Russian troops start pullout from second base in Georgia

Agence France Presse — English
August 5, 2005 Friday

TBILISI Aug 5 — Russian troops began their withdrawal Friday from
a military base in southern Georgia near the border with Armenia,
one of the last two remaining bases left over from the Soviet era
that Russia has agreed to leave by the end of 2008, officials said.

The pullout from the base at Akhalkalaki began at dawn with a column
of nine military trucks carrying 60 soldiers that departed from the
installation and was expected to cross the border into Russia later
in the day, a spokesman for the Georgian defense ministry told AFP.

Russian troops began withdrawing from their other remaining base in
Georgia, outside the Black Sea port of Batumi, on July 30.

Most of the troops and hardware being removed from the bases were
being redeployed to the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz, which
has a heavy military presence.

Under the terms of an agreement reached by Russia and Georgia on May
30, the last two remaining Russian bases on Georgian territory must
be closed by the end of 2008.

Completion of the withdrawal from the two bases will formally bring
to an end more than 200 years of Russian military presence in Georgia,
a presence that began when Georgian leaders sought Russian protection
from Turkish and Persian invaders in the last decades of the 18th
century.