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Russia begins withdrawal from Georgia

MOSCOW: Russia began dismantling checkpoints in the buffer zones inside Georgia despite Friday’s deadly car bomb blast across the border in South Ossetia which Moscow blamed on Georgian secret services. A Russian military spokesman said the moves were in line with a France-brokered peace plan that called for Russian troops to be replaced by European observers by October 10.

A 350-observer mission of the European Union was deployed on October 1 in Georgia along the borders of its breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia recognised both regions as independent states after crushing Georgia’s attempt to retake South Ossetia by force in early August.

The pullback began two days after a car bomb killed eight Russian servicemen, including a senior officer.

The bomb went off after two suspicious cars which stopped in a Georgian village inside the buffer zone were taken to a Russian military base in South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali. A Russian prosecution spokesman said there was “every reason to believe the explosion in Tskhinvali was arranged by Georgian secret services.”

A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman said the blast was a Russian provocation aimed at delaying the troops withdrawal.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a “thorough investigation” into the car bomb blast, but did not call for a delay in the pullout.

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