MOSCOW, August 16 (RIA Novosti, Andrei Malyshkin) -- Russia has honored all of its 2005 obligations on withdrawing its military bases from Georgia, a senior officer said Tuesday.
Colonel Vladimir Kuparadze, the deputy commander of Russia's troops in the South Caucasus, said: "We have pulled out what we were supposed to withdraw in 2005. Yesterday, the fifth column ... crossed the Russian-Georgian border. It was the last column to be withdrawn this year."
The HQ of Russia's group of forces in the South Caucasus said 53 vehicles, 42 trailers, and tons of military hardware had been withdrawn from Georgia. Moreover, he said materiel from Russia's former 12th military base in Batumi, Georgia, had arrived in Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiisk and been unloaded.
Kuparadze said Russian and Georgian diplomats were drawing up a schedule for pulling out the rest of the equipment from two Russian bases. "After this document is signed, the military will begin the second stage of the withdrawal," he said.
The deputy commander also said that Georgia had not yet started repairing the bridges necessary for withdrawing Russia's hardware of the 62nd military base in Akhalkalaki, which is close to the Armenian border. So Russia cannot deliver the equipment to Batumi for further shipment by sea.
"It would be easier for us to pull out the hardware and the personnel by train, and not by sea from Batumi, but Georgia has not yet allowed us to send trains via Abkhazia [a self-proclaimed republic], which is the only railroad route," Kuparadze said.
Under a joint statement made by the Russian and Georgian foreign ministers on May 30, Russia must withdraw its military presence from Georgia in 2008. The bulk of Russia's weapons will return to Russia, and the rest of it will be delivered to a Russia military base in Gumri, Armenia.
