Russian troops have begun withdrawing from western Georgia as part of a deal brokered by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which holds the European Union's rotating presidency.
Georgia's interior ministry says five Russian checkpoints have been vacated near the Black Sea port of Poti. However, Russia says it will keep more than 7,500 troops in what Moscow has described as a buffer zone around the Georgian break-away regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The EU-Russian deal provides for the deployment of 200 EU observers by the beginning of next month.
(Deutsche Welle)
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