Russia Says no Immediate EU Access to ?Buffer Zone?

EU monitors will not have immediate access to the so-called “security zone” inside Georgia, Vitaly Manushko, a Russian peacekeeper spokesman, said on September 30.

“From tomorrow, representatives of the European Union will begin conducting monitoring up to the southern borders of the security zone,” Reuters quoted Manushko as saying.

What Russia calls a "security zone" is an area deep inside Georgian territory around breakaway South Ossetia.

According to the agreement signed by the French and Russian presidents in Moscow on September 8, EU observers will be deployed in the areas adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia by October 1. Russian troops, which currently occupy those areas, should withdraw within ten days of the EU observers being deployed.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)