MOSCOW DEMANDS NATO POSTPONE GEORGIA DRILLS

65_4/18/2009_1
Thursday, April 16, 2009

YEREVAN–Russia has demanded NATO postpone plans to carry out military
exercises in Georgia next month, saying they will complicate tensions
in the region, the BBC reported on Thursday

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Thursday
the planned May 6 to June 1 exercises risk further undermining
stability in the troubled Caucasus region and were "unlikely to send
the right signal to those sincerely wishing to achieve stability"
in the region. He spoke on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign
ministers of Black Sea countries in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Moscow has pointed to tensions with Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
two Georgian breakaway regions, as well as ongoing protests against
Georgia’s president, as reasons to delay the exercises.

The military alliance said the exercises, which are expected to involve
1,300 troops from 19 countries, will take place just outside Tbilisi,
Georgia’s capital are aimed at "improving interoperability between
NATO and partner countries."

The countries taking part include Albania, Armenia, Croatia, Georgia,
Macedonia and the United Arab Emirates.

Lavrov warned NATO members on Thursday not to co-operate with the
government of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s president, who is regarded
with great suspicion by Russia.

"I hope that the NATO countries will shun steps planned for future
cooperation with Georgia;that could again push the Georgian regime
towards an attitude of permissiveness and impunity," he said.

Robert Pszczel, a NATO spokesman, said the drills would be essentially
coordination exercises, involving "no heavy military equipment."

"There is no controversy, no surprise and no connection with the
situation in Georgia or in the region," he said.

Moscow’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said the plans were "absurd
and a provocation" in the light of tensions with the breakaway Georgian
regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia–which Russia has recognized as
independent–as well as opposition protests against Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili.

Rogozin said the exercises could be exploited by Georgian President
Mikhail Saakashvili in his stand-off with opposition parties, which
have recently held a series of mass protests demanding his resignation.