"If we fail to achieve an agreement with the Russian side on the withdrawal of the military bases from Batumi and Akhalkalaki, the Georgian parliament can outlaw them," Ms. Burdzhanadze told the Rustavi-2 Georgian TV company on Friday night.
Ms. Burdzhandze hopes that other Georgian power bodies will back a relevant parliamentary statement, the Novosti-Georgia agency reports.
In compliance with the decisions of the 1999 OSCE summit in Istanbul, Russia withdrew its military bases from Vaziani and Gudauta and started negotiating on the withdrawal of the two remaining bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki. However, the sides have failed to achieve compromise at the negotiations. Georgia's representatives proposed to withdraw the bases in three years and the Russian side in 9-13 years.
According to Nino Burdzhandze, she met with Russian State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov in Vienna where she is taking part in the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Mr. Gryzlov and Ms. Burdzhandze discussed the problems of Georgian-Russian relations. Moreover, Ms. Burdzhanadze frankly informed her Russian counterpart about Georgia's claims to Russia on a number of issues.
