Russia to Begin Troop Pullout After Western Pressure

By Helena Bedwell and Greg Walters

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- President Dmitry Medvedev said Russian troops will begin pulling out of Georgia tomorrow, after the U.S. and other western governments increased calls for the Kremlin to honor a cease-fire announced two days ago.

Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy by phone today that Russia will begin withdrawing troops from Georgia proper into the breakaway region of South Ossetia on Aug. 18, the Kremlin said in an e-mailed statement. Sarkozy, as head of the European Union, helped broker the accord that ended a five-day war between the two former Soviet republics.

Sarkozy told Medvedev there would be ``grave consequences'' for EU-Russia relations if full Russian adherence to the cease- fire accord wasn't ``rapid and complete,'' according to a statement from the French president's office today. U.S. President George W. Bush, who has warned Russia not to interfere with an ongoing humanitarian airlift, yesterday called on Russia to withdraw immediately.

Russia's incursion into its Caucasus neighbor began on Aug. 8, after heavy fighting between Georgia and South Ossetia, where most residents hold Russian passports. Russian peacekeepers have been in South Ossetia since the region gained de facto independence from Georgia in a war in the early 1990s. Georgia's U.S.-educated president, Mikheil Saakashvili, called the Russian offensive a ``well-planned invasion.''

NATO

German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks in Tbilisi today with her Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili to express continued support for the country and its drive to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Russia opposes.

``I cannot tell you when'' Georgia will join NATO, Merkel told reporters. ``But Georgia is a sovereign state that deserves to be in NATO.''

The cease-fire accord calls for the withdrawal of Georgian and Russian troops, forswearing the use of force and making humanitarian aid freely available in the conflict areas. It allows Russian peacekeepers who were in South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, before the war broke out to take ``additional security measures,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.

Those forces -- about 3,000 in Abkhazia and 588 in South Ossetia before the fighting began, according to the Russian government -- would be allowed to ``have limited patrols in a prescribed area within the zone of conflict, not to go into Georgian urban areas,'' Rice told reporters after meeting with Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch.

Russian Control

Russian troops still retain control of key areas of Georgia, including the central transport hub of Gori, the Interfax news service reported today, citing Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of Russia's General Staff.

The failure to retreat prompted fresh U.S. calls for withdrawal.

``Yet again the Russian president has given his word,'' Rice said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program. ``I hope this time he'll honor it,'' Rice said, adding that she had talked to Sarkozy earlier in the day.

``The Russians control the four main entrances to Gori, and Georgian police aren't being allowed into the city,'' Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council, said by mobile phone today before the Kremlin statement. The Russians put up six new checkpoints on the road from Khashuri to Gori, and said they wouldn't pull out until they get the order from Moscow, he said.

Fields Burning

Cities and the country north of Tbilisi yesterday bore signs of the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia. In the villages and towns around Gori, which was hit hardest by the war, shops were shuttered and streets were deserted, while fields were still burning. Russian tanks and armored cars control strategic points along the road to the Georgian capital.

A reporter for Bloomberg News was among a group of journalists traveling with the Russian military at the government's invitation. Gori, about 30 kilometers from South Ossetia, is the transport hub that connects Georgia's east and west.

The United Nations estimates the number of people displaced by the conflict is approaching 115,000, according to an Aug. 15 statement on its Web site. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres will visit Georgia and Russia this week to discuss operations there.

The West sees Georgia as a key ally in the region, in part because it has a pipeline that carries Caspian Sea crude oil to Western markets, bypassing Russia.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose 26 member nations overlap with much of the EU, plans a meeting of foreign ministers on Aug. 19 in Brussels, at the request of the U.S. The Bush administration is seeking confirmation of NATO's declaration at its April summit that Ukraine and Georgia ``will become members of NATO.''

The U.S. backs Georgia's bid to join NATO. The Russian leadership views further eastward expansion of NATO as a threat to its security.

To contact the reporters on this story: Greg Walters in Moscow gwalters1@bloomberg.net; Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi hbedwell@bloomberg.net