Russia has failed to meet all its obligations under a European Union-brokered cease-fire that ended a war with Georgia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
"Not everything has been achieved,'' Kouchner said today in the Black Sea port city of Batumi after talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. "The Russians have left most of the territory, but they remain in Akhalgori and Perevi,'' two towns in the separatist region of South Ossetia. "That's why we'll continue talks in Geneva.''
President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia has done everything required of it. "We have met all the obligations we accepted in the first document, the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan, and the second document, which was agreed on not long ago in Moscow,'' he told reporters today in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, brokered the cease-fire that ended Russia's five-day war with Georgia over South Ossetia in August. A copy of the cease-fire accord provided by Saakashvili's press service states that Russian forces must return to their pre-conflict positions. Russia sent about 10,000 soldiers into Georgia during the fighting, according to state-run news service RIA Novosti.
Buffer Zones
Under the subsequent deal reached by Medvedev and Sarkozy, Russia agreed to withdraw its forces from "Georgian territory outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia,'' Sarkozy said on Sept. 8. He said the agreement was "the maximum we could get.''
Medvedev said Russian troops had been withdrawn from "security zones'' that extend into Georgia from South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia. Russia recognized the regions' independence from Georgia on Aug. 26, a move condemned by the U.S. and many European countries.
EU monitors are now deployed in the two buffer zones. "Therefore I think that everything's proceeding normally,'' Medvedev said.
Russia, Georgia, the EU and other organizations meet in Geneva on Oct. 15 to discuss issues of security and stability following the war. Medvedev reiterated Russia's demand that South Ossetia and Abkhazia be represented at the talks. He has stated previously that Russia won't reconsider its decision to recognize the regions' sovereignty.
Georgia insists that the "status quo ante must be restored,'' Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili said yesterday. She reiterated Georgia's insistence that Russian troops must withdraw from Akhalgori in South Ossetia and the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia, which are both ``part of Georgia.''
"Business as usual with Russia can't resume until the cease-fire agreement is implemented in full,'' she said.
Source: Agencies
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