Russia's military announced plans on Tuesday to station about 7,600 troops in Georgia's separatist regions, a sharp increase on the numbers deployed before Moscow sent in troops last month. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said troops would stay in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for a long time to prevent any "repeat of Georgian aggression."
Moscow's intervention in Georgia last month, in which its forces crushed an attempt by Tbilisi to retake South Ossetia, drew widespread international condemnation and prompted concern over the security of energy supplies. Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced the planned force levels one day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Moscow with a commitment from the Kremlin to withdraw from undisputed Georgian territory within a month.
But there was no explicit mention in the French-brokered deal of the Russian forces inside breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, despite previous Western demands that all troops return to their pre-conflict positions. Briefing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on negotiations with the regions' leaders, Serdyukov said: "We have already agreed on the contingent - in the region of 3,800 men in each republic - (and on) its structure and location." Medvedev ordered Serdyukov to determine how Russia would implement a request from South Ossetia and Abkhazia "to deploy bases" in those regions.
Russia angered the West last month by recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in separatist wars in the 1990s, as independent states. Nicaragua is the only other state to have recognised their independence. Lavrov also met the two separatist regions' foreign ministers on Tuesday to formally establish diplomatic ties, a step likely to further irritate Western governments.
Before fighting broke out in Georgia last month, Russia had a peacekeeping force of 1,000 servicemen in South Ossetia and a contingent of about 2,500 in Abkhazia. They were operating under a peacekeeping mandate dating back to the 1990s.
Both the European Union and the United States have warned Russia it could face serious consequences over its actions in Georgia, but the scope for punitive measures is limited. Europe depends on Russia for more than a quarter of its gas supplies and Washington needs Russia's co-operation in efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. Russia said it was morally obliged to send in its military last month to prevent what it called a genocide in the separatist regions by a Georgian government egged on by its ally, the United States.
After four hours of talks at a castle outside Moscow on Monday, Medvedev and European Union leaders led by Sarkozy agreed that Russian forces in buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia would pull back within a month. They are to be replaced with an international monitoring force which will include a 200-strong EU contingent.
Lavrov said the agreement was a vindication for Russia because it included an EU guarantee that Georgia would not use force again against the separatists. "The responsibility for any attempts of aggression by Georgia will rest with the international presence," he told a news conference. On the Russian troops' presence in the breakaway regions, he said.
"They will be there for a long time, at least for the foreseeable period. That is necessary to not allow a repeat of Georgian aggression." The fighting in Georgia worried energy markets because it was waged near the route of an oil pipeline that can pump up to 1 million barrels of crude per day from the Caspian Sea. The pipeline is favoured by the West because it bypasses Russia.
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