RUSSIA PULLING OUT MILITARY HARDWARE FROM BATUMI BASE IN GEORGIA

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 25 2006

TBILISI, May 25 (Itar-Tass) – Russian troops at the Batumi base
started dispatching military hardware to the Russian base Gyumri in
Armenia on Thursday, Tass learnt at the headquarters of the Group of
Russian Troops in Transcaucasia.

The first train will bring to Gyumri 54 units of military materiel,
communication trucks as well as some property. In 2006, this is
already the third train with weapons and property of Russian troops.

The two previous ones pulled out military property from the Akhalkalaki
base. The headquarters reported that another six trains would depart
from Batumi over the next few months.

Last summer, Russia carried out the first stage of pulling out combat
materiel and weapons from the Batumi base. Two landing ships dispatched
to Russia 40 units of military hardware, including 12 tanks, the same
number of air defence missile systems Kub, five military reconnaissance
motor vehicles and three self-propelled missile vehicles Shilka.

The Batumi base is to be closed down during 2008 in compliance with
the Russian-Georgian understandings.