WPS Agency, Russia
May 5 2009
DANGEROUS MANEUVERS;
Five countries, NATO members and partners, declined invitations to the
forthcoming exercise in Georgia. Armenia and Azerbaijan accepted the
invitation. Russia is upset by how diligently the Alliance and Georgia
work on coordination
by Natalia Portyakova, Aleksei Nikolsky
LATVIA, ESTONIA, MOLDOVA, KAZAKHSTAN, AND SERBIA REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE
IN THE MANEUVERS IN GEORGIA; NATO’s military exercise in Georgia
begins tomorrow to the accompaniment of protestations from Russia.
NATO’s military exercise beginning tomorrow consists of two
phases. Spokesman for the Alliance James Appathurai said in late April
that tactical compatibility between NATO contingents and those of the
partners would be practiced in the first phase involving 650
servicemen. The second phase involving up to 450 servicemen would be a
counter-terrorism drill. The military exercise would be run in Vaziani
barely 20 kilometers from Tbilisi.
"Phase two will probably stipulate deployment of light weapons, light
armored vehicles, and helicopters," according to Igor Korotchenko of
the Defense Ministry Public Council, formerly an officer of the
Russian General Staff. The specialist assumed that it was the first
phase of the exercise that disturbed Russia because it stood for
tactical compatibility, i.e. actions of the regular Georgian army
within larger NATO contingents against the Russian Armed
Forces. Sources in the Defense Ministry pointed out meanwhile that the
very fact of the military exercise was proof that the Alliance was
prepared to share with Georgia the kind of information that could be
used against Russia.
Russia had taken the exercise in Armenia last year (it involved 1,00
servicemen from 21 country) in stride. This time, however, its
attitude was different. President Dmitry Medvedev called the exercise
in Georgia a "provocation" and emphasized that it was wrong to run
military games on the territories where the hostilities had raged but
recently.
Initial plans had stood for participation of 19 NATO members and
partners in the military exercise but 5 of them declined the
invitations. Latvia and Estonia pleaded shortage of
personnel. Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Serbia turned the offer down after
consultations with Russia. Representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin
admitted yesterday that these countries had "listened to Russia and
weighed all consequences." Rogozin implied that some other countries
just might follow suit. A spokesman for the Alliance meanwhile said
that official notices had been received from only two countries.
The Duma passed a special resolution in April advising Azerbaijan and
particularly Armenia to reconsider their options (Armenia is a member
of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization). Neither country
has done so. Their resolve to participate in the exercise despite
protestations from Moscow jibes with their multiple vector foreign
policies "ill-advised as they are," Political Techniques Center Vice
President Sergei Mikheyev commented.
Alerted by deterioration of the political situation in Georgia,
Russian contingents in South Ossetia and Abkhazia went to a higher
readiness status and ran some exercises too, an officer of the
Caucasus Military District said. According to this certainly
knowledgeable source, numerical strength of the Russian contingents in
the newly sovereign republics was considerably less than the 10,000
the Georgian authorities were complaining about.
Source: Vedomosti, No 80, May 5, 2009, p. A2
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress