Georgia in control of strategic road
Georgian troops were back in control of the country's main East-West highway on Saturday after Russian forces pulled back, but Washington slammed the Kremlin over plans to keep a force in Georgia's heartland.
Georgia opposition leader dies suddenlyRussia says it will permanently station what it calls peacekeeping troops inside Georgia - a step it says is to prevent new bloodshed and which the United States has branded a violation of a ceasefire deal.
However, Reuters reporters travelling on the main road linking the Georgian capital to the Black Sea coast saw no evidence early on Saturday of the checkpoints Moscow said it was already operating in buffer zones across the ex-Soviet state.
There was no Russian presence visible in Shavshebi, a settlement in central Georgia where Moscow had said its soldiers would stay on to man a checkpoint.
In Western Georgia, a Reuters cameraman saw a convoy of at least 150 Russian tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks leaving the military garrison town of Senaki, where Moscow had said it would keep a presence as part of its "security zone".
Moscow sent in troops this month after Georgia tried to retake its separatist South Ossetia region.
Russia crushed Georgian forces and pushed on further, crossing the main highway and moving close to a Western-backed oil pipeline. They also moved into Western Georgia from Abkhazia, a second breakaway region on the Black Sea.
Convoys of Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers and soldiers left their positions on Friday and headed back into rebel-held territory -- a redeployment Russia said complied with a French-brokered ceasefire deal.
But Washington disagreed. "They have not completely withdrawn from areas considered undisputed territory and they need to do that," a White House spokesman said.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "deeply concerned" that Russian forces had not withdrawn to their positions before the outbreak of hostilities, as agreed.
|
|
