Russia says troops to leave Georgia
The Kremlin said its forces would pull back from Georgia's heartland by Friday to positions set out under a French-brokered peace plan, amid mounting Western criticism about the slowness of the troop withdrawal.
Georgia opposition leader dies suddenlyWashington said it had yet to see any serious pullout and accused Russia of targeting civilians and wanting to strangle Georgia.
"It's becoming more and more the outlaw in this conflict," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said of Russia, escalating a stream of criticism from Washington.
"They intend and probably still do intend to strangle Georgia and its economy," she said in Brussels, where she attended a NATO meeting on the crisis.
In Gori, a strategic town on Georgia's main east-west highway, six Russian armoured personnel carriers, three tanks and two other vehicles headed towards Russia on Tuesday in what Moscow said was the start of its promised withdrawal.
But nearby other Russian troops were seen digging trenches near artillery positions. In parts of western Georgia, far from the breakaway South Ossetia region at the heart of the conflict, Russian forces also showed no sign of preparing to depart.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in Tbilisi, said continued delays would seriously damage Moscow's reputation.
"With every commitment (to leave) and with every failure to live up to that commitment, the international pressure will grow (on Russia)," he told a joint news conference with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
"A country relies on the word of its president being its bond," he said.
The U.S. Treasury said Russia had hurt its business climate with its decision to send troops into Georgia, which it called a "Cold War tactic."
|
|
