Russia plans to more than double its military presence in the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and station troops there indefinitely, officials said Tuesday, a day after President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to withdraw Russian forces from the rest of Georgia by Oct. 11.
Speaking at a news briefing, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russian troops would remain in the separatist regions "for a long time. Their presence there will be needed at least for the foreseeable future to prevent any relapses of aggressive actions." Separately, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was quoted telling Medvedev in a meeting that the two republics had agreed to host bases with about 3,600 Russian soldiers each.
Before last month's war with Georgia, the Russian military stationed about 1,000 troops in South Ossetia and 2,500 in Abkhazia as peacekeeping forces, and Russian officials had suggested they intended to keep troops in the disputed regions after last month's five-day war with Georgia.
But Tuesday's statements were the clearest and most detailed indication of the Kremlin's plans to date. The timing of the announcement, a day after Medvedev agreed in talks with European leaders to withdraw troops from other parts of Georgia, seemed intended to emphasize Russia's determination to support the secession of the two regions despite strong Western objections.
"I hope that, as a minimum, this will stop the Georgian military regime from committing any idiotic actions," Medvedev told the defense minister in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency.
The decision to withdraw troops from all Georgian territory outside the two disputed regions came during negotiations Monday with a European delegation led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and it represented a significant concession by Russia after weeks of tough talk in the face of European and American condemnation of its invasion of Georgia.
At a joint news conference with Medvedev, Sarkozy said Russian forces would withdraw from five checkpoints between the Black Sea port of Poti and the Georgian city of Senaki within a week, and from positions in all other undisputed parts of Georgia within a month. The E.U. pledged to send a team of international observers into Georgia to take the place of Russian troops.
But the standoff between Russia and the West over the broader question of Georgia's territorial integrity remained unresolved. Even as he agreed to pull back troops, Medvedev again voiced strong support for the breakaway republics that are at the heart of the conflict. Moscow has recognized both as independent states.
"We have made our choice. This is a final and definitive choice, an irrevocable decision," Medvedev said of his government's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia following its military victory.
The two regions enjoyed de facto autonomy within Georgia for more than a decade before Russia's decision to formally recognize their secession. Russia said it was compelled to act after Georgia abandoned peace talks and attempted to seize South Ossetia by force on Aug. 7, but the West denounced the move as an attempt to unilaterally redraw Georgia's borders.
Russia has also argued that South Ossetia and Abkhazia have a stronger case for independence than Kosovo, the Serbian province that the United States and much of Europe recognized as independent in February over Moscow's objections.
Asked whether Europe had in effect acquiesced to Russia's recognition of the two breakaway regions, Sarkozy bristled and said the issue would be revisited in further talks Oct. 15 in Geneva.
"It was not up to Russia to define Georgia's borders or frontiers," he said. "The Russians will say what they wish to say. We have condemned the Russian position."Sarkozy flew on to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on Monday to talk with President Mikheil Saakashvili. After their meeting, Saakashvili called the agreement "a step forward" and expressed gratitude to the European negotiators, comparing what he called their "21st-century" diplomacy with the "Stalinian solutions or 19th-century solutions" offered by the Russians.
Alexander Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, applauded the clear deadlines in the agreement but added, "The bad news is that it doesn't refer to territorial integrity."
Separately, in its most concrete gesture of protest to date, the Bush administration on Monday withdrew from congressional consideration a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Moscow that had once been celebrated as a symbol of the strength of U.S.-Russian relations. "We make this decision with regret," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement in Washington. "Unfortunately, given the current environment, the time is not right for this agreement."
The agreement to pull back Russian troops, presumably into South Ossetia and Abkhazia, follows an earlier cease-fire deal brokered by Sarkozy that had also called for a Russian withdrawal. Russian forces withdrew from much of the territory they occupied in Georgia after that agreement, but continued to maintain "security zones" on Georgian soil near South Ossetia and Abkhazia over Western objections. Russian officials said the cease-fire agreement allowed them to patrol such zones to deter Georgian attacks against the breakaway regions.
Under Monday's agreement, the E.U. will send 200 monitors into the region no later than Oct. 1, joining U.N. and other international observers. Russia said it would withdraw its troops within 10 days of the E.U. deployment.
Russia said Monday that it will send a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes to Venezuela this year for a joint military exercise in the Caribbean, the Associated Press reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko insisted the decision was made before Russia's war with Georgia.
