Russian Chief of Staff Comments on Peacekeepers

Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Yuri Baluevsky, warned on February 16, that “civil war” might resume in South Ossetia if the Russian peacekeepers pull out from the region.

“If tomorrow the peacekeepers go [from South Ossetia] we may return to 1992 – a resumption of civil war… Statements about the Russian peacekeeping forces are ineffective are not true,” Baluevsky told journalists, Russian media sources reported.

He also recalled that the Russian peacekeepers are stationed in South Ossetia as part of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces (JPKF), which is also composed of Georgian and Ossetian servicemen.

But he criticized the Georgian peacekeeping battalion as “unpredictable.”

“The Georgian battalion actually does not obey the Commander [of the JPKF] – Russian General Marat Kulakhmetov,” he added.