MOSCOW, October 17 (AVN) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said on Tuesday his forthcoming talks on military issues with Georgia will be very complicated.
"There are a lot of unsolved issues, mostly related to withdrawal of armament and military equipment from Georgia," Klebanov said, referring to the negotiations that will take place in Tbilisi on Thursday and Friday. One of the most pressing problems is the withdrawal of the 50th Russian base which is located in the town of Gudauty in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, he said.
Georgia intends to make Russia pay at least USD2.5bn-3bn as compensation for Georgia's share in the property of the former Soviet Union, Nino Burdzhanadze, foreign relations committee chairman of national parliament said in Tbilisi on Tuesday.
Sources in the Russian Defence Ministry told the Military News Agency that Georgia's attempt to implement this intention in the course of the military talks can cause serious complications in bilateral relations and even derail the negotiations.
"Though Mrs.Burdzhanadze said she meant former Soviet property abroad, a part of gold and diamond funds, foreign currency reserves and investments, we have learned that Tbilisi defines 'Georgia's share of property of the former Soviet Union' as mostly military property," a source in the Russian General Staff told the Agency. According to him, the Russian military leaders did not rule out the transfer of a part of armament and military equipment of the Russian military group in the Trans Caucasus to Georgia, but they "did not even imagine the scale of appetites that were displayed by Mrs.Burdzhanadze."
The situation is further complicated by Burdzhanadze's statement that Georgia will possibly use the help of the Paris and London Clubs of creditors to make Russia fulfill "Georgia's justified demands," the source said.
The Gudauty base is not the only stumbling block of the talks. According to the source, the fate of the 12th military base in the town of Batumi, capital of the southern Georgian autonomous republic of Adzharia, is also disputable.
"Only yesterday chairman of the Unified Georgia parliamentary faction Georgy Targamadze, who is among the leaders of the opposition Batumi Alliance, said representatives of the Adzharian administration should be involved in the talks on the withdrawal of the Russian military base from Batumi. Otherwise, according to him, Adzharia may turn into a sort of a proving range for Russian-Georgian relations," the source said.
"Moreover, many people in Adzharia believe that the absence of foreign troops, Russian ones included, in the Georgian territory should not be an aim in itself for the Georgian leadership," he added. The Russian military believe that Georgia's current administration is not ready to take into account the opinion of the autonomous republic in defining the fate of the Russian military bases.