"Russia has to explain why it hasn?€™t fulfilled its obligations and removed its troops as required by the Sarkozy plan,” Grigol Vashadze told reporters in Tbilisi. "Georgia has legitimate questions, and Russia must answer them."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, brokered a cease-fire that ended the August war between Russia and Georgia over the separatist region of South Ossetia. The agreement required Russia to remove its forces to their pre-conflict positions.
Under a subsequent deal reached by Sarkozy and President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia agreed to withdraw its forces from "Georgian territory outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Sarkozy said on Sept. 8. He said the agreement was "the maximum we could get."
Russia routed Georgia?€™s army in the war and later recognized South Ossetia?€™s independence and that of another breakaway region, Abkhazia, a move condemned by the U.S. and many European countries.
Russia will deploy about 3,700 soldiers in each region, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in October.
The negotiations in Geneva on Wednesday and Thursday will include Russia, Georgia, the United States, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, the EU, the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The Foreign Ministry called Monday for "concrete agreements on security and refugees" at the talks.
Tensions flared last week in the disputed Georgian village of Perevi, near South Ossetia. Georgian police took control of the village on Dec. 12 after Russian troops withdrew. The following day Russia sent more than 500 soldiers into the village, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry.
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