Posted on 02/28/2002 9:59:59 PM PST by Spar
Russia May Recognize Georgia
Thu Feb 28, 2:43 PM ET
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW - Signaling Russia's alarm over a possible U.S. military deployment in Georgia, a senior lawmaker said Thursday that the parliament might call on the government to recognize the independence of Georgia's breakaway provinces.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee with close links to the Kremlin, said his committee has scheduled hearings on the issue next week.
"Passing such a statement ... would confirm the fact that there are state entities in Georgia that are independent ... and the collapse of Georgian statehood," Rogozin told Russia's ORT state television.
Georgia's decision to invite U.S. troops to train its security forces to battle gunmen with possible links to the al-Qaida network terrorist network has drawn widespread concern in Russia.
U.S. and Georgian officials insist no U.S. troops would be involved in combatting rebels holed up in the Pankisi Gorge bordering Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya (news - web sites).
But Russian officials are especially vexed that Georgia asked for American assistance while refusing to let Russian troops sweep the gorge, about 180 miles east of Abkhazia and some 50 miles east of South Ossetia.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) on Wednesday that Washington should "take into account" Russia's "well-founded concerns that the direct involvement of American troops in anti-terrorist activities on Georgian territory could further complicate the situation in the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said Thursday that the plan for U.S. military experts to train one or two military units "as the standard" for the rest of Georgia's armed forces had provoked "true hysteria, and it's hard for a self-respecting person to reconcile himself with this."
"I think that partnership and cooperation with the United States is a good shield for Georgian security," Shevardnadze told reporters.
While the Russian military kept its concern under wraps, retired generals, like Makhmud Gareyev, a former Soviet military adviser in Afghanistan (news - web sites), warn that the U.S. military deployment in Georgia will expand and threaten Russian interests. "This is only the beginning," Gareyev told the Interfax news agency Thursday.
While the Duma's call to acknowledge the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia would be nonbinding and unlikely to prompt any government action, it could plunge relations between Russia and Georgia to their lowest point since the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia, when Georgian officials accused Moscow of helping the separatists.
Abkhazia, a lush Black Sea province, has long pushed to become part of Russia, but Russian officials have shrugged off such requests. Russian peacekeepers have been deployed in Abkhazia since 1994 to enforce a truce between the government and separatists, and many in Georgia have called for their withdrawal.
Be safe Y'all. Buy plenty of dry goods in the near future ;)
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