Agence France-Presse,
TBILISI: Russian forces Sunday removed their first checkpoint from Georgia near the rebel region of South Ossetia, an EU monitoring mission and the Georgian government said.
“Our observers went to the checkpoint in Ali, northwest of Gori, and saw that it has been dismantled,” a spokesman of the European Union mission told AFP. “This is the first dismantled checkpoint.”
Russian forces are due to withdraw from buffer zones around South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, by October 10 under an EU-brokered peace deal.
Georgian interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili confirmed the dismantling of the checkpoint in Ali, where 20-30 Russian soldiers had been deployed.
“It looks like the start of the withdrawal,” he said. “Georgian police are moving into the area immediately.”
Georgian National Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaia said Russian forces were also seen making preparations to leave another checkpoint, at Perevi near the border with South Ossetia.
“In Perevi, the Russians are making some preparations, possibly for a withdrawal,” he told AFP.
At least 200 European Union observers deployed on Wednesday to begin monitoring the ceasefire and the Russian pull-back.
Russian forces pushed into Georgia in August to repel a Georgian military effort to regain control of South Ossetia.
Moscow said it was protecting Russian citizens in the region from Georgian aggression, but Tbilisi accused Moscow of having provoked the conflict in order to cement control over the region and destabilise its pro-Western government.
