Russian military withdraws from Georgia, defense chief says

Published 9:52 am Friday, August 22, 2008

IGOETI, Georgia — Russia’s defense chief says the military has competed its withdrawal of forces from most of Georgian territory.

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov says the pullback into separatist South Ossetia was finished in the late evening.

Russian authorities had promised that troops would withdraw to Moscow-backed separatist regions and surrounding security zones by the end of the day.

But U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the United States was not satisfied.

Wood said that establishing buffer zones was “definitely not part of the agreement.”

Russian forces countered a Georgian offensive in South Ossetia two weeks ago and drove deep into Georgia in a brief but intense war.