TROOPS WILL REMAIN
by Natalia Kostenko, Yelena Ragozina, Aleksei Nikolsky

WPS Agency
What the Papers Say (Russia)
August 26, 2008 Tuesday
Russia

WILL PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV ANSWER THE PARLIAMENT’S PLEA TO
RECOGNIZE SOVEREIGNTY OF SOUTH OSSETIA AND ABKHAZIA TODAY?; Aware of
all implications, the parliament appeals to the president to recognize
South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"The Security Council is meeting in Sochi later today," Russian
Representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said. (Rogozin himself had
been called back from Brussels for consultations with the president
in Sochi.) "Defense and foreign ministers are already here. Chairmen
of both houses of the parliament are expected now… Agenda of the
meeting it not known yet which means that it is not going to be a
routine meeting."

Sources in the Duma maintain that the Security Council meeting will
be focused on recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign
states and consequences of this step for Russia.

The Federation Council meantime expects the president to say how much
in terms of troops he wants in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Yesterday,
the upper house of the parliament backed the president’s appeal
for deployment as of August 8 of the Armed Forces in the capacity of
additional peacekeepers in the Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian
conflict areas. The meeting took place behind the closed doors.

Judging by the documents Vedomosti possesses, Medvedev appealed to
the Federation Council on August 20. Suggesting deployment of the
army in South Ossetia, Medvedev referred to genocide and violation
of the existing agreements, UN Charter, and UN General Assembly
resolution dated December 14, 1974) by Georgia. Reinforcement of
peacekeepers in Abkhazia meanwhile was necessitated by deterioration
of the situation, aggressive actions on Georgia’s part, and violations
of the international law by Tbilisi.

The documents included no figures concerning personnel or whatever
else. Victor Ozerov of the Security and Defense Committee (Federation
Council) said it was done deliberately, to give the president certain
freedom.

Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov maintains that the Russian
troops will be left in South Ossetia and adjacent areas. In fact,
peacekeepers will set up checkpoints along the frontiers of the
10-kilometers wide security zone. "Additional contingent of the
Russian troops will be deployed behind the peacekeepers," Mironov said.

Mironov ruled out the possibility of "mission internationalization
talks" but promised that the zone taken up by Russian peacekeepers
would be open to OSCE observers.

The Russian military has only made up its collective mind with regard
to the contingent to be deployed in Abkhazia. Chief of the General
Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn already said that 2,142 peacekeepers would
be stationed in Abkhazia.

As for South Ossetia, 452 peacekeepers will be deployed in the security
zone there on both sides of the Georgian-Ossetian administrative
border. There is no saying how many more servicemen will be deployed
beyond the security zone in South Ossetia itself.

A source in the Defense Ministry does not expect the group to be
large. "Russia does not need a large group there as long as it retains
the capacity to up numerical strength of the contingent." The Defense
Ministry keeps regarding these troops as peacekeepers. "Establishment
of bases is out of the question for the time being," the source said.

These days, Russia has military bases in Tajikistan (7,000 men on
the outside), Armenia (4,000), and Kyrgyzstan (1,000). Their status
is determined by agreements between the government of Russia and
governments of the host countries.

The Federation Council unanimously voted for the appeal to the
president to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign
states. The upper house of the parliament ascribed it to Tbilisi’s
reluctance to sign a non-aggression pact, its aggressiveness that
cost so many lives already, deterioration of the Georgian-Abkhazian
conflict, and numerous appeals for recognition from the self-proclaimed
republics themselves.

The Duma adopted a similar appeal on the strength of some other
arguments. The Georgian military operation cancelled 15 years of
Russia’s and other UN countries’ diplomatic and peacekeeping effort;
recognition will make these peoples safe, facilitate peace and
regional stability.

Another appeal adopted by the Duma addressed UN countries. Russian
lawmakers emphasized that Georgia deliberately violated peace
accords and chose to defy UN General Assembly’s "Olympic truce"
calls. The parliamentarians advise their colleagues abroad to take what
happened as a result of a centuries-long confrontation between the two
peoples. They point out that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are entitled
to recognition of their sovereignty because unlike Kosovo, they build
democratic states with all trappings of legitimate statehood.

A source in the upper echelons of the Duma is convinced that
the president will declare recognition of the self-proclaimed
republics. Lawmakers meanwhile understand that it will spell but
trouble for Russia itself and for the republics in question. LDPR
faction leader Igor Lebedev suggested that it would cost Russia a lot
of strategic partners like China. As a matter of fact, Lebedev was
not even convinced that countries of the CIS and Shanghai Cooperation
Organization intended to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia.