Russian army units began withdrawing from central Georgia yesterday morning, Interfax news agency quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying.
“Units of the follow-up forces, which were earlier brought into the conflict zone, are being pulled back now,” Interfax quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.
The units were pulling back from the Georgian town of Gori, it said.
The Defense Ministry could not immediately be reached to confirm the report.
In Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, a television cameraman was woken by the noise of a military convoy passing through the town. The capital is close to the border with the rest of Georgia.
He saw around 30 tanks and about 20 other military vehicles passing through Tskhinvali from the direction of the Georgian border, but could not confirm their destination.
His footage showed a column of what appeared to be eight Russian T-72 tanks led by a police car.
Russian forces on Wednesday dug foxholes and built a sentry post in a part of central Georgia far outside the security zone they are authorized to remain in after the mandated pullout.
Russian soldiers at a checkpoint waved through a convoy of flatbed trucks carrying badly needed food to one of the areas worst hit by the fighting that started on Aug. 7. But conditions throughout much of the country remained tense amid uncertainty about the intentions of the Russian forces that drove deep into Georgian territory.
At a military training school in the mountain town of Sachkhere, a Georgian sentry said he fears Russian forces will make good on their threat to return after a tense confrontation the day before.
The sentry, who gave his name only as Corporal Vasily, said 23 Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy guns showed up at the base on Tuesday and demanded to be let in. The Georgians refused and the Russians left after a 30-minute standoff but vowed to return after blowing up facilities in the village of Osiauri, he said.
Georgia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Russian soldiers destroyed military logistics facilities in Osiauri, but the claim could not immediately be confirmed.
The Georgian sentry said the school itself had no heavy weapons or other significant strategic value, unlike the military base raided by Russians at Senaki, near the port city of Poti.
Russian soldiers were setting up camp in at least three positions in west-central Georgia. Further east, soldiers were building a sentry post on a hill outside Igoeti, the closest point to the capital, Tbilisi, where Russian troops have maintained a significant presence.
A top Russian general, meanwhile, said Russia plans to construct nearly a score of checkpoints to be manned by hundreds of soldiers in the so-called security zone around the border with South Ossetia.
A cease-fire, which calls for both sides to pull back to their pre-fighting positions, allows Russia to maintain troops in a zone extending 7km into Georgia along the South Ossetian border.
Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the Russian general staff, told a briefing on Wednesday that Russia will build a double line of checkpoints totaling 18 in the zone, with about 270 soldiers manning the frontline posts. He said the security zone would be 40km from Gori, but the city is significantly closer to the zone’s presumed boundaries than that.
The plans clearly show Russia aims to completely solidify control of South Ossetia. The province, for now, technically remains a part of Georgia, but Russia has said it will accept whatever South Ossetia’s leaders decide about their future status — which is almost certain to be either a declaration of independence or a request to be incorporated into Russia.
Western leaders have stressed Georgia must retain its current borders.
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