In a telephone call, Sarkozy told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that there must be a "withdrawal, without delay, of all the Russian military forces that have entered Georgia since August 7," Sarkozy's office said in a statement, adding that Medvedev had promised to start the pullout today (18 August).
According to the Kremlin, Medvedev told Sarkozy that Russian forces in Georgia will start moving towards South Ossetia and a security zone that roughly coincides with its borders.
In an opinion article in the French daily Le Figaro, Sarkozy warned Medvedev that failure to implement the cease-fire agreement reached on 12 August "would have serious consequences for relations between Russia and the European Union".
Alluding to the prospect of an extraordinary EU Council, the French president also said the Union would need to reassess its relations with Moscow.
"We must also determine if the Russian intervention over its Georgian neighbour was a brutal and excessive response in an isolated case, or if it marks a new hardening in Moscow towards its neighbours and the entire international community," Sarkozy further wrote in his article.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also visisted Tbilisi on Sunday (17 August) and met President Saakashvili. She said the world was watching Russia and described the withdrawal from Georgia as an issue of "credibility".
The position of Saakashvilis's Western allies was also echoed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who told US television that Russia's reputation was "in tatters".
In the meantime, US military sources were quoted by the International Herald Tribune as saying that the Russian military had been moving launchers for short-range ballistic missiles into South Ossetia. From their new positions north of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, the SS-21 missiles can reach much of Georgia, including the capital Tbilisi, the sources said.
