Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

INTERVIEW-Georgia says Russia has woken up to regional change

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • INTERVIEW-Georgia says Russia has woken up to regional change

    INTERVIEW-Georgia says Russia has woken up to regional change
    By Margarita Antidze

    TBILISI, June 1 (Reuters) - Russia's compromise after a long and
    bitter dispute over military bases in Georgia shows that Moscow at
    last realises it no longer decides the affairs of ex-Soviet states,
    Georgia's Foreign Minister said on Wednesday.

    On Monday, the two countries announced that by 2008 Moscow would
    close its two military bases in Georgia, whose pro-Western government
    likens the presence of Russian troops in the Soviet-era bases to an
    "occupation".

    "Probably the Ukrainian revolution played an important role in the fact
    that Russian leaders finally realised that the time had come to accept
    new realities in their neighbourhood, to accept the fact that these
    countries are independent and that military bases belong to the past,"
    Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili told Reuters in an interview.

    President Vladimir Putin openly backed the loser in last year's
    disputed Ukrainian presidential polls. The eventual winner, the
    West-leaning Viktor Yushchenko, came to power on the back of the
    people power "Orange Revolution".

    That in turn was barely a year after Georgia's "Rose Revolution" when
    thousands took to the streets of the capital, also after a disputed
    election, to force long-serving Presdient Eduard Shevardnadze to
    step down.

    Zurabishvili said Monday's agreement with her Russian counterpart
    Sergei Lavrov was a high point for her.

    "It was the pinnacle of my negotiating career to be able to negotiate
    such an agreement," said the former French diplomat, enticed back
    by President Mikhail Saakashvili to the country her grandparents fled
    almost a century ago.

    "It was also very important for me personally as my family left when
    the Russian army entered Georgia and I signed the document by which
    it is going to leave."

    NO SECRET DEAL

    "There is no secret deal. There was more compromise from the Russian
    side than from the Georgian," she said.

    All Russian military hardware will be taken out and allowed to be
    taken into neighbouring Armenia, a close Russian ally, if Moscow so
    wishes. Any of the 2,500 troops deployed in the bases can remain in
    Georgia if they want.

    Georgia also agreed to allow in Russian technical experts to help
    the withdrawal.

    Zurabishvili said the main compromise by Georgia was to agree to set
    up a joint anti-terrorist centre in the country.

    Russia has long expressed concern that Georgia's mountainous Pankisi
    Gorge was being used as a safe haven by rebels fighting Moscow rule
    in neighbouring Chechnya.

    "It's linked ... keeping some form of Russian influence in this region
    and the feeling that they are not completely excluded from the region,"
    she said.

    The bases issue is one of several to have strained relations
    between Russia and its small southern neighbour since Georgia gained
    independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

    Georgia accuses Moscow of backing separatists in its two breakaway
    provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia suspects Georgia of
    turning blind eye on Chechen guerrillas.

    Zurabishvili said the deal over bases would create a new atmosphere
    in bilateral relations and would help solve other problems such as
    the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

    "It has to be resolved between the parties in these conflicts and not
    with Russia. But it's very important that Russia ... becomes neutral,
    which has not been the case."

    06/01/05 14:45 ET
Working...
X