Saakashvili, Burjanadze Cautious over Resolution Against Russian Bases

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze offered more moderate positions regarding the proposal by a group of parliamentarians from the Ruling National Movement party regarding a draft resolution, scheduled to be discussed by the Parliament on March 9, which envisages announcing the Russian military bases still stationed in Georgia as illegal.

Both, Saakashvili and Burjanadze indicated on March 8 that endorsement of this kind of resolution by the Parliament would be untimely at the moment and may hinder the current talks with Russia which are aimed at setting up a timeframe for the bases’ withdrawal. 

Mikheil Saakashvili told reporters on March 8 that he hopes Tbilisi and Moscow will agree over the timeframes of withdrawal of these Russian military bases sometime in the next six weeks. “Our position is clear – the Russian bases should be pulled out from Georgia. Georgia is a sovereign state and nobody has the right to have its bases on our territory,” Saakashvili said.
 
“On the other hand, a month and a half is left to agree over the Russian military bases; the Georgian and Russian sides will probably reach an agreement during this period. I am an optimist,” Saakashvili added.

While speaking about the period of a month and a half, Saakashvili and Burjanadze both referred to the agreement reached by Tbilisi and Moscow during the visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Tbilisi on February 18. During this visit, Sergey Lavrov and his Georgian counterpart Salome Zourabichvili agreed to intensify talks over the military bases and outline concrete proposals over the timeframe and terms of pullout for the bases within two months and before May 9, when President Saakashvili plans to visit Moscow.

Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze even said that neither she nor the President was informed about the Parliament’s intention to discuss this draft resolution.

“I, as well as the President [Mikheil Saakashvili], was not aware of this [draft resolution]. It was not planned to discuss this resolution at the [parliamentary] session this week,” Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze told reporters.

The decision to discuss this draft resolution against the Russian military bases was made on March 7 during a meeting of the parliamentary bureau that plans the schedule for the upcoming week in the legislature. Nino Burjanadze, who returned from an unofficial visit to Germany late on March 7, did not attend the session of the parliamentary bureau, which decided to discuss the draft resolution on March 9.

However, despite the positions expressed by Nino Burjanadze and Mikheil Saakashvili, the initiators of the draft resolution intend to push the issue at the parliamentary session on March 9.

“I hope this resolution will be approved and I hope the opposition parliamentarians will also vote for this document,” MP Kote Gabashvili, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs, told Imedi television on March 8.

The draft resolution, which was developed jointly by the Parliamentary Committees for Defense and Security, Foreign Affairs and Legal Issues, and was spearheaded by leading parliamentarians from the National Movement party Giga Bokeria, Kote Gabashvili and Givi Targamadze in particular, sets January 1, 2006 as the deadline for the pullout of the up to 3,000 Russian soldiers stationed in Georgia and the closure of the Russia bases in Batumi, in the Adjara Autonomous Republic, and Akhalkalaki, in the south-western part of Georgia.

According to the draft resolution, the Georgian government will prepare measures which will enter force if there is no progress in Russo-Georgian negotiations on a “reasonable” timeframe for the withdrawal of the military bases before May 1, 2005. According to this draft resolution, the Parliament will instruct the Interior, Defense and Foreign Ministries to prepare the following measures:

• The Foreign Ministry has to halt issuing entry visas to Russian military servicemen;

• The Georgian Finance Ministry should assess the total debt for the functioning of the bases;

• The Defense and Interior Ministries should prepare a “special regime of movement” for the Russian servicemen, military hardware and cargo owned by the Russian military bases stationed in Georgia. However, the draft resolution does not specify the details of this “special regime of movement.”

Spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry Col. Viacheslav Sedov said on March 8 that “language of ultimatums, blackmail and pressure is unacceptable” while considering the issue of withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia, Interfax news agency reported.
 
“The Bilateral commission, which regularly holds its sessions both in Tbilisi and Moscow, was designed to solve the issue of the bases’ withdrawal,” Col. Viacheslav Sedov said.

“We can not pull out troops on a blank field, like it happened in Russian history – [when troops were pulled out from] Germany. The creation of infrastructure in Russia is needed for this withdrawal of troops,” he added.