Russia has no plan to hand over arms to Armenia – defence minister

Radio Mayak, Moscow
6 Jun 05

[Presenter] Some of Russia’s hardware from its military bases in
Georgia will be sent to the Russian base in Armenia, Russian Defence
Minister Sergey Ivanov has confirmed. At a news conference in St
Petersburg the minister stressed that no-one intends to hand over
weapons to Armenia, it is a matter of transferring them to another
Russian base. Ivanov recalled that earlier Russia and Georgia agreed
that the withdrawal of the bases from Batumi and Akhalkalaki will
begin this year and be completed in 2008.

[Ivanov] We have to move 2,500 servicemen, not counting their family
members, and 2,500 pieces of heavy equipment to Russian Federation
territory. We are faced with moving 80,000 tonnes of ammunition,
military equipment and various types of cargo. The withdrawal of
equipment, and men of course, will mainly take place by sea from
Batumi via the base there.

Some pieces of equipment will be sent to the Russian military base in
Gyumri, which is located on Armenian territory. I stress that this
will be only some [of the hardware], because we respect and will
observe all the conditions of the Adapted Treaty on Conventional Armed
Forces in Europe. This contains the flank restrictions and we will
strictly observe these flank restrictions, including with regards to
equipment sent to our base in Armenia. I repeat once more that these
weapons will not be given to Armenia, as some reports suggest. They
will remain Russian property and will simply be kept at a different
Russian base, that’s all. [Passage omitted]