Russian Tanks Begin Withdrawal From Gori

Russian troops, tanks and armored vehicles today began to withdraw from the Georgian town of Gori.

The withdrawal was the first indication that Moscow was reducing its military presence in Georgia under an EU-brokered ceasefire.

"I order you to carry out a march along the route Gori-Tshkinvali-Vladikavkaz," a senior Russian officer told troops before getting into an armored vehicle.

In scorching heat, four Russian armored vehicles, several tanks, a mobile rocket launcher and trucks set off in the direction of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia province. Russian soldiers waved and smiled as the column left.

The vehicles passed the village of Ruisi, outside Gori, where Colonel Igor Konoshenkov, a Russian military officer, told an Associated Press reporter that they were ultimately heading back to Russia.

Konoshenkov said the movement was part of the withdrawal mandated by a ceasefire requiring both sides to return to the positions they held before heavy fighting broke out in South Ossetia on August 7.

The first indication that Russia was finally pulling its troops out followed an earlier exchange of prisoners. Yesterday, Moscow said it had begun to pull its forces back following Saturday's ceasefire agreement.

The prisoner exchange began when two Russian military helicopters landed in the village of Igoeti - the closest Russian forces have advanced to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, 27 miles away.

Soldiers and men in unmarked clothing disembarked and two people on stretchers were taken to Georgian officials. Georgian ambulances later brought two others, one on a stretcher, to the helicopters.

Alexander Lomaia, the head of Georgia's security council, told reporters in Igoeti that 15 Georgians and five Russians had been exchanged. "It went smoothly," he said.

The operation was also witnessed by the Russian Major General Vyacheslav Borisov, who commands troops in the area.

Lomaia said the exchange removed any pretext for the Russians to stay in Igoeti or anywhere on Georgia's only significant east-west highway.

In other signs of movement, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Russia had agreed to allow 20 more international military monitors in and around South Ossetia.

"Sending international observers is a crucial step in stabilizing the situation," Alexander Stubb, the Finnish foreign minister and current OSCE chairman, said.

He added that the plan called for observers to be sent to Tbilisi immediately, although Georgia must still approve the move.

The OSCE already has nine observers based in South Ossetia as part of its 200-member mission in Georgia, but wants to have 100 military monitors to help oversee the ceasefire.

The organization, consisting of 56 countries including Russia, has been trying to push for a peaceful settlement in South Ossetia since a separatist war in the early 1990s left the region with de facto independence.

Despite Moscow's claims yesterday that a pullout had begun, Georgian officials claimed armoured columns had tried to push further towards Borjomi in the south and Sachkhere in the west.

The Georgian foreign minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili, said Russian troops had razed a Georgian military base in the western city of Senaki.

"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," she added.

"We'll see how well grounded my expectation is."