Russian bases may stay in Georgia for eight years – military official

Interfax news agency
15 Mar 05

Moscow, 15 March: The head of the Russian Defence Ministry main
directorate for international military cooperation, Col-Gen Anatoliy
Mazurkevich, believes that the withdrawal of Russian military bases
from Georgia within three to four years “is not a concession but a
well-thought-through decision”.

“The Russian side has announced that the Russian military bases could
be withdrawn from Batumi and Akhalkalaki within three to four
years. This means that the process itself of the withdrawal from
Georgia of weapons, military hardware and the bases’ personnel could
last that long. As for how long the Russian bases will remain in
Georgia, they may stay there for seven or eight years. Everything
will depend on the negotiating process between the two sides,”
Mazurkevich said today in reply to a question from Interfax-AVN.

He stressed that Russia would hold intensive talks on the issue with
Georgia in the near future.

“At the moment I have no information from the Russian side concerning
the date of the talks and their level,” he said.

Mazurkevich stressed that the problem of the Russian bases’ withdrawal
from Georgia cannot be settled through ultimatums, on which Georgian
MPs insist.

“Under the 1999 Istanbul accords, the withdrawal of our military bases
from Georgia is a bilateral Russian-Georgian process. The accords do
not contain the deadline for the bases’ withdrawal or the date of the
beginning of this process,” he said.