ay-abkhazia-to-host-russian-bases/
FEATURE-Breaka way Abkhazia to host Russian bases
Denis Dyomkin
Reuters North American News Service
Feb 06, 2009 05:33 EST
SUKHUMI, Georgia, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Georgia’s separatist region of
Abkhazia plans to sign a deal allowing Russia to build two new
military bases there despite protests from the European Union and the
United States, Abkhaz officials said.
Abkhazia threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s and hopes the Russian
bases will help guarantee its independence from Tbilisi. Only Russia
and Nicaragua have recognised Abkhazia as a sovereign state.
Moscow’s military presence is already visible in Abkhazia, an
impoverished area running along the Black Sea coast.
A military unit, complete with huge radars, army tents and flying the
flag of the Russian air force, has been deployed near the resort town
of Gudauta where Moscow plans to revive a Soviet-era air base, a
Reuters reporter saw.
Abkhaz Deputy Defence Minister Garry Kupalba said a military treaty
with Russia could be signed for a 25-year period and include the
training of Abkhaz officers in Russia.
"Great nations should undertake obligations to safeguard the security
of small states," he told Reuters.
SERIOUS VIOLATION
Georgia sent troops to try to retake another separatist region —
South Ossetia — last August, triggering a brief war with Russia.
Moscow has pledged to station 7,600 soldiers in the two pro-Russian
separatist areas "to prevent a repeat of military aggression by
Tbilisi".
The European Union said a build-up of Russia’s military presence in
the breakaway regions would be "a serious violation of the principle
of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity" and would go
against the spirit of the EU-brokered ceasefire which ended the August
war.
But Moscow’s military preparations are going ahead.
Russian contract sergeants with heavy knapsacks throng a border pass
to Abkhazia. Numerous trucks and military police cars speed along a
road snaking through the mountains. Two Russian warships patrol the
sea near the region’s palm tree-lined capital Sukhumi.
Moscow is keen to re-establish its military influence in the territory
of the former Soviet Union and wants new bases abroad, while pressing
its ally Kyrgyzstan to shut down a U.S. air base there [ID:nL6133134].
A spokesman for the Abkhaz leadership said last week Sukhumi expects
to sign a deal in a few months allowing Russia to establish a naval
base in Ochamchire, at the border with Georgia proper, and an air base
in Gudauta near Russia.
Russia rents military bases in ex-Soviet nations Ukraine and
Tajikistan, and Abkhaz leaders say a military treaty with Moscow could
set similar terms.
"This would be in line with realistic, normal and civilised
relations," separatist Vice-President Raul Khadzhimba said.
Kupalba said thousands of Russian troops in the region could prop up
stability and help ensure the success of the 2014 Winter Olympics
which Moscow will host in Sochi, a few miles from Abkhazia’s border
with Russia.
BLACK SEA BASE?
Abkhazia, heavily reliant on Russia’s financial support, has also
touted Ochamchire as a replacement for the base in Ukraine’s
Sevastopol which hosts Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The fleet, stationed in Sevastopol for more than two centuries, is to
leave Ukraine in 2017 when the lease expires. Kiev, which wants closer
ties with the West, will not renew it.
But Abkhazia’s deputy foreign minister Maxim Gvindzhia has doubts,
pointing to the size of the Black Sea Fleet’s infrastructure and the
families of its service personnel.
"This (Fleet’s move) is unrealistic," Gvindzhia said. "This means we
would have to resettle half of Sevastopol to Abkhazia.
Gvindzhia also said he did not rule out a scenario under which the
question of the Russian bases could be used as a bargaining chip in
Moscow’s icy relations with Washington.
Moscow’s ties with Washington sank to a post-Soviet low in August over
the war in South Ossetia. But the new administration of U.S. President
Barack Obama has indicated it may not pursue two of the thorniest
issues — NATO expansion and a European anti-missile system — with
the same vigour as its predecessor.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday she hoped for
a more constructive relationship with Russia [ID:nN05398540].
"If Russia changes its mind and does not deploy a military base, this
could be caused only by a certain process of thawing relations with
Georgia and between Russia and the West," Gvindzhia said. (Writing by
Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Source: Reuters North American News Service