the railroad bridge to Tbilisi, completely cutting off transportation between the capital and the western part of the country.

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      1.   Security? Oh. IN that case, Israel fully supports you... 03:36  |  POP 17/08/08
      2.   We must listen, watch and learn 03:57  |  Raziel 17/08/08
      3.   whats the difference israel? 04:40  |  VIPER 17/08/08
      4.   Raziel # 2 _ The US Behaves The Same. Fallujah 05:08  |  Eli 17/08/08
      5.   Comparing Israel To Russia. Oh Come On 05:19  |  Dave Levy 17/08/08
      6.   Israel Cannot Even Defeat Hamas 05:26  |  Dave Levy 17/08/08
      7.   western gumption in face of soviet threat! 05:48  |  Mark 17/08/08
      8.   MY HEART BLEEDS 06:00  |  Poor Dave Levy 17/08/08
      9.   Russian "security measures" 09:30  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 17/08/08
      10.   a mother, and a few boys ! NO DANGER, RIGHT ? 11:05  |  atilla karagözoğlu 17/08/08
      11.   wars, WITHOUT WARS WOULD WE HAVE EXTRA MEANS ? 11:07  |  atilla karagözoğlu 17/08/08
      12.   sadness, happness ! FULL ORGAZM OF LIFE 11:08  |  atilla karagözoğlu 17/08/08
      13.   someone playing piano now and I am thinking of you haaretz 11:09  |  ... 17/08/08
      14.   my dreams are always been so big and great 11:09  |  ... 17/08/08
      15.   after hard days ! I always open my doors to anyone TO WELLCOME 11:11  |  ... 17/08/08
      16.   to protect God ! or any People ! NOT FOR ME. 11:14  |  ... 17/08/08
      17.   I couldnt find any hero. including myself. 11:17  |  ... 17/08/08
      18.   I love dreaming. girls, books ... I DREAM HAPPY LIVES. 11:18  |  ... 17/08/08
      19.   AMERICA FIRST, RUSSIA WILL FOLLOW 11:19  |  indrajaya 17/08/08
      20.   Dave Levy. "Little Israel." 11:22  |  Maureen Ann 17/08/08
      21.   to stop ! I COULDNT LEARN. to stop in love ... 11:22  |  ... 17/08/08
      22.   can we feel each other FROM FAR ? 11:23  |  ... 17/08/08
      23.   a lady asked me to write poems for her ! I DIDNT. 11:31  |  ... 17/08/08
      24.   Do Not Trust Western Media 11:33  |  MiddleStanian 17/08/08
      25.   did I say I am not drinking for 6-7 days ! 11:43  |  ... 17/08/08
      26.   thanks for the tears you let come to my eyes JUST NOW. 11:44  |  bye bye. 17/08/08
      27.   #19.... 12:07  |  Shosh 17/08/08
      28.   #24... 12:08  |  Shosh 17/08/08
      29.   Russian Occupation May Last Decades. Settlers On Their Way 12:50  |  Lev Bronstein 17/08/08
      30.   #29, Lev Bronstein, Beautifullllll!!!!! :))) 13:55  |  Persian Hero 17/08/08
      31.   #29, Lev Bronstein ... you win the Internets! 16:01  |  Bl4ckP0pe 17/08/08
      32.   Georgia, Armenia and Israel would gain as military allies of USA. 16:19  |  Vittorio 17/08/08
      33.   L.Bronstein: Are you trotzkist or Trotzky-reincarnated? 16:21  |  Vittorio 17/08/08
      34.   Georgia 16:55  |  janez 17/08/08
      35.   # 30 Persian....love the way Iran just walked in 17:19  |  Lynn 17/08/08
      36.   #32 Vittorio, I know what they would gain 17:24  |  Mark B. 17/08/08
      37.   Middlestanian....oh please, 17:24  |  Lynn 17/08/08
      38.   #35 Lynn, sharp observation 17:30  |  Mark B. 17/08/08
      39.   # 37, LYNN 17:42  |  indrajaya 17/08/08
      40.   Dear Lev Davydovich Bronstein, I disagree. 18:00  |  Ramon Mercader 17/08/08
      41.   Of digging in and peeling off 18:03  |  Morris Valentine 17/08/08
      42.   Brunshtayn`s Bovine Scatology 18:13  |  Joe Frazier 17/08/08
      43.   Vittorio, I know what Mark B stands to gain (#36) 18:16  |  Morris Valentine 17/08/08
      44.   Recommended viewing `The Protocols of Zion` 18:19  |  Joe Frazier 17/08/08
      45.   Russia and Geogia War 18:21  |  Ken Sweetser 17/08/08
      46.   # 43 morris 18:46  |  Axel 17/08/08
      47.   So when did russians ever honor their agreements?? 19:57  |  Voice of Reason 17/08/08
      48.   Sashkavili is an American puppet!The American plan failed because 20:19  |  lakshmi 17/08/08
      49.   #35 Lynn 20:23  |  Persian Hero 17/08/08
      50.   Very interesting 20:34  |  Penelope 17/08/08
      51.   Viper #3, the Occupier! 20:49  |  FOX 17/08/08
      52.   When Occupation is Cool! 20:56  |  FOX 17/08/08
      53.   # 38 Mark B....media keeps everyone "busy" 20:57  |  Lynn 17/08/08
      54.   morris v. 21:00  |  Axel 17/08/08
      55.   To Lev Davidovitch Bronstein #29 21:02  |  FOX 17/08/08
      56.   #49 Persian .....are you also still interested 21:03  |  Lynn 17/08/08
      57.   u.s. & e.u. shd stop whinging and treat russia w/ respect 21:08  |  frenz 17/08/08
      58.   # 52 fox 21:09  |  Axel 17/08/08
      59.   Lackshmi dispises Democracy #48 21:10  |  FOX 17/08/08
      60.   Axel 21:24  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 17/08/08
      61.   #53 Lynn, I do not buy Russian-Iranian konspiratsya 22:57  |  Mark B. 17/08/08
      62.   Vittorio, mr. Valentine has a weird opinion of Europeans 23:25  |  Mark B. 17/08/08
      63.   To Axelschen (#46) 23:40  |  Morris Valentine 17/08/08
      64.   To Axelschen, yet again (#54) 23:49  |  Morris Valentine 17/08/08
      65.   Today,in CNN,they interviewed diabolicus Z.Breshinski who talked 23:51  |  lakshmi 17/08/08