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Russian troops pack up, leave western Georgia

AP, Tbilisi
Hundreds of Russian forces packed up and withdrew from positions Saturday in western Georgia, and a Georgian official said Russia met a deadline for a partial pullout a month after the war between the two former Soviet republics.
Russian soldiers and armoured vehicles rolled out of six checkpoints and temporary bases in the Black Sea port of Poti and other areas nearby. Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said.
They have fulfilled the commitment’ to withdraw from the area by Sept. 15 under an agreement European Union leaders reached with Russia last week. Lomaia told The Associated Press. But he stressed that Georgia like the West demands a full with- drawal to pre-conflict positions.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko confirmed the withdrawal.
"Right now the withdrawal of our peacekeeping forces is happening from these posts," Nesterenko said in televised comments.
However. Lomaia said some 1,200 Russian servicemen still remain at 19 checkpoints and other positions. 12 outside South Ossetia and seven outside Abkhazia.
Russia said it would pull them out by Oct. 11 as long as a 200-strong delegation of European Union observers was in place by Oct. 1. However, OSCE documents seen by The Associated Press have raised questions over Russia's true willingness to accept the monitors.
The presence of Russian troops
dug in deep in undisputed Georgian territory more than a month after the fighting ended has deeply angered Georgians and been an enormous sore point betw een Russia and the West.
Russia's military campaign in Georgia and its subsequent recognition of Georgia's separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent nations has plunged its relations with the United States and Europe into their worst crisis since die Cold War.
An Associated Press television crew saw Russian soldiers pack military trucks before dawn Saturday with blankets and other supplies at a post by a road leading to Abkhazia province. Among die items taken down the Russian tricolour flag.
Four trucks stood packed and
ready to leave the post in the village of Pirveli Maisi, along with an armoured personnel carrier. A Russian column about the same size rolled past on a road leading to Abkhazia.
Russian forces left the two posts they had maintained for weeks on the outskirts of Poti, one by a bridge on a main road leading into the city and one a few miles from Georgia’s main port and devastated naval base, Interior Ministry official ShotaUdashvili said. •
"Russian forces have withdrawn completely from Poti." he said.
A third Russian post established more recently by the port of Poti had also been vacated, Lomaia said. He said some 250 soldiers and 20 armoured vehicles pulled out of their positions and headed toward Abkhazia.