(Adds details and Georgian reaction) GORI, Georgia, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Russian forces have started to withdraw from Georgia, the Russian commander on the front line, Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov, said on Sunday. Georgia demanded a Russian pull-out from Georgia after a ceasefire agreed last week ended a brief war, and Borisov's comments were the first time a senior Russian commander had said the withdrawal had started. "The columns are moving from Tskhinvali to Russia," he told Reuters near the central Georgian town of Gori. "(Russian President Dmitry) Medvedev has said we are to withdraw." He added: "You must understand there are a large amount of troops." Tskhinvali is the capital of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, which Georgian forces tried to recapture last week. The Russian-back separatists counter-attacked and on Monday forced the Georgian army to abandon the town of Gori, which controls access to South Ossetia and the main east-west highway across Georgia. Russian soldiers set up positions about 20 km (12 miles) from Gori on Friday, which Borisov had said was necessary to protect Russia's military pullout. "We were the first in, so we'll be the last out," Borisov told Reuters at the main Russian checkpoint outside Gori on Sunday. There were fewer soldiers than previously at the checkpoint, and a Georgian official said the Russian troops had not withdrawn but had redeployed in the area. "There are less troops in Gori but they have regrouped to Akhalgori and Khashuri," Kakha Lomaia, secretary of the Georgian Security Council, told Reuters by telephone from near Khashuri. Akhalgori, in South Ossetia, is mainly populated by Georgians. Khashuri is in Georgia near the border with South Ossetia. (Reporting by Matt Robinson in Gori and Niko Mchedlishvili in Tbilisi; writing by James Kilner; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
People hold posters during a rally in central Tbilisi, in front of the parliament building, August 16, 2008. Russia signed a peace deal to end the conflict in Georgia on Saturday ...
Georgia
