MOSCOW. Nov 26 (Interfax-AVN) - First Deputy Chief of Staff Colonel General Yuri Baluyevsky said the removal of Russian troops from Georgia will take at least ten years.
"We are not holding on to staying there forever, but we will not agree to remove our troops from Georgia into a clear field, as was done during the removal of our troops from Germany," the general told journalists on Wednesday.
"There are several thousand Russian troops on the territory of Georgia right now. There are two military bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki, and a small, in numbers, control headquarters in Tbilisi," he said.
In response to questions, Baluyevsky said there is a possibility that international terrorists could be hiding out on Georgian territory.
He said that during the winter, rebels might try to leave mountainous areas of Chechnya and hide out either in the republic's valleys, or in Georgia.
"There is a system for exposing rebels in settlements on the territory of Chechnya, whereas in Georgia right now, there is no system of state administration, which worries us," he said.