President Dmitry Medvedev sent a bill Monday to the State Duma that would allow for the deployment of the Russian military virtually anywhere abroad, although a senior lawmaker brushed off the announcement as a gimmick to intimidate Georgia.
Speaking at a meeting with leaders of the Duma factions in Sochi, Medvedev made clear that he was motivated by last year’s war, during which Russian troops fought on Georgian territory.
“These issues need to be strictly regulated,” he said. “We ultimately would not want these events to be repeated, but we need to have clear procedures.”
An explanatory note posted on the Kremlin web site said the bill would introduce amendments to the Law on Defense, according to which Russian troops can be used oversees to fight off aggression against Russian or foreign militaries; to prevent aggression against another state; to protect Russian citizens abroad; and to fight piracy.
The bill overlaps with the 2006 Law on Countering Terrorism, which lets the military operate against terrorists outside Russia. Under that law, the decision to deploy troops abroad is to be made by the president after getting a resolution from the Federation Council.
It was not immediately clear from the note what the decision-making procedure would be under the new bill.
Viktor Ilyukhin, a deputy head of the Duma’s Security Committee, told The Moscow Times on Monday that the bill actually aimed to streamline legal procedures for military deployments and to “press on Georgia’s sensitive spots.”
He said international law already allows Russia to use troops abroad to prevent aggression. The new provisions allowing Russia to defend foreign forces and countries would apply to states that have signed military cooperation pacts with Russia, Ilyukhin said.
Russia has signed such treaties with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian province that Moscow recognized as independent after the war.
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