Abkhaz territory is under the control of the national army and Russian peacekeepers, Lt-Gen Nikolay Uvarov, the Russian Defence Ministry's official representative, said in an interview with RIA Novosti on 15 August.

"Georgian military groups pretending to be policemen have been completely disarmed and expelled from the republic; civilians remain in their permanent places of residence. Abkhaz forces entered the upper part of the Kodori Gorge and cleared the area of the Georgian military and equipment. Abkhazia from Kodori to Inguri is fully controlled by Abkhazians," Uvarov said.

He said the peacekeeping group would remain in Abkhazia, but Russian paratroopers would return to places of their permanent deployment because, as he put it, it made no sense to keep 9,000 troops there.

Uvarov was very scornful of the Georgian army, saying that it was demoralized and not ready for combat.

"The Georgian armed forces are not able to participate in military activity. Can one talk about the combat-readiness of an army if it gives up its positions even before the enemy, in this case Russian units, has approached?" Uvarov said.

He said, for instance, that a company belonging to the South Ossetian group entered Gori only after intelligence agents had reported that the town had been deserted and a lot of weapons had been left unattended.

"By the time the operation was completed, the troops were within the peacekeepers' security zone in South Ossetia. However, the intelligence agents of the Chechen Vostok company (Russian Interior Ministry's battalion) found a huge arsenal of abandoned equipment in Gori. In order to prevent weapons and military equipment being looted by marauders and bandits, a 150-strong company entered Gori to take control of the situation," Uvarov said. He added that there was a similar situation in Senaki.