Russian base withdrawal held up by refusal of Georgian transit papers

RTR Russia TV, Moscow
28 Jun 05

[Presenter] More than 1,300 Russian servicemen and specialists in the
Group of Russian Armed Forces in Transcaucasus have still not received
the documents required to be in Georgia and to enter and exit the
country. The local authorities are refusing to issue the visas under
a variety of pretexts. The headquarters of the group of forces is
calling the situation critical, saying it threatens to disrupt the
whole process of withdrawing the bases from Batumi and Akhalkalaki.

[Deputy commander of the Group of Russian Armed Forces in Transcaucasus
Col Vladimir Kuparadze, captioned in Tbilisi] At the moment we cannot
get a single specialist serviceman in to prepare equipment for the
withdrawal. Six specialists from the Gyumri military base [in Armenia]
should have come in on 21 June and have still not received their
visas and cannot come in and prepare the equipment.

This has to be resolved so that the agreements reached by the leaders
of Russia and Georgia can be implemented in good time and on schedule.