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Michael confirms that the Russian forces are moving out of the greater Georgian areas but as expected, only into the so-called breakaway territories, and they intend to maintain a "buffer zone" as well.
HEIDI
COLLINS: Russian forces on the move in neighboring
Georgia. They are apparently keeping a promise to
start pulling out.
Want to go live now to CNN's Michael Ware in the
Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
So, Michael, how is all of this looking to you, where
you stand?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, to quote
Georgia's national security adviser, Heidi, we are
seeing the pullout of Russian troops.
Now, obviously it's still a complicated picture and
there's some conflicting reports of checkpoints
remaining, checkpoints being removed. Still some
signs of digging in in places. Signs of Russian
troops simply donning peacekeepers uniforms
so-called, rather than actually shifting.
However, the general trend is indeed that Russian
forces are making significant moves out of undisputed
Georgian territory. Now, obviously as stated and as
they were before the conflict that began on August
7th, the Russians have made it eminently clear that
they will remain in the largely pro-Russian enclaves
on Russia's border of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
What remains in question is, how much control will
those Russian forces -- be it as peacekeepers or else
-- will continue to have over the core of Georgia's
infrastructure, such as the highway that it's cut, or
the all-important seaport on the Black Sea coast that
ships oil to Europe and beyond?
And it's also a great question is, what will be their
range of movement? Now, whilst there has been an
agreement to pull back to these pro-Russian enclaves,
the Russian forces are insisting that they will
maintain security or buffer zones to maintain their
protection. Now, it's anyone's guess just how broad
and far-reaching those buffer zones will have to be.
They're going to be to at least seven kilometers
inside Georgia.
So there's going to be a question of what the troops
there are going to be able to do. But the headline
certainly is that we are seeing the first signs of a
Russian withdrawal from some of the major conflict
zones -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. CNN's Michael Ware, giving us the
picture there in the Georgia area. We sure do
appreciate that.
Michael, thank you.