Posted on 08/21/2008 1:06:56 PM PDT by Schnucki
Russia will withdraw troops that were sent to Georgia to reinforce peacekeepers within 10 days, the commander of Russian ground forces said today.
"The withdrawal of the Russian troops which have reinforced the peacekeepers from the territory of Georgia is going according to plan and will be completed in 10 days," Ground Forces Commander Vladimir Boldyrev said.
"These forces will be withdrawn to Russian territory," he said.
There have been conflicting reports about the plans of the Russian military, with earlier accounts saying that Moscow would pull back its forces behind the buffer zone by tomorrow and had already begun to withdraw.
The Interfax news agency and Reuters reported earlier today that a Russian armoured column had begun pulling back from Georgian territory towards Russia.
The convoy, consisting of more than 40 vehicles including tanks, multiple launch rocket systems and armoured personnel carriers, passed through the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali this morning, headed for the Russian border, Interfax reported.
But the Pentagon today described movements of Moscow's forces as "minimal."
"There has not been much evidence of any significant Russian withdrawals," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. "There have been some minimal movements to date."
Earlier, the US said it expects to help Georgia rebuild its military following the conflict with Russia over breakaway South Ossetia.
"One would assume . . . we would have to help them rebuild because they are a partner in the war on terror, they've been helpful. They are going to ask us, I am sure, to replace and rebuild," US General John Craddock said during a trip to Georgia.
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia is not planning to shut any doors in its relations with Nato.
(Excerpt) Read more at irishtimes.com ...
Are there some kind of credibility issues here or maybe some kind of power struggle going on behind the scenes?
Putin says, “ the check is in the mail “.....
I think there is a power struggle going on in Moscow. Medvedev says one thing and then the Russian military does another thing. It appears that Putin is in command of the military, not Medvedev and they are listening to him and him only.
Maybe Putin’s upset because Medvedev doesn’t want to take as hard-line of an approach, so he’s taking it into his own hands.
Which will include Tblisi.
The US military is already set for some type of action there. Otherwise the President wouldn’t have been so vehiment in his verbiage. The President should give them an ultimatum of 48 hours to leave.
Actually, it's about 10 hours for a day on Jupiter.
An ultimatum needs to be accompanied by some credible consequences if not followed. What exactly do you think we could do at the end of 48 hours?
какая нагрузка дерьма
It reminds me of the French voice on Spongebob that says, “Two weeks later.....”
Alice in Wonderland has been translated into Russian over a century ago.
A good cartoonist needs to make a White Queen/Putin image.
I presume they're taking the Chechen mercenaries with them? Oh, they're not? Well, then we certainly wouldn't be able to accuse them of overkill by having Russian troops AND Chechen thugs. As they say, it takes a skilled statesman to make these delicate decisions and surgical moves. I hope Putin doesn't decide to become abrain surgeon.
“What exactly do you think we could do at the end of 48 hours?”
Turn blue from holding our breath???
Send in the Apaches. Wipe out a tank column for starters.
I won this belt buckle at the rodeo.
I was only helping the sheep over the fence.
LMAO!!!
The Russians and Iranian read from the same playbook. Delay, delay, delay. The question is will the response be different.
10 days....ish....
More likely they are just playing "Good Rusky"/"Bad Rusky".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.