RUSSIAN DM-RUN SCHOOLS NO LONGER AVAILABLE TO GEORGIAN CITIZENS
by Tengiz Pachkoria

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 4, 2006 Wednesday

Starting from Wednesday children of Georgia’s citizens will
be deprived of the opportunity to study at any of the three
Russian-language schools of Russia’s Defence Ministry in Tbilisi,
Batumi and Akhalkalaki, a source at the headquarters of the group of
Russian troops in Transcaucasia told Itar-Tass.

"That’s the decision made by Russia’s Defence Ministry," the source
said.

"It is not ethnically motivated. It applies to the children of all
Georgian citizens – Russians, Armenians, Georgians and other ethnic
groups. From now on they will have to attend classes elsewhere,"
the source said.

To a certain extent this decision was prompted by the gradual reduction
in the number of school students, as Russian troops leave Georgia. The
Russian military base in Akhalkalaki will be closed down before
October 1, 2007, and that in Batumi, as well as the Tbilisi-based
headquarters of the group of Russian troops in Transcaucasia will
stop operating during 2008.

After the withdrawal is completed, Russia’s Defence Ministry will
close all schools it runs altogether.

Currently, Georgia has a total of 3,000 schools. Instruction in most
of them is in the official language. Along with Georgian schools,
there are about 100 Russian language ones and several hundreds of
Armenian and Azerbaijani schools.