Russia never considered relocating military bases to Abkhazia – envoy

ITAR-TASS news agency
3 Jun 05

Moscow, 3 June: “Abkhazia was not considered” as a possible location
to move Russian bases withdrawing from Georgian territory to, Russian
Foreign Ministry special envoy Igor Savolskiy announced today.

Answering a question from journalists about the possible relocation
of Russian military hardware from Batumi and Akhalkalaki to Abkhazia
(Gudauta) or Armenia (Gyumri), Savolskiy stressed that “Abkhazia was
not discussed”.

“Armenia was discussed, as the base at Akhalkalaki is 100 km away from
our base in Gyumri,” the diplomat said. “Military hardware can be
moved from one Russian base to another and this will not create any
fundamentally new situation. All the concerns that this will somehow
strengthen the Armenian army are unfounded,” Savolskiy stressed.

According to him, the question of handing over Russian military
hardware to Armenia “was not considered, it will only be relocated
to the Russian military base”.