Russia asks EU to monitor its troop pullout from Georgia

Russia asks EU to monitor its troop pullout from Georgia (NSI News Source Info) TSKHINVALI - October 8, 2008: EU observers in Georgia will be monitoring the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the buffer zone next to South Ossetia, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. "During yesterday's talks with EU representatives, Murat Kulakhmetov, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, asked that two EU representatives be present at each [of the six] peacekeeping outpost during the withdrawal," the source said. Under an EU-brokered peace deal, Russia agreed to pull its peacekeepers out of undisputed parts of Georgia by October 10, leaving troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow has recognized as independent countries. Kulakhmetov said that the removal of the six posts would begin Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (06:00 GMT). "The withdrawal of the Russian posts will begin at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time and will be completed within 24 hours," he said. Moscow launched a five-day operation to "force Georgia to accept peace" after Tbilisi attacked South Ossetia on August 8 in an attempt to regain control over the republic, which split from Georgia in the early 1990s. A number of Russian peacekeepers and a reported 1,600 South Ossetian residents lost their lives during the conflict. Russia's response to the Georgian attack was called disproportionate by a number of Western countries, and Russia drew further criticism when on August 26 it recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian republic, as independent states. So far, only Nicaragua has followed suit.