Georgia to Block Russian Military Bases
Georgian parliament is expected to pass the ruling committing executive authorities to accelerate withdrawal of Russia’s military bases by their blockade. Russian Ministry of Defense has rebuffed by pointing to inappropriateness “of the language of ultimatum, blackmail and pressure.”
The draft ruling to be canvassed in the Georgian parliament today has been approved by the defense, security and foreign affairs committees of the country. Under the document, if Russia fails to agree to the reasonable term of the troops’ pullout (i.e. before January 1, 2007 for all troops, except peacemakers), Georgia will block Russian military bases, stop power supply, terminate releasing visas to Russian military personnel, ban their movement over the territory of the country, etc.
Georgian officials claim the draft was made out after Tbilisi negotiations between Russia and Georgia ended in a fiasco and the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Georgia failed completely. Konstantin Gabashvili, chairman of the parliamentary foreign ties committee, declared Georgia may claim several hundreds of million dollars from Russia for keeping the bases in its territory just to calm down Moscow and ensure quite different approach to the pullout.
When speaking about the retaliatory moves, which could be expected from Moscow, Gabashvili, has ruled out any possibility that Moscow authorities may decide to deport Georgians from Russia or that the State Duma may bring in the issue of accepting Abkhazia and South Ossetia as associated members.
Meanwhile, the RF Ministry of Defense has rebuffed proposals made by the Georgian parliamentary officials yesterday. “The joint working group, sitting by turns in Moscow and Tbilisi, is to find a compromise solution to the problem. Anyway, this issue couldn’t be solved as an ultimatum. The troops must not be pulled out to the clear field, as it used to be yesteryear. Their placement requires creating the respective structure. The language of ultimatum, blackmail and pressure is inadmissible when considering this issue,” said Vyacheslav Sedov, head of Defense Ministry’s press service.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 09, 2005
|
