G.O.O.D

Source: BBC

Russia says it has fulfilled a pledge to withdraw its combat troops from Georgia in line with a ceasefire deal.

But Moscow says it intends to maintain a peacekeeping presence of 2,500 troops in “buffer zones” around the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The Georgian government has denounced the move as unacceptable.

The White House said checkpoints and buffer zones were “definitely not part of the agreement”, and called for an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops.

The “buffer zones” extend far beyond any pre-existing security zones, and the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent, Jonathan Marcus, says Western diplomats fear that Moscow is determined to define the parameters of the interim security arrangements in its own terms.

Our correspondent says that part of the problem is the extraordinary vagueness of the EU-brokered ceasefire deal, which speaks only of “additional security measures” in “the immediate proximity of South Ossetia” - proximity being defined as a distance of “several kilometres”.

While Georgia insists that Russian troops must leave its territory, a senior Russian general said the situation remained unstable, accusing Georgia of planning further military operations.

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