Kouchner: Russian Pull Out ‘Relatively Satisfactory’

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Russia’s compliance with the ceasefire agreements was “relatively satisfactory.”

Kouchner, who visited the conflict-affected areas in Georgia on October 10, said Russia had fulfilled a commitment to pull out its troops from the areas adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia by October 10. It was obliged to do so under the September 8 agreement, signed by the French and Russian presidents.

"We had said the adjacent zones first and the adjacent zones have been emptied," Kouchner told journalists in the town of Gori, where he visited internally displaced persons living in tents. Kouchner also traveled to some villages previously under Russian control.

But when asked if Russia was in full compliance with the ceasefire accords, Kouchner said: “I think so, but partly.”

The French foreign minister acknowledged that the presence of Russian forces in Akhalgori was “a problem we are aware of.”

“We will obviously begin discussing it in Geneva,” he added, referring to talks that are scheduled to begin on October 15.

Later on October 10, when speaking at a joint news conference with President Saakashvili after talks in Batumi, Kouchner reiterated that Akhalgori remained a problem, adding that Russian troops in the village of Perevi was also a problem. Perevi is west of the administrative border of breakaway South Ossetia, in the Sachkhere district.

“Not everything has been achieved,” he said “The Russians have left most of the territory, but they remain in Akhalgori and Perevi… That’s why we’ll continue talks in Geneva.”

President Saakashvili reiterated at the news conference that Tbilisi was insisting on a return to pre-war lines, as envisaged in the August 12 six-point ceasefire plan.

“We have not returned to the August 7 status quo ante and we plan to work over this issue with the French and other partners during the Geneva talks,” he said.
 
The return to pre-war positions entails a Russian withdrawal not only from Akhalgori, but also from some villages around Tskhinvali, which were controlled by Tbilisi before the war. Russia, however, said the reality had changed since August 12, as Russia had recognized the breakaway region’s independence in the mean time.

Although the follow-up agreement between the Russian and French presidents reached on September 8 does not directly indicate the need to return to pre-war positions, the document makes a reference to the previous August 12 accord, saying the sides remain committed to its principles.

Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on October 10 that Russia had fulfilled its commitments.

“We’ve done everything obliged of us,” he said in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on the sidelines of a CIS summit. ”We have met all the obligations we undertook in the first document [the August 12 six-point plan], the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan, and the second [September 8] document, which was agreed on not long ago in Moscow.”

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