7,500 Russian troops for rebel Georgian regions

RUSSIA:RUSSIA PLANS to station more than 7,500 troops in the rebel Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where they will stay for the foreseeable future, senior Moscow officials said yesterday.

"We have to work out how to arrange for the presence of Russian armed forces, and how to place our military bases there, as requested by the leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Russian president Dmitry Medvedev told defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

"We have already agreed on the contingent - in the region of 3,800 men in each republic - its structure and location," Mr Serdyukov replied.

The announcement infuriated Georgia, as did Moscow's formal establishment of diplomatic ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions which fought free of Tbilisi's control in the early 1990s and have for years been propped up by the Kremlin.

"They will be there for a long time, at least for the foreseeable future," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said of the troops. "That is necessary to prevent a repeat of Georgian aggression."

Moscow says it sent its forces into South Ossetia on the night of August 7th to halt a "genocidal" onslaught by Georgian soldiers intent on reclaiming the territory and committing "ethnic cleansing". Tbilisi says its troops only responded to attacks from Russian-backed South Ossetian militia and then an all-out invasion by Kremlin tanks.

Mr Lavrov said a pact between Moscow and the two separatist governments allows them to take "all measures at their disposal . . . to prevent acts of aggression by a state or group of states" and to "build, use or modernise the military infrastructure of its partners".

Alexander Lomaia, head of Georgia's security council, said Russian bases in the regions would be "legally unjustified" and "completely contradict the ceasefire agreement, under which they're obligated gradually to remove their troops from Georgian territory". A deal agreed on Monday with the EU commits Russia to removing five checkpoints near the Black Sea port of Poti within a week, and withdrawing all its soldiers from "buffer zones" around Abkhazia and South Ossetia within 10 days after international monitors - including at least 200 EU observers and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) staff - arrive in the area. They are expected to be deployed by October 1st.

"The more observers there are on Georgian territory from the OSCE and the European Union, the better it will undoubtedly be," Mr Medvedev said.

"I hope that, at a minimum, this will stop the Georgian military regime from committing any idiotic actions." Russia began dismantling its first checkpoints and pulling out of parts of the buffer zones yesterday.

This week's agreement also foresees an international meeting on October 15th in Geneva to discuss security in the strategic, and volatile, Caucasus region. Russia said it would insist that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are given "fully-fledged" status at the talks, despite overwhelming international opposition to their sovereignty.