On Saturday, Russian troops began withdrawing troops from western Georgia as part of a deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy is also the current holder of the European Union presidency. Georgia's interior ministry stated that five Russian checkpoints have been vacated near Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti. Russia insists it will keep over 7 thousand troops in a "buffer zone" around the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
