RUSSIA MADE clear yesterday that it had no intention of bowing to Nato calls for a withdrawal to the positions its forces held before the invasion of Georgia.
Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's general staff, said a battalion of about 270 soldiers would occupy a swath of Georgian territory around the enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia after the withdrawal of troops from central Georgia.
"This is the buffer zone," Col-Gen Nogovitsyn told a news conference, pointing at the area delineated on a map by a red line connecting eight Georgian towns around South Ossetia.
"It is foreseen in the agreements on the movements of Russian forces, the peacekeepers, in the event of a conflict situation, which gives us the right in certain conditions to move and occupy the borders of the zone," he said.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, has pledged to complete the withdrawal from Georgia by tomorrow, as stipulated in a six-point peace plan. The agreement allows for buffer zones around the two Russian-controlled enclaves but it was not clear whether western governments had realised how large the zones would be.
Western governments have expressed frustration that instead of withdrawing its troops, Russia seems to be digging in at areas along its farthest points of advance.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato secretary-general, has called on Moscow to withdraw its forces in Georgia to positions they occupied on August 6th, the day before the confrontation erupted.
It appears that Russia's "line of responsibility" around the enclaves is consistent with the peace plan, which allows for eight military posts along the boundary of the zone. But it is not clear whether western governments had bargained on such a large zone being occupied by Russian troops for the foreseeable future.
Col-Gen Nogovitsyn accused the Georgians, including President Mikheil Saakashvili of foot-dragging. "Despite the fact that Mr Saakashvili has signed the six-point plan and agreed to withdraw Georgian forces to their permanent bases, this condition has not been fulfilled," he said.
When asked how long the deployment in the buffer zone would last, he said: "Time will show. It depends on how the political process develops."
Meanwhile a Russian commission designed to look into allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide by Georgia in South Ossetia says that Georgian forces killed 133 civilians in a bombardment starting on August 7th but adds that the number could climb higher.
The estimated death toll from several days of heavy fighting in early August varies widely, and an earlier Russian estimate of 2,000 victims was recently brought into question by Human Rights Watch, which said hospital records in Tskhinvali showed only 44 dead. - ( Financial Times service)