Russian tanks begin withdrawal from Gori

The Guardian ^ | August 19, 2008 | Luke Harding, Tom Parfitt, Julian Borger, Mark Tran

[Schnucki]

Russian troops, tanks and armoured vehicles today began to withdraw from the Georgian town of Gori.

The withdrawal was the first indication that Moscow was reducing its military presence in Georgia under an EU-brokered ceasefire.

"I order you to carry out a march along the route Gori-Tshkinvali-Vladikavkaz," a senior Russian officer told troops before getting into an armoured vehicle.

In scorching heat, four Russian armoured vehicles, several tanks, a mobile rocket launcher and trucks set off in the direction of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia province. Russian soldiers waved and smiled as the column left.

The vehicles passed the village of Ruisi, outside Gori, where Colonel Igor Konoshenkov, a Russian military officer, told an Associated Press reporter that they were ultimately heading back to Russia.

Konoshenkov said the movement was part of the withdrawal mandated by a ceasefire requiring both sides to return to the positions they held before heavy fighting broke out in South Ossetia on August 7.

The first indication that Russia was finally pulling its troops out followed an earlier exchange of prisoners. Yesterday, Moscow said it had begun to pull its forces back following Saturday's ceasefire agreement.

The prisoner exchange began when two Russian military helicopters landed in the village of Igoeti - the closest Russian forces have advanced to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, 27 miles away.

Soldiers and men in unmarked clothing disembarked and two people on stretchers were taken to Georgian officials. Georgian ambulances later brought two others, one on a stretcher, to the helicopters.

Alexander Lomaia, the head of Georgia's security council, told reporters in Igoeti that 15 Georgians and five Russians had been exchanged. "It went smoothly," he said.

The operation was also witnessed by the Russian Major General Vyacheslav Borisov, who commands troops in the area.

Lomaia said the exchange removed any

[null and void]

Withdrawing further into Georgia?

Just askin’...

[Righter-than-Rush]

I know how to make those tanks bust a move... with a tank buster!

[Larry381]

Perfect country in the hills and mountains to the northwest for small bands of special forces to do some damage to any Russian or its puppet troops in this area.
This area consists of huge and steep mountain passes covered with forest and cut by narrow roads. The Germans found to their dismay what a few well led troops could do in this environment when their mountain troops were continually surrounded and forced to hack their way out of encirclements as they attempted to reach the Black Sea coast near Sokhumi