RUSSIA WILL NOT ACCEPT ULTIMATUMS

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 11, 2005

MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti) – Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the
International Committee of the Federation Council (the upper house of
the Russian Parliament), regrets the decision taken by the Georgian
Parliament the day before on the withdrawal of two Russian bases from
Georgia.

“In my opinion, such flatness in relations between Moscow and Tbilisi
is unacceptable,” he told RIA Novosti on Friday.

According to the committee chairman, there are a lot of political
problems, let alone the technical difficulties of withdrawal. “One
should not forget that when one power leaves another fills its place.
Vacuum is quickly filled. I think that, taking into consideration
Russia’s services to Georgia, Moscow has the right to demand
guarantees that the withdrawal, in political sense, would not be used
as a reason to allow the deployment of troops of a third country or
to take some other extreme action,” he stressed.

According to Mr. Margelov, one should not forget about the Chechen
problem and the unclear position of Georgia over the Pankisi Gorge.

“Georgia wants Russia to withdraw troops as soon as possible, and
Moscow has no reason or desire to resist it. However, it would be
only fair to put in a claim in response, demanding guarantees that
Georgia would stop posing a terrorist threat to Russia,” Mr. Margelov
said.

The committee chairman also said that Moscow had “other methods of
pressurizing Tbilisi,” apart from military bases. “And the Georgian
attitude towards Russia is playing against both Moscow and Tbilisi,”
he noted.

There are two Russian bases in Georgia: in Batumi (Adzharia) and
Akhalkalaki (Georgian-Armenian border). The headquarters of the Group
of Russian Forces in Transcaucasia is stationed in Tbilisi. The
resolution taken the day before stipulates the deadline – May 15 –
for determining the date for the Russian troop withdrawal. Otherwise
they would be “outlawed.”