While some more or less realistic versions of the Georgia conflict are now emerging, ‘western’ media are still obfuscating ongoing developments.
Moscow claims that all troops introduced after August 8 into South Ossetia and Abkhazia are now back on Russian Federation territory. The Russian force level within former Georgian borders is back to what is allowed under the internationally recognized peacekeeping agreements from the early 1990s.
In line with the six-point agreement signed on August 12 by Medvedev, Sarkozy and, after some obfuscation, Saakashvili, Russia keeps troops near a central crossing off the Poti harbor and one monitoring the major west-east highway north of Gori. These troops make sure that currently no major weapon systems like tanks will be imported to Georgia without RF interference.
But those few dozens soldiers are now the only Russian Federation troops on genuine Georgian grounds. But the usual agencies still make a big issue out of their presence.
AP headlines: Russia vows Georgia pullout when EU sends monitors.
Reuters writes:
Russia agreed to completely withdraw its troops from Georgia’s heartland within a month on Monday, but there was no commitment to scale back its military presence in two Georgian separatist regions.
AFP claims: Russia commits to new Georgia pull-back"
President Dmitry Medvedev pledged Monday to withdraw all Russian troops from Georgia within a month, although Russian forces will remain in two breakaway regions recognised by Moscow as independent states.
Medvedev said he had agreed to the deployment of at least 200 European Union observers in Georgia by October 1 to monitor the pull-out after winning assurances from a visiting European Union mission.
As usual, nothing of that comes near to what Medvedev really said:
Medvedev said Russia’s full withdrawal from Georgia will come not more than 10 days after the European Union deploys at least 200 observers in the ‘buffer zone’ near South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which under the new agreement is set to happen by October 1.
However, before the pullout takes place, Russia must receive from Georgia "legally binding documents on non-use of force against Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Medvedev said.
Somehow, the ‘western’ news agencies seem to have missed that crucial point.
The U.S. funded website civil.ge just wrote Sarkozy: Saakashvili Guarantees Non-Use of Force. The two ‘Releated’ headlines civil.ge attached to that short piece are: Saakashvili Downplays Treaty on Non-Use of Force and Saakashvili Says No to Treaty on Non-Use of Force. The links are to old stories but they show how that guy is just a flag in the wind while the Russian Federation demands for a peaceful solution have been the same for years.
Unless there is a completely unambiguous declaration from Georgia and a -at least informal- commitment from the ‘west’ not to rearm Georgia, the Russian federation will not pull back the observer troops. A simple ambiguous letter from Saakashvili is unlikely to fulfill that demand. It is not a ‘legally binding document’.
Sarkozy’s say-so on an alleged letter from Saakashvili will not be enough to generate trust. Sarkozy lost such when he, under U.S. pressure, signed that mysterious letter that distorted the real content of his negotiations with Medvedev.
Saakashvili, after he lost out in his lunatic attempt to establish control over areas that never really belonged to Georgia, introduced a Patriot Act and then a Charter of Politicians of Georgia both of which the oppositions parties denied to support as both would tend to subscribe to support his authoritarian government point fo view.
Politically the guy is toast. He claims: Georgia [is] at the Center of World Politics. Thanks to superbly managed ‘western’ propaganda he was right with that claim for a few days.
But what is clear by now, except maybe to him, is that the center of world politics is not the place where the world wants Georgia and especially a lunatic like Saakashvili to be.