14.08.2008 Georgia. Russian outpost at the entrance to Gori from the direction of Tbilisi.
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov
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Russia Promised to Move Aside
// Dmitry Medvedev is ready to start a withdrawal of Russia’s troops from Georgia
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev announced that today Russia’s troops will start pulling out of the territory of Georgia to South Ossetia fulfilling the terms of the agreement signed Saturday. However, quite a diplomatic war has been unleashed in connection with this agreement, which the parties understand differently. The future status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as well as sending international peace-keepers to the conflict zone are the most disputed issues.
The peace settlement plan worked out by France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy was signed by Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi on Saturday (Georgia’s leader Mikhail Saakashvili had done it on Friday after his talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice). Yesterday during his telephone call to Nicolas Sarkozy President Medvedev promised that Russia will start pulling out its military contingent from Georgia to South Ossetia on Monday.
The two Presidents agreed to having daily telephone conversations to discuss the progress of the plan’s fulfillment. “Mr Sarkozy warned Mr Medvedev that in case Russia fails to comply with the provisions of the agreement, it’ll have a negative impact on the further relations of Russia and the EU,” the French President’s press-service reported. Nevertheless, the Presidents didn’t specify concrete time frames of the troops’ withdrawal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia will withdraw its troops “as long as needed”.
Anyway, the French peace plan is to come into force today. “If the two parties stick to the agreement reached, this war will become one of the briefest,” France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stated optimistically.
However, the problem lies in the parties’ diverse interpretation of the key provisions of the document. First of all it concerns the sending of an international contingent to the zone of the Georgia-Ossetian conflict. Mr Bernard Kouchner hopes that “on Monday the UN will manage to adopt a resolution, which will bring about sending international peace-keeping forces in the zone of the conflict”. Tbilisi fully supports this position. Yesterday during their joint press-conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili claimed that there is no notion of “Russian peace-keepers” at all. “Those are just Russia’s troops, and they must get out of the territory of Georgia,” he urged.
Russia doesn’t seem eager to lose the monopoly on the peace-keeping process in South Ossetia. Back last week the Russian Foreign Minister stated that Russia is not looking forward to welcoming European peace-keepers in the conflict zone. Yesterday Sergey Lavrov stressed that “it’s South Ossetia” that determines which peace-keepers will be allowed to stay in the territory of the breakaway republic. This said, Moscow doesn’t think that Tbilisi can be part of the peace-keeping format. “Neither Abkhazia nor South Ossetia regard this party as a peace-keeping body. Russia, surely, takes account of these positions and fully supports them,” Deputy Head of the Russian General Staff Colonel General Anatoly Nagovitsyn stated on Saturday.
The last provision of the document is even more controversial. According to it, the international community is to thrash out giving Sukhumi and Tskhinvali solid security guarantees. Russia considers that this question is to be discussed in the light of the future status of the breakaway republics. Moscow makes no secret of its stance: when receiving the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the Kremlin on August 14, President Medvedev said that Russia will agree to any decision the peoples of the two republics take.
The USA objects to the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “Abkhazia and South Ossetia are parts of Georgia, and the world community has reiterated that it’ll be so in the future. There is no doubt regarding this matter,” President George Bush said on Saturday speaking at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Yesterday Washington launched a full-scale diplomatic advance on Moscow. First Pentagon Chief Robert Gates stated that Russia “returns to its authoritarian past” and the USA will have to overhaul its relations with it. Then Condoleezza Rice accused Moscow and President Medvedev of failing to fulfil the terms of the peace plan. “Russia doesn’t stick to the ceasefire agreement. I can’t give the reason why. I thought that if the Russian President says that the troops will pull out, the troops will pull out. But they haven’t done it. The President gave his word, and I hope he will keep it,” Ms Rice said.
Alexander Gabuev
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 18, 2008
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