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RUSSIA MAY WITHDRAW MILITARY BASES FROM GEORGIA PRIOR TO JANUARY 1, 2009

RIA Novosti

TBILISI, April 22 (RIA Novosti) - Speaker of the upper chamber of Russian parliament Sergei Mironov has said that Russia may withdraw its military bases from Georgia before January 1, 2009.

"We would like to pull out our military and hardware from the bases in Akhalkalaki before January 1, 2008. Following the withdrawal of heavy machines from the Batumi base (Adzharia) on January 1, 2009, Russia will finally close its bases in the territory of Georgia", Mironov told the briefing in Tbilisi on Friday after the contact with Nino Burdzhanadze, speaker of the Georgian parliament.

In turn, Burdzhanadze said that Tbilisi is going to continue the dialog on specifying the timeframe and technicalities of the withdrawal.

"We understand that the sides cannot coordinate every aspect of this matter before the time set in the resolution of the Georgian parliament, May 15. But we would like before this time to discuss all the technicalities of the withdrawal of Russian military hardware from Georgia", Burdzhanadze said.

Alongside the two military bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki, the Russian force in the Transcaucasian region is headquartered in Tbilisi.