GEORGIA: Georgians protest Russian post in Khobi Western Georgia

Record ID: 643049

  • Title: GEORGIA: Georgians protest Russian post in Khobi Western Georgia
  • Date: 8th September 2008
  • Summary: (BN11) POTI, GEORGIA (SEPTEMBER 8, 2008) (REUTERS) WIDE OF FORTIFIED RUSSIAN TROOPS POST ON BLACK SEA COAST VARIOUS RUSSIAN TROOPS POST VARIOUS OF RUSSIAN CHECKPOINT
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA5GDPSJ1HDHKXQWSFBE583AWV1
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Georgians gather in protest at Russian post near school in Khobi Western Georgia.
    Five to six hundred protesters gathered in a protest on Monday (September 8), to demand the removal of a Russian military post near the school in Khobi Western Georgia.
    Several Russian APCs were spotted near the town of Zugdidi in West Georgia.
    Russian military presence in Georgia remains a point of concern for the Georgians as well as for the international community.
    The United States and Europe have demanded that Russia pull forces out of Georgia as set out in a French-brokered peace agreement, but Moscow has not yet fully complied.
    Russia sent in its troops after Georgia's military tried to retake South Ossetia, one of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions. Russia pulled out the bulk of its forces in line with a French-brokered ceasefire deal.
    But it has kept soldiers and equipment in the "security zones," which include undisputed Georgian territory around South Ossetia and the second region of Abkhazia.
    Western governments have demanded that Moscow pull its troops back to pre-conflict positions. The Kremlin says the troops are peacekeepers needed to protect the separatist regions from new Georgian aggression.
    French President Nicolas Sarkozy who visited Moscow on Monday (September 8), said Russia had agreed to leave core Georgia within a month after meeting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss the fallout of the Georgia conflict.
    Sarkozy also said Russia has agreed to remove checkpoints around Georgia's Poti port within a week after discussions between Medvedev and an EU delegation at the Russian president's official residence outside Moscow.
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