Russian forces begin final stage of pullback from Georgia

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 on 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.

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 armoured 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.

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.

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were also on hand at the six posts that were to be withdrawn from the area outside South Ossetia, said Heikki Lehtonen, deputy chief military officer for the OSCE mission to Georgia.