MOSCOW STARTS SHIPPING MILITARY EQUIPMENT FROM GEORGIA TO RUSSIAN BASE IN ARMENIA

AP Worldstream
May 18, 2006

A convoy of trucks carrying military hardware set out for Armenia
on Thursday from a Russian base in Georgia, as Moscow continued its
pullout from this Caucasus Mountains nation under an agreement reached
last year.

Col. Vladimir Kuparadze, deputy commander of the Russian troops in
the southern Caucasus, said 10 trucks from Russia’s Akhalkalaki base,
accompanied by an armored personnel carrier and a Georgian military
police escort, had reached the Armenian border. They are due to
deliver the equipment to the Russian base in Gyumri.

The withdrawal agreement was a victory for Georgia’s pro-Western
President Mikhail Saakashvili’s campaign to reduce Russian influence.

Moscow began the pullout earlier this week, sending a train with
tanks and other arms to Russia. All heavy weapons and vehicles from
the Akhalkalaki base are to be withdrawn by Oct. 15, and personnel,
firearms and base property by the end of 2007. The other Russian
base left over from the Soviet era, in the Black Sea port of Batumi,
is to be closed by the end of 2008.

Russia’s transfer of military equipment to the Gyumri base has sparked
concern from Azerbaijan, Armenia’s neighbor and enemy.

Armenian forces have held parts of Azerbaijan since a war over the
disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave that ended with a shaky cease-fire
in 1994.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress