Russian Negotiator: Scrapping Peacekeeping Operation Absurd

Russian chief negotiator for South Ossetian conflict resolution Yuri Popov said it is ?absurd? and ?untimely? for Georgia to demand Russian peacekeepers to withdraw from the South Ossetian conflict zone, Interfax news agency reported on August 16.

?Against the background of an absence of elementary confidence between the conflicting sides, it is absurd and at least, untimely to raise the issue of the Russian peacekeepers? withdrawal,? Popov said.

He said that Russia considers the current peacekeeping operation in the conflict zone ?effective enough.? 

The Russian chief negotiator said that the Georgian side is expected to push for a change in the current peacekeeping operation at talks during a session of the quadripartite Joint Control Commission (JCC) in Moscow on August 17-18.

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