MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Two ships from Russia's Black Sea Fleet will arrive in Batumi, the capital of Georgia's northern autonomy of Adzharia, to withdraw military hardware from a military base on August 10, the Russian Black Sea Fleet said Monday. The hardware will be loaded onto the ships from the 12th Russian base by August 15. After that, it will be delivered to the Russian port of Tuapse, where a Black Sea Fleet naval base will be established.
Forty vehicles, including 20 tanks, will be withdrawn from the Batumi base by sea.
Russia is withdrawing its military bases from Georgia following a May 30 agreement between the two countries' foreign ministers, Salome Zurabishvili and Sergei Lavrov. The pullout will be completed in 2008.
