MOSCOW, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Russian forces will patrol Georgia's strategic Black Sea port of Poti even though it lies outside the buffer zone where Moscow says its peacekeepers will operate, a senior defence official said on Saturday.
Asked by reporters if Russian troops would patrol Poti, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said: 'This function is set out in the joint position of Russia and France.'
'Should we sit behind the fence? What use would we be then? They (Georgian forces) will drive around in Hummers, move munitions around in trucks, and are we supposed to just count them?' he said after a news briefing.
Asked by Reuters to comment on Nogovitsyn's statement, Kakha Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said: 'That is not envisaged by any agreement, including the one which was mediated by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy.'
((Reporting by Aydar Buribaev; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Melissa Akin) Keywords: GEORGIA OSSETIA/RUSSIA POTI tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com ak COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
Asked by reporters if Russian troops would patrol Poti, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said: 'This function is set out in the joint position of Russia and France.'
'Should we sit behind the fence? What use would we be then? They (Georgian forces) will drive around in Hummers, move munitions around in trucks, and are we supposed to just count them?' he said after a news briefing.
Asked by Reuters to comment on Nogovitsyn's statement, Kakha Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said: 'That is not envisaged by any agreement, including the one which was mediated by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy.'
((Reporting by Aydar Buribaev; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Melissa Akin) Keywords: GEORGIA OSSETIA/RUSSIA POTI tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com ak COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.