Georgia Fully Rearmed After 2008 War, Says Top Russian General
fully-rearmed-after-2008-war-says-top-russian-gene ral/
By Asbarez Staff on Jun 5th, 2009 and filed under Georgia,
International.
MOSCOW -Russia’s top general said Georgia had fully rearmed its
military after last year’s war with Russia, news agencies reported
Friday.
The comments by Gen. Nikolai Makarov were the latest in a series of
increasingly belligerent accusations between Moscow and Tbilisi,
leading some analysts to warn that the two sides could be gearing up
for a new fight.
Makarov, chief of the Russian military’s general staff, was quoted by
ITAR-Tass and Interfax as saying that Georgia now has more weaponry
than it did before the August war.
`Events in Georgia have seriously changed the situation to the south
of our country and in many aspects of world politics. Today the
Georgian military has a greater amount of arms and equipment than it
did on the moment of the beginning of the aggression last August,’
Makarov was quoted as saying.
In Tbilisi, military officials refused to immediately comment on the
report, because Georgian Defense Minister Vasil Sikharulidze was
traveling in the United States.
The five-day war followed a buildup of tension over Russian support
for the separatist regions and pro-Western Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili’s drive for NATO membership.
Earlier this month, Sikharulidze told AP that Russia had vastly
improved communication and supply lines since last year.
Makarov also was quoted as saying that Russia’s armed forces would
hold their largest military exercises in the North Caucasus since
September-a move that will alarm Georgian officials.
Georgia, for its part, recently finished participating in NATO
exercises held on Georgian territory, as part of its effort to
eventually join the military alliance.
Russia has stubbornly opposed efforts by NATO to include former Soviet
republics or former Soviet bloc nations as part of the alliance.
Since last year, Russia has been building military bases, storage
facilities for supplies and roads in the two breakaway regions of
South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Moscow has recognized the two regions as
independent.
Georgia also maintains that 6,000 Russian troops remaining in each of
the two regions is a violation of cease-fire agreements.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
