TBILISI. Jan 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgia's General Staff has worked out a contingency plan for the possible withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the zone of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, where Russian troops have been deployed under CIS auspices since 1994.
Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Gela Bezhuashvili told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday that the plan provides for "computing possible scenarios so that at least the status quo will be intact in the zone if the peacekeepers pull back."
"It is necessary to evaluate Georgia's capabilities and forecast developments if the peacekeepers move out," added Bezhuashvili.
The Georgian authorities "are ready to do their best to evade a new escalation of the conflict in case the peacekeepers move out, because it is not in the interests of the parties," he stressed.
Bezhuashvili would not elaborate on the plan.
Abkhaz Deputy Defense Minister Garri Kupalba earlier told Interfax-AVN that if Georgia refuses to prolong the mandate of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone, the Abkhaz Defense Ministry will launch a plan of replacing the peacekeepers with its own units.
The mandate of the collective peacekeeping forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone expired on December 31, 2002.