Armenia welcomes Russian military pulling out from Georgia
Channel 3 TV, Moscow
28 May 05
[Adding “female” in the last phrase; corrected version follows:]
[Presenter] The new location of the Russian military bases currently
stationed in Georgia is already known. Some personnel and military
hardware will go to Russia, other – to Armenia, to protect Russia’s
southern borders. The Azeri authorities are voicing concern over
possible Russian military presence in neighbouring Armenia.
The main cause of their anxiety are missile units from Russian military
base No 102 [in Gyumri]. Protecting the approaches to Russian airspace,
they automatically provide an air defence shield to Armenia. Petr
Kosenko reports.
[Correspondent] Plans for relocating a [Russian] military base to
Armenia generate quite opposite feelings in Baku and Yerevan. Armenia
says it is ready to admit Russian troops to its territory at any
time. Azerbaijan believes that this would destabilize the situation
in the region, having in mind the Karabakh problem.
[Serzh Sarkisyan, captioned as Armenian defence minister, speaking to
camera] Azerbaijan is permanently trying to prove that the Russian
military base and Russian military personnel are involved in the
conflict and are even ready to engage in combat, that they encroach
upon Azerbaijan’s interests. All that has nothing to do with reality.
[Correspondent] For their part, the Russian military repeatedly
say that their task is to defend Russia’s national interests in the
Transcaucasus and not to interfere in local conflicts.
[Col Vladimir Menshikov, captioned as commander of military base
No 102, speaking to camera] Defending the host country is not our
task. Any involvement in conflict with Azerbaijan is ruled out.
[Correspondent] [Russian anti-aircraft] missile systems Buk, designed
back in 1968, as well as modern S-300 missile launchers, are on
combat duty in Armenia. The Buk is 40 years old, but the Yugoslavs,
who used it in 1999, managed to shoot down a US Stealth aircraft.
[Aleksandr Surinkin, captioned as commander of an anti-aircraft
regiment] If they are afraid, it means that the weapon is
efficient. They are monitoring our shooting exercises and see that
it is efficient.
[Passage omitted to end: life story of senior lieutenant Olga
Kaluzhenina who is the sole female S-300 battery commander in the
Russian armed forces.]