ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
August 9, 2007 Thursday 01:50 AM EST

Train with Russian military equipment leaves Georgia for Armenia

TBILISI, August 9

A train with 10 units of automobile equipment, 17 trailers and
material property of the Russian base in Batumi weighing a total of
200 tonnes has been sent to the Russian military base Gyumri in
Armenia on Thursday, a representative of the command of the Group of
Russian Forces (GRF) in the Transcaucasus told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.

According to him, all the equipment and property “were delivered
beforehand to the cargo railway station of Batumi and loaded on a
train consisting of 21 cars which headed for Armenia at night
today.” The GRF representative said that the train would cross the
Georgian-Armenian border on Thursday afternoon and continue its
movement to Gyumri.

As the GRF representative said, in the current year, another four
trains and one motor convoy will take property and equipment of the
base in Batumi from Georgia to the base in Gumri in Armenia. In the
period from May to late July, 11 trains took equipment and property
from the base in Batumi from Georgia to Russia (via Azerbaijan).

Under the Georgian-Russian accords, the Russian military base in
Batumi should be closed before October 1, 2008.

At the end of June, the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki was
transferred to the Georgian Defence Ministry.