Russia Begins Final Pull-out From Georgia Buffer Zone

Russia began its final pull-out from the so-called buffer zone next to Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia this morning, in a move that is likely to lead to a permanent redrawing of the map of Europe.

Russian troops today bulldozed their roadside checkpoint in the village of Kareleti, 5km away from the central town of Gori. They then drove off towards South Ossetia. Their commander, Major General Marat Kulakhmetov, said soldiers would leave all six posts inside the zone by the end of today.

Today's withdrawal follows an EU-brokered ceasefire deal last month. Under the agreement Russia agreed to pull all forces by this Friday from buffer zones next to South Ossetia and Russia's other separatist province of Abkhazia. EU observers, who watched today's pullout, are due to take over security.

But Moscow has refused to leave South Ossetia and Abkhazia - despite agreeing on August 12 to withdraw its forces to the positions they occupied before the war with Georgia. The Kremlin says realities changed when it recognized both breakaway regions as independent. It plans to station 7,600 troops there.

Additionally, Russian troops are refusing to leave newly captured territory seized during the five-day conflict with Georgia. Most contentiously, Russian and South Ossetian forces are staying in the strategic town of Akhalgori - which was under Georgian administration. The town, 34km north-west of Tbilisi, lies inside the old Soviet borders of South Ossetia.

Western diplomats concede that once Moscow completes its withdrawal from the "buffer zone", it is unlikely to budge further. The EU's appetite for sanctions against Moscow, meanwhile, appears to be rapidly diminishing ahead of an international conference in Geneva next week on the future of Georgia and the region.

"The Europeans will now start making a lot of concessions to Russia," Zaza Gachechiladze, the editor-in-chief of Georgia's Messenger newspaper, said today. "Russia has very strong levers. Around 60% of natural gas and oil supplies comes from Russia. This is a very powerful tool.

"The Europeans care mostly about their comfort. They care for justice and the rule of law only on paper. When it comes to the alternatives [of justice and comfort] they will choose comfort."

There was little prospect of agreement next week at the Geneva conference, he said, adding that Russia's claim that Abkhazia and South Ossetia were now sovereign states was a fiction. "Everyone knows that they are puppet entities. Their sovereignty relies on Russian armed forces," Gachechiladze said.

Inside Georgia, opposition politicians are calling for an independent inquiry into the war two months ago. They say that Russia undoubtedly provoked the situation but blame Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, for launching an attack on South Ossetia on August 7. This, they say, prompted Russia's invasion.

The head of the EU monitoring mission, Hansjorg Haber, today expressed satisfaction with the Russian moves to withdraw.

"We always proceeded from the assumption that the process would be completed by Friday, and this is confirmation of that assumption," Haber told AP by telephone, speaking from the buffer zone outside Abkhazia.

He said he expected Russian forces to withdraw from what he said were 12 checkpoints and a base outside Abkhazia by Friday, but probably not by Wednesday. He confirmed that Georgian law enforcement officers would move into the buffer zones as the Russians withdrew.

Russia said its pull-out was proceeding "on track". "Russia has begun the withdrawal of its peacekeepers from all the six checkpoints located in the south of the security zone," said Igor Konashenkov, aide to the commander of the Russian military's ground forces.

In western Georgia, a Reuters television reporter saw a column of 50 to 60 Russian military vehicles leave a military base and cross the Inguri river into breakaway Abkhazia.