Medvedev signs truce with Tbilisi

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday signed the plan for a ceasefire in Georgia that his Georgian counterpart agreed to a day earlier, setting the stage for a Russian troop withdrawal after more than a week of warfare.

The Russian leader signed the order in the resort city of Sochi, where the president has a summer residence, Medvedev spokesman Alexei Pavlov said, without providing further details.

The ceasefire plan calls for Russian forces to withdraw to the positions they held before the fighting broke out in Georgia's Russian-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia. That appears to mean that hundreds of Russian soldiers who had been in the breakaway province previously as peacekeepers will be allowed to return.