MOSCOW // Russia said yesterday it had begun withdrawing its troops from Georgia as part of a six-point peace plan brokered by France, but there were conflicting reports of the size and scale of the pullout - and whether Russian troops were leaving at all. Col Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the Russian armed forces' general staff, said during a news conference in Moscow that Russian troops are pulling back behind the borders of the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia, 10 days after a bloody conflict broke out between Russian and Georgian forces.
"Today, according to the peace plan, the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and reinforcements has begun," Gen Nogovitsyn said in televised comments. A spokesman for the Georgian interior ministry and a key US official in Brussels for a meeting of Nato on the subject, said, however, that there was no evidence of a Russian withdrawal as of yesterday afternoon. Russian troops, the Georgian said, had actually driven deeper into Georgian territory, making it all the way to the southern Georgian town of Borjomi.
"Georgian patrol police stopped the convoy of six Russian armoured vehicles in the Borjomi outskirts," Shota Utiashvili said, according to news reports. "Following the Georgian police intervention, the Russians turned back towards [the central Georgian city of] Khashuri." Another six Russian armoured vehicles were turned back by Georgian patrols as they were heading towards the central Georgian city of Sachkhere, Mr Utiashvili said.
Agence France-Presse correspondents on the ground in Georgia reported yesterday that the Georgian military base in Senaki, near Abkhazia, another breakaway region, continued to be held by Russian forces and that there was no indication that Russian troops there were planning to leave. And the secretary of the Georgian national security council, Alexander Lomaia, said swathes of the country remained occupied. "We see no signs of a pullout," Mr Lomaia told AFP.
The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, issued strong words yesterday, telling a group of veterans of the Second World War that although Russia is a "peace-loving" country, it "will never allow anyone who kills our citizens to go unpunished". "They will receive a crushing response," Mr Medvedev said in comments broadcast on state television. "Russia has the capabilities - economically, politically and militarily - for such a response."
Mr Medvedev later flew to Vladikavkaz, capital of North Ossetia, on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains from Georgia, to hand out medals to returning Russian servicemen. A US defence official said yesterday Russia had moved into South Ossetia short-range SS-21 missiles that are capable of striking Tbilisi. Gen Nogovitsyn denied it had done so. Neither South Ossetia nor Abkhazia are recognised as independent countries by the international community. They are, in fact, recognised as part of Georgia - including by Russia.
But Russia has angered Tbilisi by offering residents of the rebel republics Russian passports and providing financial and military backing to the self-proclaimed governments. Russia said its heavy military response was aimed at protecting Russian citizens in South Ossetia. Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian president, addressed the country in a televised speech yesterday. He accused Russia of attacking the former Soviet republic to "undermine Georgia's independence" and praised his countrymen for their "heroic resistance to Russian occupation".
Mr Saakashvili did strike a somewhat conciliatory note, calling on both countries to "start thinking seriously" about negotiations to avoid further alienating each other. Such negotiations, however, are contingent upon the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgian territory, Mr Saakashvili said. Grigory Karasin, Russia's deputy foreign minister, met John Beyrle, the US ambassador to Russia, in a meeting attended by Gen Nogovitsyn and Henry Nowak, the defence attaché at the US Embassy in Moscow.
The Russian officials "alerted the American side of the need to bring public statements by US officials on the events in South Ossetia in line with the real situation in the republic," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. The statement came one day after the US secretary of state, Condoleezzaa Rice, said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that the United States is "going to help rebuild Georgia into a strong Georgian state".
"The Russians will have failed in their effort to undermine Georgia," Ms Rice said. "And we will be looking at what we can do with the states around that region as well." Russia has long been dismayed with what it sees as US interference in its traditional spheres of influence. Ms Rice was to leave Washington for Brussels today to discuss the situation in South Ossetia with Nato officials. Afterwards, she travels to Poland to sign a deal that would allow installation of US interceptor missiles on Polish territory. This move is sure to further inflame tensions with Russia and - with a previous announcement that the Czech Republic would also host a US missile shield on its territory and Georgia's interest in joining Nato - may even have instigated the recent fighting.
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