TBILISI. Jan 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgia is not ready for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone, lawmaker Georgy Karkarashvili, a former Georgian defense minister, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
According to him, this "tragic reality" is explained by the fact that Georgia has no other "military-political and economic guarantees" at the moment.
Before raising the issue of the peacekeepers' withdrawal, Georgia should deploy "strong units of the Armed Forces, police and secret services" near the current location of peacekeepers on the Inguri River and solve economic security problems, Karkarashvili said.
"The Georgian authorities are not yet ready for it," he stressed.
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said on Wednesday that early withdrawal of the peacekeepers from the conflict zone might lead to "a long and bloody" war causing troubles for both Georgia and Abkhazia.