Russia leader: Sarkozy deal keeps peace in Georgia

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia —Russian President Dmitry Medvedev awarded medals Saturday to servicemen who fought in the war against Georgia a year ago, and promised Russia would not reverse its recognition of two breakaway Georgian provinces.

The August 2008 conflict ended with the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia declaring independence, with Russia’s backing.

Their independence was “the only way to ensure the security of people and stability in the Caucasus region. I would like to underline that this decision will not be reviewed,” Medvedev told servicemen at a base in Russia’s southern city of Vladikavkaz.

Only Nicaragua has followed Russia’s lead in recognizing the regions, which Georgia calls occupied territory and where thousands of Russian troops remain based, as independent countries.

Russia considered its recognition of their independence to have absolved it of a clause in an EU-brokered cease-fire agreement that called for the full withdrawal of all parties to pre-conflict positions.

Medvedev wrote Saturday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy — who, holding the EU presidency at the time, authored the Aug. 12 peace plan — to thank him for the “big role” he played in ending the hostilities.

Medvedev wrote that the cease-fire agreement “remains the only code of behavior” in the region and that Russia has fulfilled its obligations under it.

Meanwhile, in Vladikavkaz, Medvedev told Russian soldiers that they had “saved innocent people, repelled a military aggression.”

Last August, Russia sent columns of tanks and thousands of troops into South Ossetia to drive back the Georgian army and to block a barrage of Georgian artillery that Moscow said had killed Russian citizens.