President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia will fulfill its promise to withdraw troops from areas of Georgia outside two separatist regions.Medvedev spoke to reporters after European Union monitors began patrolling Georgian territory Wednesday. Russian troops allowed some of them into a buffer zone around the breakaway region of South Ossetia despite earlier warnings from Moscow they would be blocked.
Russia agreed last month to remove its troops from the areas within 10 days of the EU deployment that began Wednesday. There were no immediate signs of a Russian pullback Wednesday in Georgia. But Medvedev told the visiting Spanish prime minister outside St. Petersburg that Russia will withdraw its troops in accordance with the agreement.