AFP, MOSCOW: Russia said Monday it could withdraw its remaining two army bases from Georgia in seven to nine years, slightly easing its stance on the festering issue between the two former Soviet republics, but one still unlikely to satisfy Tbilisi.
Georgia has insisted that Russia withdraw its two remaining army bases in three years. Russia has previously said it needs 10 years.
On Monday a deputy head of Russia's General Chiefs of Staff Yury Baluyevsky slightly softened Moscow's position.
“It's possible that the process can be accomplished in seven to nine years,” the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. “This will depend on when we will realistically start building an infrastructure for the troops withdrawn from Georgia.”
But Baluyevsky was adamant that Tbilisi's timetable for the withdrawal was “unrealistic.”
“Under the most favorable conditions, it is unrealistic to accomplish the withdrawal of Russia's military bases from Georgia within three years,” Baluyevsky said.
The withdrawal of the two bases is one of the main disputes between Moscow and its former Soviet satellite.
Under accords hammered out at a 1999 summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe held in Istanbul, Russia agreed to close the four bases it had maintained in Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
It has withdrawn from two of them, but negotiations over the timetable for the removal of the other two, in the western town of Batumi and the southern one of Akhalkalaki, have long been stalled.
Washington has offered to provide financial assistance to persuade Russia to pull out its troops faster than planned.
