Russians finally locate the highway North out of Georgia

The Russian NCO Corps has apparently finished their remedial map-reading classes. After months of claiming they were withdrawing, but still digging in, the Russians are actually withdrawing from their 'buffer zones' in Georgia:

The Georgian authorities reclaimed this ransacked village [Ergneti] on Wednesday after it had been under Russian control since August. They kissed one another in congratulation, cleared rotting food from the shelves of a grocery, and got down to serious business: getting a look at the enemy.
Ossetian soldiers and Russian peacekeepers were positioned about 200 yards to the north, and Georgian police officers examined them through binoculars, commenting to one another on the weapons their counterparts were carrying.
The soldiers peered back nervously, watching as the Georgians built their new checkpoint. At one point, when they saw a sudden movement from across the line, they all jumped.
Russia removed its last checkpoints from the buffer zones outside the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on Wednesday, fulfilling a central requirement of a French-brokered cease-fire agreement two days before an Oct. 10 deadline. No violence was reported on either side. But it was clear, from watching Georgian forces dig into their new positions in Ergneti, that the tensions were undiminished.

Odd that the French are guarding the 'border' in Georgia - a non-NATO member - while simultaneously balking at defending Estonia and Poland .

By: Brant