Russia has transferred control over Gori to Georgia

Today, local policemen have returned to Gori and will now maintain the law and order in the city. It has become possible as a result of the arrangements reached during the meeting last night in Gori of Kakha Lomaya, Secretary of the Security Council of Georgia, with the command of the Russian troops present in the region.

The ITAR-TASS reports that according to these arrangements the Russian servicemen who have patrolled the city during the last three days will leave the city today; and the Russian military machines will be taken away in the nearest two days.

The Russian troops have moved from the suburbs of the Georgian city of Gori in direction of Tskhinvali. "From tomorrow on, the city police will officially start working. All the previous rumours that the city is in ruins and the marauding is at full swing there have nothing to do with reality," General-Major Vyacheslav Borissov, spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defence, told Georgian journalists at departure from the city.

In the evening on Wednesday, August 13, the General-Major, accompanied by representatives of Georgian authorities and foreign ambassadors, made a tour around Gori. "All the buildings are in normal condition, the city is supplied with water and electricity," he tried to convince the journalists.

Alexander Lomaya, Secretary of the Council of National Security of Georgia, who is now in Gori, has stated live on air of the "Rustavi-2" TV Company that "situation in Gori is generally calm, and now Russian militaries are just engaged in patrolling only." He confirmed that he had made a tour around the city together with Russian servicemen and found no new destructions.