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Russia signs ceasefire deal with Georgia

Troop pullback to begin today

AP, Outside Geri
Russian troops will begin pulling back Monday from their positions throughout Georgia toward the country's separatist-held region of South Ossetia, the Kremlin said yesterday.
Western pressure has been increasing on Moscow to withdraw its forces under a cease-fire deal signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. The United States and France have already accused Russia of defying the truce between the ex-Soviet neighbours, as Russian tanks and
troops roamed freely across a wide swath of Georgian territory.
The EU-backed cease-fire agreement calls for Georgian and Russian troops to withdraw to the positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7.
Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a telephone conversation Sunday that Russian army troops will retreat toward the de facto Georgia-South Ossetia border on Monday, according to a Kremlin statement.
The troops will head toward a border between Georgia and South Ossetia that was delineated in a 1999 peacekeeping agreement signed by all parties, the Kremlin said. The statement did not say that the troops will return to Russia.
A Russian general on the ground, Maj Gen Vyachislav Borisov, told the Associated Press the "planned withdrawal" from the disputed province was already under way. But in Moscow, a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release his name to the media, denied Sunday that troops were leaving South Ossetia.
A spokeswoman for the South Ossetian defence ministry, Irina Gagloyeva said South Ossetian police were replacing Russian peacekeepers in the South Ossetian capital ofTskhinvali.
In Georgia proper, Russian troops still surrounded the strategic central city of Gori and the western city of Senaki and its air base. Both cities are on the main east-west highway that slices through two Georgian mountain ranges, giving Russia effective control of the main artery' running through the western half of the country.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew into the Georgian capital of Tbilisi Sunday for more talks on the 11-day-old conflict. The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger, was also arriving to check on the plight of thousands of refugees uprooted by the fighting.
President Bush warned Saturday that Russia cannot lay claim to the two separatist regions in US-backed Georgia South Ossetia and Abkhazia eventhough their sympathies lie with Moscow.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Russia not withdraw troops until Moscow is satisfied that security measures allowed under the agreement are effective.
Lavrov has previously said that Georgia can "forget about" South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which broke from Georgian government control in early 1990s wars.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry accused Russian army units and separatist fighters in Abkhazia of taking over 13 villages and the Inguri hydropower plant on Saturday, shifting the border of the Black Sea province toward the Inguri River. Russia on Sunday confirmed that its peacekeepers took over the power plant.
The villages and plant are in a UN-established buffer zone on Abkhazia's edge, and it appeared iheseparatistsiwerahnlsreringdheir control over the zone after they and their Russian patrons forced Georgians out of their last stronghold in Abkhazia earlier this week.
A large anti-Russian banner hung Sunday in front of the Parliament building in central Tbilisi: "No war, Russia go home."
"We have no guarantee that the Russians will keep to their agreement," one worried Tbilisi resident told an AP television crew. She did not give her name for fears of reprisal.
Georgia, bordering the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of the pro-Western Saakashvili, George has sought Nato membership and has emerged as a proxy for conflict between an emboldened Russia and the West.
The conflict erupted after Georgia launched a massive barrage to try to take control of South Ossetia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed its neighbour's forces and drove deep into Georgia,
raising fears that it was planning on along-term occupation.
Russia views the growing relationship between the US and Georgia as an encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence. The fighting came amid US efforts to close a deal on a missile shield based in former Soviet satellites in Europe, an issue already damaging ties with itsformer Cold War foe.
BUSH TELLS RUSSIA TO GET OUT OF GEORGIA President Bush warned Russia yesterday against trying to pry loose two separatist regions in Georgia and said Moscow must end military operations in the West-leaning democracy that once was part of the Soviet empire, reports AP
Bush told reporters at his Texas ranch that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s signing of a cease-fire plan with Georgia was "a hopeful step." But Russia's vision of Georgia without the provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was a nonstarter, the president said.
"These regions are a part of Georgia and the international community has repeatedly made clear that they will remain so," said Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his side. "There's no room for debate on this matter.”
The long-simmering dispute over those breakaway areas turned to war this month after Georgia launched a massive barrage to try to take control of South Ossetia. The Russian army quickly overwhelmed the Georgian forces and drove deep into its neighbor.