The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Karaleti

Russian forces began the final stage of a pullback from positions outside Georgia's separatist South Ossetia region, bulldozing a camp at a key checkpoint as EU monitors looked on. A Russian general said the withdrawal would be completed Wednesday.

Moscow must withdraw its troops from buffer zones surrounding South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, by Friday under an agreement brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy after Russia's war with Georgia in August.

The pullback may ease tensions somewhat but will not resolve major disputes pitting Russia against Georgia and Western countries, which have condemned Moscow's invasion of the ex-Soviet republic and its recognition of the separatist regions as independent nations.

On Wednesday morning, a small base at the Russian checkpoint in Karaleti was almost completely gone, and Russian solders were sweeping for mines as two bulldozers leveled the site.

A Russian armored personnel carrier blocked the road, which leads north from Georgian-controlled territory toward South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali. But the concrete slabs that had served as a roadblock were gone.

A handful of Russian military trucks stood ready to remove the remaining troops, and four European Union monitors stood by a pair of blue EU light-armored vehicles.

Speaking at the Karaleti checkpoint, the head of Russian peacekeeping troops based in South Ossetia, Maj. Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, said the withdrawal from all six posts on the edge of the buffer zone was under way and should be finished by day's end.

EU monitors have been patrolling the buffer zone since Oct. 1 under the withdrawal agreement, a supplement to the initial cease-fire Sarkozy brokered on behalf of the EU in August.

The governor of the Georgian region where Karaleti is located, Vladimir Vardezelashvili, said Georgian police would move into the buffer zone as the Russians withdraw. Black-uniformed police with Kalashnikovs stood by, closer to the checkpoint than they had in recent weeks.