Posted on 08/22/2008 3:58:30 AM PDT by maquiladora
POTI, Georgia, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Russian troops on Friday were digging trenches at a checkpoint on the main road just outside the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti, a Reuters photographer said.
The Reuters photographer saw about 30 Russian troops and four armoured personnel carriers at the checkpoint on the road which leads to the town of Senaki. Soldiers were digging a trench with an excavator, the photographer said. Russia has promised to complete a partial pullback of troops from Georgia by the end of Friday but said an unspecified number of "peacekeeping forces" would stay inside the country, angering the West. (Reporting by Umit Bektas, writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Christian Lowe)
Georgia buffer checkpoints "permanent" - Russia 22 Aug 2008 09:58:15 GMT Source: Reuters
MOSCOW, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Russian military checkpoints being built in the area adjacent to Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia will be permanent, a senior Russian military official said on Friday.
"The peacekeeping function will be carried out on a permanent basis so we will be building infra-structure for these checkpoints," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said at a briefing.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LM563277.htm
Georgia set for military action - Russian General Staff
MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia is preparing for military action in its breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a senior Russian military official warned Friday.
"We have registered an increase in [Georgia's] reconnaissance activities and preparations for armed actions in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's general staff, told a news conference.
He said Russia reserved the right to build up its peacekeeping contingent in Georgia's conflict zone.
"The number of peacekeepers in Abkhazia will be 2,142 people, and the number of peacekeepers in South Ossetia will be fixed at a later date," Nogovitsyn said.
The Defense Ministry official also said Russia had set up 18 peacekeeping posts in South Ossetia and would build as many in Abkhazia "in order to avert looters and the transportation of arms and ammunition."
Three Russian fighters and 25 strike aircraft involved in the recent military operation in Georgia have returned to their permanent bases, Nogovitsyn said.
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