SOVIET WWII VICTORY SYMBOLS WITHDRAWN FROM GEORGIA

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
July 25, 2007 Wednesday 07:33 AM EST

Another freight train loaded with military hardware belonging to the
12th Russian military base stationed in Batumi is leaving Georgia
for Russia on July 26.

The train numbering 32 cars and platforms will transport 39 vehicles,
one trailer, artillery ammunition and lubricants to Russia.

"Russia’s WWII victory symbols that remained on the territory of the
Russian base- WWII tanks T-34. SAU -100 and artillery gun ZIS-3,
will be withdrawn from Georgia along with the Russian hardware,"
Aide to Russia’s Ground Troops Commander Colonel Igor Konashenkov
told Tass Wednesday.

Another train, which is the 14th in a row, was scheduled to leave
Georgia in the beginning of August, Colonel Konashenkov said.

Until the end of this year six more trains and a truck convoy will
pull out the property of the Batumi base from Georgia and bring it to
the 102nd Russian base in Gyumri in Armenia, Colonel Konashenkov said.

Russia fulfills its obligations on the withdrawal of military hardware
from Georgia in full and ahead of schedule, he stressed.

In the end of June Russia’s 62nd base in Akhalkalaki was turned over
to the Georgian Defense Ministry, despite an agreement between Moscow
and Tbilisi envisaging that the base was to have been turned over to
Georgia by October 1, Colonel Konashenkov said.

The agreement envisages that the Batumi base is to be closed altogether
in 2008.