By sending observers to the buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the European Union gives “a very clear signal” to Georgia that the EU, U.N. and OSCE will be completely responsible for security in those territories, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the reporters. Any provocation in the region will be aimed at the EU, Lavrov specified.

For Russia, the minister went on, the pullback of Georgian troops to the previous positions by October 1, 2008 as well as the guarantee that Georgia won’t return to aggression against South Ossetia and Abkhazia are of vital significance. Exactly for this purpose, a mission of 200 observers of the EU will be sent to the conflict area, Lavrov said.

Russia’s troops will pull out of Georgia no sooner than the E.U. mission is deployed there, Lavrov pointed out. “If it happens before October 1, we will withdraw our peacekeeping checkpoints outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia within 10 days of the date of deployment. Should it happen later, the count of 10-day period will start after the actual date of arrival or deployment of the mission,” the minister said.

Some 300 to 400 peacekeepers had been stationed in the conflict area before August 8, Lavrov added. “When the aggression began, their number went down, as their mates, Georgian peacekeepers started shooting them.” As to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, “the number of Russia’s peacekeepers there won’t be fantastic figures,” the minister emphasized.

The number of peacekeepers is being agreed on with the parliaments of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Russia will soon sign the agreements with those republics for deployment of Russia’s military on their territories. “They will be there for long, at least for the foreseeable period. It is absolutely necessary to prevent the repeated aggression,” Lavrov said.

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