VILNIUS, Lithuania (AFP) — Russia could be poised to breach the ceasefire which brought its war with ex-Soviet Georgia to a halt in August, a senior US official warned on Thursday.
US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said he feared Moscow would fail to fully respect the EU-brokered deal which stipulates that it must pull its troops out of parts of Georgia neighbouring two breakaway regions and back to positions they held before the fighting.
"I think the Russians will respect that part of the agreements which requires them to pull their troops out of this so-called 'security zone' and out of uncontested Georgia," Fried said in an interview with AFP.
"What I fear is that they will not respect that part of the ceasefire that requires them to pull all of their combat forces back to their positions of August 7. And this is part of the six-point ceasefire. It's quite explicit," he said during a visit to Lithuania, a former Soviet republic which joined the EU in 2004 and is a staunch ally of Georgia.
On Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated that Moscow was committed to withdrawing its forces by October 10 from the buffer zones it seized in Georgia alongside the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The date was fixed in the truce brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is currently at the helm of the 27-nation European Union.
Moscow had long backed Abkhazia and South Ossetia's rebel leaderships, who following brief conflicts broke with Tbilisi after Georgia won independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991.
Russian peacekeepers were posted in both regions -- much to the annoyance of Georgia, which accused them of bias -- and were bolstered ahead of the conflict, which Russia blamed on a Georgian attack on South Ossetia.
Western nations strongly condemned Russia's actions in Georgia as a violation of international law and of Georgia's integrity.
"Russia has tried to use war as a means of changing international boundaries. This is quite shocking," Fried said.
Moscow recognised the independence of the two separatist Georgian territories on August 26, but has won meagre support for its stance.
"I think the Russians are acutely embarrassed by the international resistance to their invasion of Georgia and their recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," said Fried.
"After all, they've been joined by which countries? Nicaragua. Now Somalia. And Hamas (the Palestinian Islamist movement). What is this? This is hardly a diplomatic triumph. This is in fact a disaster," he said.
"This is acutely embarrassing, and they should be embarrassed," he added.
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