French president demands Russia comply with truce

48 minutes ago

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned Russia's leader of serious consequences for Moscow's relations with the European Union if Russia does not comply with its cease-fire accord with Georgia.

Sarkozy's office says he has told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that there must be a "withdrawal, without delay, of all the Russian military forces that entered Georgia since Aug. 7."

Sarkozy's office says Medvedev promised that the troop pullout would start Monday around midday.

The French president's office says the men spoke Sunday by telephone. Sarkozy helped broker the cease-fire agreement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080817/ap_on_re_eu/france_georgia_russia

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OK we'll see if Ivan complies.... I think that the French (European) threat is more economic than military. The Russians need us FAR MORE than we need their gas. It's a myth that we "rely" on it. Only 25% of the gas comes from Gazprom. It would be an adaptation period, but we can live without Russian gas. If we did, their economy would badly suffer.

Source .PDF: http://www.peakoil.net/iwood2004/pptBerlin/Beckervordersandforthpdf.pdf

(+ small percentage of non-Russian Caspian gas onstream since then).

We could import more from Algeria and from other places. It's mostly the Easternpart and Germany that are more dependent.