MOSCOW. Aug 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian military are forming buffer areas in Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian conflict zones in full compliance with their international mandate.
"All buffer zones are legitimate and formed in the framework of the existing understandings. This is our principled stance," Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn told a Friday briefing in Moscow.
He said two lines have been formed in the Abkhaz and South Ossetian directions each with 18 posts of peacekeepers on them.
He said 2,142 peacekeepers will be concentrated in the Georgian-Abkhaz direction and 452 in the South Ossetian [direction].