"In compliance with the agreement of the two foreign ministers, the talks will speed up. The sides aim to achieve certain agreements within the next two months. It is clear that attempts to outlaw these bases have no political purposes, therefore, the bases in Georgia will be closed when relevant agreements are achieved," Mr. Kosachev told the Ekho Moskvy radio on Saturday.
"To block the approaches and cut off energy and water supplies of these bases is not a civilized way and Russia will interpret such actions appropriately," Mr. Kosachev said.
"Russia should stay calm about these threats, with no emotions or panic. We are obviously being involved in some public dispute but such complicated issues should be settled at the negotiation table," he noted.
"I hope these threats will not be realized by Georgian authorities," Mr. Kosachev added.
"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," Nino Burdzhanadze, currently in Vienna, told the Rustavi-2 Georgian TV company.
Ms. Burdzhandze expressed hope that other Georgian power bodies would 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.
At the moment Georgia's representative offer to start withdrawing the Russian bases on January 1, 2006.
