Russia will withdraw its troops from its "buffer zone" in Georgia when they are replaced by international peacekeepers and once the Georgian government has signed non-aggression pacts with the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Guardian newspaper quotes Moscow's ambassador to the U.K., Yuri Fedotov, on its Web site Wednesday.
Fedotov said he deplored the criticism of Russia voiced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Minister David Miliband.
He also said he had warned the U.K.'s Foreign Office about the crisis in Georgia before the conflict began on Aug. 7.
He said he had been assured that the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili wouldn't ignite a conflict. The Foreign Office rejected his account, the Web site reports.
Fedotov said there were 500 Russian soldiers, whom he called "observers," manning checkpoints in buffer zones around South Ossetia and the Georgian port of Poti.