RUSSIAN MILITARY WITHDRAW FROM TBILISI, HAND HQ BUILDINGS OVER TO GEORGIA
RTR Rossiya, Moscow,
Dec 23 2006
[Presenter] Russia has practically completed the withdrawal of its
military from Tbilisi. The last military facility – buildings of
the headquarters of the Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus
[GRVZ] – was handed over to the Georgian Defence Ministry today. The
country’s military police have already arrived at the location and
taken it under control.
Some 40 Russian officers and their families are leaving Tbilisi today
and moving to the Russian military base in Gyumri [in neighbouring
Armenia]. Just 15 officers of the GRVZ command staff will stay in
Georgia to manage the withdrawal of the Russian forces from the bases
in Akhalkalaki and Batumi.
[Maj-Gen Andrey Popov, captioned as the GRVZ commander] We can say that
today the Tbilisi garrison of the Russian forces ceased to exist. It
is yet another step in the implementation of the agreement on the
withdrawal of [Russian] military bases from Georgian territory. Now
we have only to evacuate the remaining part of weapons and military
hardware from the 62nd military base [in Akhalkalaki] to complete
its withdrawal in 2007 and, by the end of 2008, withdraw the 12th
military base from Batumi.