TSKHINVALI, South Ossetia, June 21 (AVN) - The rotation of the Russian battalion within the mixed peacekeeping forces in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone has ended in Southern Ossetia, forces chief-of-staff Colonel Alexander Paraskeva told the Military News Agency on Thursday.
The Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the territory nine years ago and have managed to maintain stability in the area and be the main guarantees of the Georgian-Ossetian settlement process ever since, the spokesman said. Jean-Michel Lacombe, head of the OSCE mission in Georgia, has recently visited the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali and said that the international community values the peacekeepers' efforts to seize arms from locals and scrap them. A total of 896 pieces of small arms and 186kg of explosives have been seized, while 536 pieces of arms and 62kg of explosives have been scrapped.
Another battalion of the 58th army came to replace the battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Pedikov. The army is headquartered in the town of Vladikavkaz in Russia's North Ossetia. The withdrawn battalion will head to its permanent stationing point on Friday.