Eyewitness: Russian troops pull back

All morning, the Russian soldiers had been standing listlessly around the checkpoint at Igoeti, just 35km (22 miles) from Tiblisi.

As they cradled their rifles and chatted to local villagers, it seemed they were in no hurry to go.

Then suddenly, at around noon, the first armoured vehicles appeared at speed from around a bend in the road.

Within half an hour tanks and other military vehicles were emerging from the undergrowth and lining up alongside the highway.

The soldiers sitting on top of their armoured personnel carriers seemed pleased to be withdrawing.

"I feel excited, wonderful," one soldier said. "I'm going home."

After brief goodbyes with some of the locals and journalists who had got to know them over the past week, they disappeared up the highway in the direction of South Ossetia, joining an ever-growing column of withdrawing Russian troops.