Minister: Russia completes withdrawing troops from Georgia

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-23 08:56

MOSCOW -- Russia has withdrawn its troops from Georgia to South Ossetia "as planned," Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Friday.

"The withdrawal of the Russian forces and units has gone by without incident and was completed by 7:50 p.m. Moscow time (1550 GMT), as planned," Interfax news agency quoted Serdyukov as saying.

Some of the forces that had left Georgia have already arrived at their bases in Russia, Serdyukov said.

"So the Russian side has complied with the agreements recorded in Moscow's Medvedev-Sarkozy principles," Serdyukov said.

Georgia launched attacks against its breakaway South Ossetia on Aug. 7 in an attempt to regain control of the breakaway region bordering Russia.

In retaliation, Moscow sent in troops that drove Georgian forces out of the region and took over parts of Georgian territory.

Moscow promised in a French-brokered cease-fire agreement that it will withdraw its troops as of Friday.

South Ossetia, formerly an autonomous region within Georgia, declared independence from the former Soviet republic in the early1990s. However, its independence has not been internationally recognized.