Russia has finished its plan for 2006 of taking its military forces out of Georgia. On Tuesday, the last Russian military column left Georgia from its 62 military basement in Tsalka. The mentioned column was the 12th column and had 3 tanks, 11 zenith bombers and 300 tons of weapons. Generally, in 2006 Russia took 727 military units and 6 tons of weapons out of Georgia. All the mentioned processes were done in spite of the fact that it was said that there might be disagreement and protests by the citizens of Javakhk, since most of them worked in those military basements.
Georgia doesn’t hide its satisfaction concerning the fulfillment of the responsibilities to take the Russian military forces out of Georgia. “If Russia were able to do all our arrangements in a duly manner like this one, we wouldn’t have so many problems in our relationship”, said the speaker of the Georgian parliament, Nino Burjanadze. Nevertheless, next year this process may not be done so easily. The problem is that Russia is going to dissolve its 12th military basement in Batumi. According to Russian General-Major Andrey Popov, the situation in Batumi differs from the situation in Akhalkalak because it is very close to Tsalka, which is the point from where the vehicles are moving to Russia. “The requirements of the Georgian police concerning the movement of the Russian cars are very strict. Besides that, Batumi is a resort center and in high tourist seasons there may be problems and we should take into account those problems too”, said Popov to journalists. According to him, those issues have been sent to the Russian regional military board for consideration, after which they will discuss those issues with Georgia.
Generally, in 2007 they are going to transport over 400 containers with weapons and military facilities. “In 2007, the capacity of the weapons to be transported will be almost the same than this year, provided that Azerbaijan will provide its territory to transport those things”, said Popov. According to him, they are going to take all the heavy facilities out of Batumi, and as well as close the military basement in Akhalkalak by December 1. “After closing it the staff will move to Batumi, because there is lack of specialists there since Georgia doesn’t let this lack be filled by specialists from Russia. We are going to start transporting those facilities as of March and are going to finish it in September-October”, said Popov.
Generally, in 2006 Russia took 727 military facility units and 6 tones of weapons out of Georgia. A part of the facilities was transported to Armenia, Gyumri city. Besides that, Popov says that they have given a lot of construction materials that they didn’t need to Georgia. “Before October we will give them as well as a rest house in Makhinjuari region of Ajaria and the military district that we have in Batumi”, said Popov to journalists.
As for Georgia, it is accepting different military high ranked army officials from the U.S. After the visit of the American representing delegation that met with Irakli Okurashvili and “praised” their relations, Deputy General of American military forces in Europe, General William Word visited Georgia as well. During his meeting with the Georgian speaker he thanked them for their participation in the Western military actions. As for Nino Burjanadze, she said that their relations with NATO are very important for Georgia. Nino Burjanadze said that for solving some problems in Georgia it is very important for them to transform their relationship with NATO from the existing status to an ID status (Intensive Dialogue). “It is very important to have intensive dialogue with NATO since Russia continues to prevent the euro integration of Georgia”, said the Georgian speaker according to the web page of the Georgian parliament.
Mr. Word is going to meet as well as with the defense ministry high ranked officials and sign a document on prolonging the second program of “Stability operation”, which is being implemented in the framework of the U.S. assistance to the Georgian army. According to the mentioned program, some separate military troops will be given with military facilities.