Russia on Tbilisi Refusal to Inspect Bases
Russia claimed on January 22 that it had requested to inspect Georgian military bases after senior Georgian official allegedly expressed Tbilisi’s readiness to accept the Russian inspectors.
Russia requested Georgia to inspect its military infrastructure based on the OSCE 1999 Vienna Document on confidence and security-building measures; but Georgia refused on January 22 invoking a “force majeure” – a measure envisaged by the same document – citing that Russia is an occupying force.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on January 22 that during the Geneva talks in December, the Russian negotiators complained over Georgia’s failure to follow its commitments under the ceasefire deal on return of army units back to the places of their bases; in a response, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister, Giga Bokeria, offered the Russian side to arrive in Georgia and examine the situation on the ground.
“The present decision by Tbilisi not to allow Russian inspectors makes it clear that those statements were not frank and Georgia has something to hide in terms of dislocation of its military units,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “The Russian side cannot accept Tbilisi’s explanations about the reasons of claiming force majeure, which has a discriminative character and is directed exclusively towards the Russian Federation.”
“This move by the Georgian side contradicts the spirit of the Vienna document and will not remain without political consequences,” it added.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said on January 22: “The claims of force majeure will be removed only after full de-occupation of the occupied parts of the territory of Georgia, including Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region.”
“It must be also underlined that no guarantees and assurances exist that Russian Federation will not try to carry out further aggressive actions and the information obtained via the evaluation visit and inspection would not be used to the detriment of the National Security of Georgia,” it added.
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