Sue Pleming
Reuters North American News Service
September 26, 2008
Russia will face a “very strong reaction” from Washington and others if it does not meet an Oct. 10 deadline to withdraw troops from “security zones” around Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.
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Daniel Fried, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, said Moscow would find itself more isolated and its reputation further damaged if it did not comply with obligations laid down in a French-brokered ceasefire deal.
“Does Russia want to be seen as even more risky to do business in than it is now? What kind of a long-term relationship does Russia want to have with the world?” he told Reuters in an interview.
“If the Russians have not complied by Oct. 10 there would be a very strong reaction,” Fried added.
Russia has said it will pull out the forces in the security zones by then, but that it will keep a planned 7,600 troops in the two separatist regions indefinitely — more than twice the number it had before its brief war with Georgia. Washington and others strongly oppose this.
The withdrawal of troops from the security zones around the breakaway regions is conditional on deployment of an international force of ceasefire monitors, including a 200-strong European Union contingent.
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