GEORGIA TO USE POLITICAL MEANS AGAINST SOUTH OSSETIAN SEPARATISTS

MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) -- After withdrawing some of its troops from the conflict zone, Georgia is now promising to fight against South Ossetia's independence by political methods and hopes for support from the international community, Vedomosti writes. Experts, however, believe that the lull is temporary and a new escalation of violence is quite possible.

Konstantin Zatulin, member of the Russian State Duma international committee, does not believe that the lull means the beginning of peace settlement. "Saakashvili will work to have international troops brought there that would 'enforce peace'", he argues.

Alexei Makarkin, deputy general director of the Russian Political Technologies Centre believes that by seizing heights around and firing on Tskhinvali (the capital of the breakaway republic), Georgia was "demonstrating its capabilities". By ceding the heights to peacekeepers and withdrawing some of the troops afterwards, Saakashvili also showed the West his "negotiating capability", the expert believes. "Saakashvili will stick to the tactics of gradual strangling South Ossetia, using Georgian villages as a foothold," he maintains.