EU Monitors

(Newser) - Russian troops have withdrawn from the “buffer zones” that separate the secessionist republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from the rest of Georgia ahead of Friday's deadline, the BBC reports. Though Russia plans to keep 7,600 troops inside the breakaway republics themselves, the move "paves the way...

(Newser) - The fact that Russian troops continue to upgrade a dirt road that connects a town near Georgia’s capital with the capital of the breakaway area of South Ossetia has many Georgians in the area believing Moscow isn’t serious about Friday’s deadline to withdraw troops, the Christian Science ...

(Newser) - Russian troops allowed unarmed EU monitors into the buffer zone around South Ossetia for the first time today, after France helped negotiate a truce between Russia and Georgia. The blue-beret-sporting French troops spent 90 minutes touring the heavily guarded area, the Guardian reports. The EU will be sending its monitors...