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Russia sees exclusion from pipeline exercises in Georgia as snub -pa

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  • Russia sees exclusion from pipeline exercises in Georgia as snub -pa

    RUSSIA SEES EXCLUSION FROM PIPELINE EXERCISES IN GEORGIA AS SNUB - PAPER

    Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow
    23 Aug 05

    Moscow views its exclusion from military exercises in Georgia as an
    unfriendly move by Tbilisi, the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta
    has said. The paper also noted that the exercises, held to improve
    measures to protect the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline, were attended
    by forces from Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, but not Armenia. The
    following is an excerpt from a report published by Nezavisimaya Gazeta
    on 23 August:

    The Georgian leadership has demonstrated yet again and in a very
    forthright way that it is not much bothered about the interests of its
    neighbours in the South Caucasus. This was made obvious for Russia and
    its only military ally in this region, Armenia, by the Eternity-2005
    staff-command exercises to protect the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline
    [BTC] that are taking place this week at the Georgian Ministry of
    Defence's national Military Base in Tbilisi. It is worth noting
    that this demarche took place immediately after the two-day meeting
    between presidents Mikheil Saakashvili and Robert Kocharyan at Sevan,
    which analysts regarded primarily as a demonstration of a clear
    rapprochement between Yerevan and Tbilisi. However, all things
    considered, in reality it was somewhat different. Account is being
    taken in Georgia of Kocharyan, but only within definite limits.

    As far as concerns the Tbilisi exercises, which are to last until
    the end of the week, 52 officers from the armed forces of Georgia,
    Azerbaijan and Turkey have been invited to attend. Turkey is financing
    the exercises. [Passage omitted[

    Taking everything into consideration, nobody in Tbilisi sees any
    special problem in the fact that there are no Russian or Armenian
    representatives among those invited. Let us say that the Georgian
    Defence Ministry is stressing how these exercises are basically
    "theoretical". "Officers from the three countries are attending a
    special course of lectures and working out their actions via computer
    programmes, nothing more," the head of the Press and Public Relations
    Department of the Georgian Defence Ministry, Nana Intskirveli, told
    Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

    However, in Moscow the very fact that these exercises were not open
    to Russian representatives is being viewed as yet another unfriendly
    move by the Georgian leadership. As we were told by the deputy
    director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' International Security
    Problems Institute, Aleksey Bogaturov, "everything is logical here".
    "Generally speaking, I do not know a single expert or analyst,
    who would have hopes that the Georgian leadership would invite the
    Russian side to an event of this kind. Tbilisi's actions are completely
    in line with the stance taken by President Mikheil Saakashvili. If
    the Georgian side is following a curtailment of military relations
    with Russia, and has forced the removal of Russian bases from its
    territory, then there is no sense for Saakashvili to invite Russia
    to any joint actions and even let Moscow know about its plans. The
    Georgian president's logic is completely different: namely he wishes
    to show that the political activity by Georgia as well as all the
    Caucasian states is completely possible and viable (in both political
    and purely military relations) without Russia's participation. Time
    and again Saakashvili is attempting to form some illusory anti-Russian
    'opposition front'. In this case he does not fully understand whom he
    should oppose and what the prospects for such a front are. He simply
    has a great wish to be a member of something, and even something more,
    namely to be the initiator of a new coalition", Aleksey Bogaturov
    told us.

    In Azerbaijan the authorities have preferred not to take any notice
    of the Georgian demarche; after all the problem of the security of
    the BTC pipeline is somewhat more important. As far as possible
    threats to the 3bn-dollar project are concerned, Azerbaijan sees
    two of them at least. Firstly there is the problem of potential
    sabotage along the course of the pipeline from various terrorist
    organizations. Secondly relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have
    not been regularized. [Passage omitted]

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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