ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING OF GYUMRI MILITARY BASE COMPENSATES WEAKENING OF RUSSIAN POSITIONS IN GEORGIA

Regnum, Russia
May 19 2006

Through additional bringing up to strength the military base in the
Armenian city of Gyumri (102nd Russian military base, situated in
the north of Armenia – REGNUM), Russian military presence in Armenia
increases and it compensates weakening of Russia’s positions in
Georgia,” Chief of Caucasus Department of CIS Countries Institute
(Russia) Mikhail Alexandrov stated to a REGNUM correspondent.

According to him, the fact is quite logical that the armaments were
transported exactly into Armenia. “The Armenian border is enough
near to the strategic Akhalkalaki and Batumi road. Now, in spite of
inability to control the sector, our strengthened base in Armenia
will be able to block the road in case of any crisis,” Mikhail
Alexandrov stated.

“From its part, Georgia, which relied upon NATO in settling Abkhazian
and South Ossetian conflicts, made a serious mistake, because if Russia
took neutral stand regarding the conflict parties before, later it
sided with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, realizing geopolitical threat
to its interests. Russia is interested in having more hard-edged
regional leaders in power here, who will not yield to Georgia,”
Mikhail Alexandrov believes.