Russian forces start pullback

As the Kremlin said its forces would pull back from Georgia's heartland by Friday (August 22) to positions set out under a French-brokered peace plan, analysts and Georgians alike are looking to the future and speculating over the future shape of their country's leadership. Amid mounting Western criticism about the slowness of the Russian troop withdrawal, many in Georgia say Russia's actions within their country have only served to unify the nation. On Wednesday morning (August 20), there was still as strong Russian presence between Gori, a strategic town on Georgia's main east-west highway, and the town of Igoeti, some 45 kilometres from the capital Tbilisi. On Tuesday (August 19) just six Russian armoured personnel carriers, three tanks and two other vehicles were seen heading towards Russia in what Moscow said was the start of its promised withdrawal. The head of Georgia's Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, Alexander Rondeli, told Reuters Television that after Russian troops eventually withdrew, they would leave in their wake a sense of stronger unity among Georgians and a greater support for President Mikheil Saakashvili -- the opposite of what he believes Russia had in mind when their troops first entered the region. "It will be a very difficult time of psychoanalysis. People will say who is to blame, who to blame, who to blame, what happened. It will be a very difficult period for authorities -- a very difficult period for our country, but everything depends on international solidarity and support, because Russians were really looted a lot and blown up everything and still doing the same and so I think it will be very important to get support from the West and it will calm down our people and everyone in our society," Rondeli said. "I think that they way the Russians behaved in Georgia and the way they conducted the operation strengthened Saakashvili's position, because we were beaten. Small countries are alw...