TSKHINVALI. April 9 (Interfax-AVN) - The presence of U.S. military advisors in Georgia militarizes minds of several Georgian politicians, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said on Wednesday.
"The presence of American military advisors in Georgia forces Georgian politicians to think about the settlement of the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts by force," Kokoity told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Georgia might use the American example and also try to solve its problems by force, ignoring opinion of the global community," Kokoity noted.
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said in March this year, "You need not think that active involvement of the U.S. in the settlement of this (Abkhaz - Interfax-AVN) problem will mean military interference." He noted, however, that if peaceful settlement methods bring no results, "only the Georgian leadership will make the decision on other possible methods including the use of force."
According to Kokoity, "those tendencies are very dangerous, they might lead to upsetting the balance of power in the region."
"That is why South Ossetia will carefully follow next week's consideration of a statement on the Georgian-U.S. military cooperation in the State Duma lower house of Russian parliament," Kokoity stressed.
According to him, "Georgian political circles and law- enforcement bodies still do not rule out the possibility of using Georgian anti-terrorist battalions trained by Americans against South Ossetia."
It was reported earlier that a joint session of the Duma committees on international affairs and CIS affairs decided to request an official review of the Georgian-U.S. military cooperation agreement from the Russian Security Council, Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry and Federal Security Service.
Chairman of the Duma committee on international affairs Dmitry Rogozin said that the Duma's draft statement on the issue is likely to be considered on April 16 after official reviews are obtained.
Rogozin noted that the Georgian-U.S. agreement violates "the letter and spirit of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty."