Tbilisi/Agency Caucasus – Russian troops were seen to get into motion on Tuesday following a statement from Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that Russia would begin to pull its forces back from Georgia on August 18 in accordance with the ceasefire brokered last week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the European Union.
Announcement of Russian withdrawal from Georgia came from Gen. Anatoli Nogovitsin, Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff when he said that the withdrawal of peacekeeping forces had begun today [on August 18].
Reporters in the region, however, tend to term Russian move not as a withdrawal but as a backward relocation. They reported that Russian tanks, artilleries and armored military vehicles were located in Igueti, some 35 kilometers from Tbilisi, capital of Georgia.
An official from the Russian Foreign Ministry said, however, that Russian forces would pull out in units from Georgia and head for North Ossetia’s capital city of Vladikavkaz, according to Reuters.
Russian troops only allow controlled entries into and exits from Gori, a city that Russian forces had occupied this month in a conflict with Georgia over South Ossetia.
