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Russia, Georgia in thorny talks over bases' withdrawal

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  • Russia, Georgia in thorny talks over bases' withdrawal

    Russia, Georgia in thorny talks over bases' withdrawal
    By HENRY MEYER

    AP Worldstream
    Mar 23, 2005

    Russia and Georgia held thorny negotiations in Moscow on Wednesday
    on the withdrawal of Russia's two Soviet-era military bases from its
    small southern neighbor.

    Georgia, where a pro-West leadership took power last year, is keen to
    assert the impoverished Caucasus Mountain state's independence from
    its former imperial master and has been pushing Moscow to hand back
    the bases within two years.

    Russia has said it needs at least three to four years, or up to a
    decade, to complete the pullout. It is also demanding compensation.
    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Tuesday the cost of
    withdrawing from the military installations would be US$250-US$300
    million (Aâ~B¬191-Aâ~B¬229 million).

    The head of the Russian delegation at Wednesday's talks, Igor Savolsky,
    said the disagreements between the two sides were not huge but were
    "fundamental," the Interfax news agency reported.

    Georgia's Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili, who has dispatched a
    deputy foreign minister for the two-day negotiations, said in Tbilisi
    on Tuesday that she hoped an agreement could be reached.

    The ITAR-TASS news agency quoted an unnamed Russian diplomat as saying
    that Moscow insisted on assurances that Tbilisi would not host bases
    from other countries.

    A Georgian minister last week said that Tbilisi was willing to
    guarantee that NATO troops would not be stationed on its territory,
    which would give the alliance a foothold along Russia's southern
    frontier.

    But on a more contentious note, the diplomat said that Russia also
    wanted to set up a joint anti-terrorist center at one of the bases _
    a demand categorically rejected by Tbilisi, which sees it as a fig-leaf
    for a continued Russian military presence in Georgia.

    Russian observers have said that Russia is concerned that pulling out
    all its forces from Georgia could put at risk its base in neighboring
    Armenia, one of Moscow's closest allies in the region. Armenia does
    not share a border with Russia and all Russian equipment and personnel
    have to transit Georgian territory to get there.

    --Boundary_(ID_/5mcL/RV8/qqz/+q7U1YdA)--
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