World

Sarkozy in Russia/Georgia Talks, Pushes for EU Monitors

by Rob Walker | September 8, 2008 at 11:34 am

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Russia announced today it would pull its military forces back to pre-conflict positions by Oct. 1, but only if they are replaced by 200 EU monitors.

Russia is also due to pull out from checkpoints between Sinaki and the Black Sea port of Poti. Georgia stated they would not use force during any of these withdrawals.

Georgia said Monday that far from withdrawing, Russia reinforced its positions on the outskirts of the Georgian Black Sea port city of Poti over the weekend.
Sarkozy has been criticized for giving the Russians too much room for interpretation in the peace deal signed Aug. 12, and his diplomatic blitz Monday to Moscow and Tbilisi may be his last chance to save it — and his own credibility as a peacemaker.

However, the Georgian government said that despite the truce talks, Russian troops had been building their numbers in various towns.

But even as Mr Sarkozy and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, were revealing the contents of the accord at a Tsarist hunting lodge outside Moscow, Georgia claimed that Russia had deployed additional troops around key towns over the past two days.

In what is being seen as a largely symbolic gesture, US president George Bush froze a civilian nuclear pact with Russia. Bush stated the move it was intended more to keep the deal alive than to have congress reject it and make it more difficult to try again in the future.

President George W. Bush on Monday froze a lucrative civilian nuclear pact with Russia, the first big penalty imposed on Moscow after its war with Georgia but one that can be reversed.