Little Sign of Russian Military Withdrawal Despite Agreement

Via Guardian UK -

Russia tonight continued to occupy large swaths of Georgia in defiance of an EU-brokered ceasefire deal, with no sign of significant troop withdrawals.

Despite claims by Moscow that a pullout had begun, Russian forces could be seen across most of the country, and Georgian officials claimed that armoured columns had tried to push further into the mountainous heartland, towards Borjomi in the south and Sachkhere in the west.

"We could leave here in two minutes. But we've had no orders to pull out," said a Russian soldier manning a checkpoint today about 25 miles west of the capital, Tbilisi. He knew nothing about a ceasefire.

Georgia's foreign minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, said Russian troops had razed a Georgian military base at the western city of Senaki.

"Practically speaking there are so far no signs of withdrawal at all. What they're trying to do is to widen their territorial presence," Tkeshelashvili said before flying to Brussels to appeal for support from Nato foreign ministers tomorrow. "They have pretty much unrestricted freedom of action. They are trying to show us they are masters on the ground right now."

She said she would call for punitive diplomatic measures against Russia, excluding Moscow from international institutions, if Moscow refused to comply.

A Georgian interior ministry spokesman said columns of Russian armoured vehicles were stopped by police roadblocks outside Borjomi and Sachkhere and agreed to turn back. But another column broke through a similar roadblock west of Tbilisi.

One report circulated this evening suggested the Russian forces would only begin their promised withdrawal after nightfall, and Georgian officials said they would review the situation in the morning after further international pressure.

"I might be naive, but I'm still hopeful that a very strong, common effort by Europe and the United States will be effective in the withdrawing of Russian troops from territory of Georgia," Tkeshelashvili said. "We'll see how well grounded my expectation is."

President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to initiate a troop withdrawal today after signing the agreement on Saturday. On Sunday he told France's president Nicholas Sarkozy a pullout was imminent.

Tonight Russian officers insisted that the withdrawal was already happening. In Moscow the deputy chief of staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said: "According to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun." This included Gori, he added.

Russian officials across the border in North Ossetia echoed this. "War columns are already leaving. The main pullout will take place today. It takes a long time to pack up a tank," a Russian spokesman in the North Ossetia capital, Vladikavkaz, said. "We are talking days not weeks."

Another Russian military spokesman, Lieutenant General Nikolay Uvarov, told the BBC tonight that Russian forces had left Gori, which lies on the main east-west highway running through the heart of the country. However, Russian troops were very much in evidence in the town, and at checkpoints between Tbilisi and Gori, searching cars and cutting the road between east and west Georgia. Nor was there a sign of military movement from Gori north towards South Ossetia.

Georgian officials also claimed the Russians were busy laying mines. Tkeshelashvili said that one of her principal appeals to Nato tomorrow will be for help in demining.

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Lets hope they are just taking their sweet time...