RUSSIA WITHDRAWING FROM GEORGIA ACCORDING TO PLAN – COMMANDER -1

RIA Novosti, Russia
June 08, 2006

TBILISI, June 6 (RIA Novosti) – Another train with Russian military
hardware from a Soviet-era military base in Georgia departed from the
former Soviet republic according to plan, a senior Russian military
officer said Thursday.

Major-General Andrei Popov, in command of the Russian troops in the
South Caucasus, said the train had departed from the Black Sea base
of Batumi. He added that the remaining equipment at the base could be
removed by three trains, whereas 15 trains would be needed to withdraw
the remaining hardware from a base in Akhalkalaki in southern Georgia.

“The equipment is being removed according to schedule and without
any problems,” Popov said.

Under an agreement Russia and Georgia signed March 31, Russian
troops and hardware are to leave Georgia’s two Soviet-era bases in
Akhalkalaki and Batumi by 2008. The pullout from Akhalkalaki, about
30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Turkey, a NATO member,
is to be completed by December 2006.

Trains carrying equipment from the Akhalkalaki base depart once a
week from a railway station in Tsalka, 100 kilometers (62 miles)
east of the base, Popov said.

The withdrawal is being monitored by a joint Georgian-Russian
commission set up under the March agreement.

The bulk of Russia’s weapons will return to Russia and the rest of
it will be delivered to a Russia military base in Armenia.