French President Was Too Quick with His Conclusion
// Russian military not to be replaced with OSCE monitors
Last weekend the Russian command finished deploying the troops on the territory of Georgia, occupying positions in the security zone round South Ossetia. The security zone embraces the port of Poti as well. Saturday, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy discussed this subject with Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev by telephone and announced that OSCE monitors are soon to replace Russian soldiers in the security zone. The Kremlin press-service disavowed the French President.
After Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov reported to Dmitry Medvedev on the completion of the troops’ pull-out from the Georgian territory on Friday, some of the units continued with the redeployment. It was only on Saturday that Russian commandos left the military base of Senaki, which lies 40 kilometers off the border with Abkhazia, in Western Georgia. The Georgian party claims that practically all equipment was taken away from the base, and the commandos blew up the runway of the local airfield before leaving.
The Gori military base’s fate was the same. Russia’s military left it on Saturday only, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry. Leaving it, the Russian forces freed the strategic highway connecting Tbilisi with the Black Sea. Nonetheless, the highway hasn’t been used in its full scale. According to Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, “there can be mines on the road”. Russia’s outposts are located to the north of the highway – near the Georgian village of Karaleti, which is 4 kilometers off the border of Georgia and South Ossetia. Russian units have been deployed in a security zone around the perimeter of the South Ossetian border, penetrating the territory of Georgia proper by 7-10 kilometers.
Poti is the only town, which belongs neither to the Georgia-Ossetian nor Georgia-Abkhaz security zone, and where Russia’s troops have set up a few outposts nonetheless. “Russia’s peacekeepers will be in control of the situation in Poti patrolling the town,” stated Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Saturday. “It fully complies with the responsibilities of Russia.”
Georgian government believes that the main reason for the Russian forces to be reluctant to leave Poti is the presence of NATO ships in the Black Sea. Yesterday USS McFaul Arleigh Burke class destroyer, loaded with humanitarian aid for the Georgian army and refugees, arrived in the port of Batumi. Representatives of the Georgian Defense Ministry told Kommersant that the ship was to moor in the port of Poti. But because there are Russians in Poti, the Americans decided to moor in Batumi. By the way, yesterday an incident happened with an AP group in Poti. They tried to film Russia’s outposts near the port of Poti, but they were detained by Russian officers. Later the journalists were released.
There were incidents in other Georgian settlements. For example, yesterday a train with fuel was blown up near the Skra village, a few kilometers off Gori. The Georgian government put the blame on Russia. “We presume that a mine had been laid under the railroad bed. According to the data we have, Russia’s occupants deployed it there. Also, they had blown up a bridge before leaving Gori,” stated spokesperson with the Georgian Interior Ministry Shota Utiashvili. On Saturday, there were explosions in Tskhinvali – a warehouse, where confiscated Georgian shells and armored vehicles stored, was blown up. The Prosecutor general’s Office of the breakaway republic stated that the explosions were a result of “an emergency at the warehouse”.
On Saturday Dmitry Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy discussed the situation in Georgia by telephone. The Élysée Palace press-service reported that the Russian President promised that OSCE monitors will patrol the security zone outside South Ossetia instead of Russia’s troops. However, later the Kremlin press-service disavowed that press-release. “In the course of his talks with Nicolas Sarkozy, Dmitry Medvedev reiterated the willingness to cooperate with the OSCE,” the press-service informed. “But replacing Russia’s peacekeepers with the OSCE forces in the security zone was out of the question.”
Georgy Dvali, Tbilisi; Andrei Odinets
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 25, 2008
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