Mr. Ivanov, who is on his way to the United States, told the media that only Russian peacekeepers are still deployed at the site of the base while all the other personnel and hardware have been pulled out. An OSCE delegation visited Gudauti some time earlier to make sure the base had been shut down. It could not formally confirm the fact to Georgia back then, however, as no officials of the Georgian Defense Ministry were present at the site, he explained.
The forthcoming OSCE mission to Gudauti will be the final one, Mr. Ivanov said. Whether Georgian Defense Ministry officials should join in is to be decoded at negotiations between the governments of Georgia and Abkhazia, he added.
Russia still has two active military bases in Georgia-in Batumi and Akhalkalaki. But these will remain beyond the scope of the OSCE delegation's upcoming inspection, Mr. Ivanov said.
