MILITARY HARDWARE FROM RUSSIA BASE IN BATUMI MOVED TO RUSSIA

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
July 19, 2007 Thursday 07:29 AM EST

A train carrying 700 tons of military hardware and property from the
Russian military base in Batumi left on Thursday Batumi for Russia,
an officer from the Russian base command told Tass.

The train travels across the Georgian-Azerbaijani border. According
to the officer, this year this is the tenth train with hardware and
property from the Batumi base going to Russia. On July 26, another
train will go to Russia and in August four trains will withdraw
Russian military hardware to the Russian base in Gyumri (Armenia).

In line with Russian-Georgian agreements, the base in Batumi will be
shut down before October 1, 2008.

As for the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki, its facilities
were handed over to the Georgian Defence Ministry late in June. All
armaments and military hardware were moved in 2005-2007 to the Russian
military base in Gyumri and to Russia.