"The time has come to change the mandate of the CIS collective peacekeeping forces in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict," Georgian Defense Minister Georgy Baramidze said, congratulating the peacekeepers on their holiday on Monday, June 21. However, Tbilisi does not propose withdrawing the peacekeepers from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It speaks about the extension of the mandate. Moscow answers: there will be no rash and insufficiently thought-out decisions.
Under the extension of the mandate, Izvestia says, the Georgian side means to add some police functions to the peacekeeping contingent. Moscow believes, however, that the peacekeepers are not police units. "The revision of the mandate is not the issue to be solved quickly and radically," said first deputy chairman of the Senate committee for the CIS Konstantin Markelov. As to the withdrawal of the contingent, Markelov noted, the Presidents of Russia and Georgia agreed that the withdrawal of the forces from the conflict zone will be possible only after the stabilization of the situation.
Izvestia reminds its readers that during his February visit to Moscow Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili tried to convince Vladimir Putin that Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia have a positive potential. "And this potential must be used correctly," said the Georgian President at that time and added: "Russia can play a strong role in the conflict zones if it wishes to." Yesterdays' congratulations of the peacekeepers in Sukhumi showed that Russia does not refuse to play its role, Izvestia says.
