TANKS ROLLING NORTH: WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS FROM GEORGIA: SCANDALS CONTINUE
Albert Yeremjan, Mikhail Moshkin

Source: Gazeta, May 16, 2006
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
May 19, 2006 Friday

Twenty-One Echelon With Military Hardware, Armaments And Material
Will Leave The Russian Base In Akhalkalaki (Georgia) Before October;
An update on the withdrawal from Georgia.

Russia is pulling out. The accords signed in Sochi this March, give
Russia until 2008, to withdraw from Georgia completely. The matter
concerns Russian military bases in Batumi and Akhalkalaki.

It took the military two days to load all armored vehicles of
the 62nd Base (Akhalkalaki) on flatcars at Tsalka station in East
Georgia. The process began on Saturday. Carrying seven T-72 tanks,
eight armored battle vehicles, two armored personnel carriers, and
four communications vehicles, the echelon departed for Russia via
Azerbaijan, yesterday.

“Running echelons across Azerbaijan will simplify matters, because it
will do away with the necessity to unload the military hardware from
flatcars and load it again to a different transport means,” Russian
Army Group in the Caucasus Second-in-Command Vladimir Kuparadze told
this correspondent. “The military hardware loaded in Tsalka will ride
the flatcars right to the destination in Russia.” Kuparadze did not
say what units of the Russian army were under orders to receive and
store the military hardware. Tactical and auxiliary teams made it to
Tsalka last week.

Departure of the second echelon is scheduled for May 23.

Twenty-one echelon with military hardware, armaments, and material
of the Akhalkalaki base will leave Tsalka before October, 2006.

The locals, mostly Armenians, are vexed to see the Russians pull out.

It is hardly surprising because the Russian base provided them with
jobs. Special forces of the Georgian Interior Ministry were moved to
Akhalkalaki on the night of May 13, to deal with all and any potential
disturbances. Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili had said not long
before that Russia was orchestrating “provocations” in Akhalkalaki
“to be able to claim that it was the indigenous population that was
interfering with the withdrawal.”

Along with everything else, official Tbilisi accuses Moscow of
dereliction of its commitments with regard to the Gudauta base on the
territory of the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia. The Georgians
demand international monitoring while Moscow replies that the base
is closed. The NATO delegation on a visit to Georgia last week was
not permitted to see the base. NATO representatives said that had had
Russia’s consent to a visit the base but the permit was annulled at
the last moment.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress