MOSCOW. July 22 (Interfax-AVN) - Tbilisi considers the Russian military bases in Georgia to be risk factors.
This stance was included into the national security concept that has been submitted to the country's parliament for consideration.
"In its first edition, before the agreement on withdrawal was reached, the concept defined forces of Russian in the Transcaucasus, deployed in Akhalkalaki and Batumi, as direct threat to security of the country," Georgia Security Council Secretary Gela Bezhuashvili said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda daily, published on Friday.
He emphasized that the latest edition of the concept submitted to the parliament has nothing whatsoever implied. According to him, Georgia has changed its opinion and thinks of the Russian bases as risk factors. He added that such a stance is backed by the concerns that existing separatist territories, including South Ossetia and Abkhazia, may become real, rather than hypothetical routes of conflicts with Russia.
"We do not have capabilities now to control the transparent Georgian-Russian border in its South Ossetian and Abkhaz parts and have no influence on the developments in the zones. Russia has, and may influence both positively and negatively," he said.
He emphasized that Tbilisi is quite concerned with the situation in the Caucasus as a whole, and especially in the North Caucasus. "Apart from Chechnya that gives us some trouble too, there are many other trouble spots. It is still a question, whether Moscow can control the situation in Dagestan, Karachayevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria now," he said.
He pointed out that Russia surely has own interests in the South Caucasus, but cannot define them clearly. "Unfortunately, we do not understand what Russia is driving at, and what it wants to get as a result of its presence in the region. Therefore we cannot adjust our home and foreign policy to at least help Russia achieve its political goals in the region," he said.
He recalled that fifteen years ago Russia had no rivals in South Caucasus and the Transcaucasus. "As of now, the one, who will offer Georgia most beneficial and promising variant of its further political, economic and social development, will play solo in the region," he said.