ANOTHER TRAIN WITH RUSSIAN MILITARY HARDWARE LEAVES BATUMI BASE

RIA Novosti
10:43 | 12/ 07/ 2007

TBILISI, July12 (RIA Novosti) – A train carrying military equipment
left a Russian base in Georgia early Thursday as part of a 2006 deal
on the withdrawal of Russian bases from the ex-Soviet Caucasus state,
a Russian military official said.

"The train is carrying military hardware, including 44 military
vehicles, from the 12th Russian military base in Batumi on the
Black Sea," a spokesman for the Russian Ground Forces, Colonel Igor
Konashenkov said.

He said another eight trains and a truck convoy would continue removing
military hardware from Batumi to Russia and the 102nd base in Gyumri,
Armenia, until the yearend.

Under an agreement between the former Soviet allies, Russia must
complete the removal of its base in Batumi by the end of 2008.

Russia completed the pullout of its military garrison from the Georgian
capital, Tbilisi, handing over control of its headquarters to Georgia’s
Defense Ministry last December, and formally handed over its military
base at Akhalkalaki in southern Georgia to Tbilisi in June, ahead of
the October 2007 deadline.

Russia’s continued military presence in the South Caucasus nation
has been a major source of controversy in bilateral relations with
Georgia. The country’s leadership has repeatedly accused Russian
authorities of providing support to separatists in the breakaway
Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Tbilisi is
determined to bring back under its control.