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Russian Troops To Leave Georgia

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  • Russian Troops To Leave Georgia

    The Washington Post
    May 31, 2005 Tuesday
    Final Edition

    Russian Troops To Leave Georgia;
    Deal Struck on Pullout by 2008

    by Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service

    MOSCOW May 30

    After years of contentious negotiations that appeared to break down
    several times, Russia agreed Monday to a timetable for the withdrawal
    of its forces from two military bases in Georgia, the foreign
    ministers of both countries said at a news conference here.

    Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country would
    complete the phased withdrawal of 3,000 troops by 2008. The
    announcement closed out one of several issues straining relations
    between the Kremlin and Georgia's pro-Western government, which has
    said that it wants to join NATO.

    The two countries had hoped to complete an agreement before
    celebrations held in Moscow on May 9 to mark the 60th anniversary of
    the end of World War II in Europe, but a deal collapsed at the last
    minute when Russia said it needed more than three years to pull out.

    President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia then boycotted the
    celebrations and parliament threatened a blockade of the two bases,
    one of which is located near the border with Turkey and the other
    near the border with Armenia. The Georgian government also threatened
    to prevent Russian military forces from crossing Georgian territory,
    either by land or air, as they do routinely to resupply troops in
    Armenia.

    "We have taken an important and constructive step," Georgian Foreign
    Minister Salome Zourabichvili said. "We have achieved our goal."

    Lavrov said the agreement would "help further develop our relations."
    He also said that the withdrawal, expected to begin next year, would
    not cause "any kind of discomfort for the soldiers."

    Georgia has offered to house any soldier who wishes to remain behind;
    a number of Russian troops have been in the country for a long time
    and have ties to the local community, Georgian officials said.
    Officials in Moscow have said they do not want soldiers to experience
    the hardship Russian troops endured in the early 1990s, when Russia
    was unprepared for their return from Germany and Eastern Europe after
    the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Saakashvili also said recently that Georgia would not allow any
    foreign bases on its territory, a statement apparently designed to
    ease Russian fears that the United States or NATO would be permitted
    to station forces permanently in a country that was part of the
    Soviet Union and where Russia has had a presence for nearly 200
    years.

    The two foreign ministers also said they had agreed to delimit the
    Georgian-Russian border, which runs through the Caucasus Mountains
    and has been a source of tension since the breakup of the Soviet
    Union.

    Relations between the two countries have been strained most severely
    by separatist conflicts in the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions of
    Georgia, where local leaders have received support from Moscow.

    Lavrov said Russia would do everything it could to help find a
    peaceful solution to the conflicts.
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