Russia notified the EU of its completion of the full withdrawal of its peacekeepers from buffer zones adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia on Wednesday. However it still has several thousand troops inside the breakaway regions. Moscow says they are needed to prevent further violence while Georgia calls them an occupying force.
The peacekeepers were replaced by the EU monitoring mission in Georgia two days ahead of the stipulated ceasefire deadline of October 10.
Georgia claims however that Russia will not be in compliance with the ceasefire deal until it pulls its troops back to positions held before August's five-day war. Moscow, which plans to station some 7,600 soldiers in the two rebel regions, says its withdrawal from the buffer zones means it is already in compliance with the terms of the ceasefire.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said Russia's plans to station troops in the republics were legal in light of its recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states on August 26.
"These are not peacekeepers, this is a military contingent whose number is defined by the Defense Ministry in consultation with its partners in South Ossetia and Abkhazia," he said on September 11.
Tbilisi attacked South Ossetia on August 7-8 in an attempt to regain control over the republic, which, along with Abkhazia, split from Georgia in the early 1990s. A number of Russian peacekeepers and a reported 1,600 South Ossetian civilians lost their lives during Georgia's attack on Tskhinvali, the tiny capital of the breakaway province.
Russia subsequently launched a military operation to "force Georgia to peace." The operation was concluded on August 12, with Russian forces deep in Georgia.
