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