Russian Troop Withdrawal

The BBC reports that Russia has agreed to withdraw its remaining troops from Georgia by 2008.

Update: RFE/RL has more here:

The Georgian foreign minister said that the hardest part in the negotiations had been to persuade the Russians that withdrawal should not be seen as a national humiliation but the beginning of a new partnership with a neighbouring and independent state.

The Russians had originally asked for 11 years to withdraw from Georgia and for hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for the troops removal to new facilities in Russia or elsewhere. That they have agreed to far less is a reflection of the growing international pressure on Moscow to stop prevaricating on withdrawal and a dawning appreciation in Moscow of the fact that the issue was forcing the Georgians into ever closer ties with the United States and NATO.

It helped in the end that the Georgians were able to offer the Russians sweeteners. According to today's agreement, Georgia and Russia are to work to set up a joint antiterrorist center in Georgia, although where it will be and what its remit should be are yet to be decided.

Georgia has also offered a verbal commitment not to allow any third country to deploy troops on its territory.

In the end, the agreement came as no surprise. Just last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" that while it was regrettable from a political point of view that Georgia wanted the Russians to leave, it was its sovereign right.

And in any case, Putin added, the bases served no useful military purpose. Georgia's only regret will be that it has taken Moscow so long to reach this conclusion.