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Putin Agrees To U.S. Troops Deployment In Georgia
Friday, March 1, 2002
(14:05)
Reuters

"It's an open secret that the Americans helped us create troops of border guards," 74-year-old Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said. "Now they seriously intend to organise anti-terrorist groups. No other country can do that."

Russian President Vladimir Putin abruptly softened Moscow's stance towards the planned dispatch of U.S. military experts to Georgia on Friday, saying it spelled "no tragedy" for Russia's interests.

Speaking at a news conference in Kazakhstan during a summit of leaders of former Soviet countries, Putin said: "It's no tragedy and it cannot be."

"Why should they (the U.S. forces) be in Central Asia and not in Georgia?," he said, referring to the deployment late last year of U.S. forces in former Central Asia as part of the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan.

Putin's comment to reporters, made as he stood alongside Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and other leaders of the Commonwealth of Independence States, ran counter to remarks made by his own foreign minister, Igor Ivanov.

Ivanov, speaking earlier this week, said the planned dispatch of U.S. forces to the former Soviet Transcaucasian republic to help train Georgian troops to combat terrorism would only aggravate the security situation in the region.

Putin, who is due to meet U.S. President George W. Bush for a Moscow summit in May and has done his best to establish a warm relationship with Russia's old Cold War foe, appeared to be putting a brave face on events he is powerless to stop.
(More: Gazeta.RU News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan