SUKHUMI, July 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russian railroad troops held a ceremony Wednesday to open a repaired section of railroad in Abkhazia, before heading for home after a two-month deployment in the separatist Georgian republic.
"The remaining 250 people are leaving Abkhazia today. The troops are heading for a garrison in the Gumarya settlement [near Adler, off Russia's Black Sea coast]," said Ivan Boboshin, an aide to the commander of the unit that carried out the repairs.
Another 150 soldiers, who had repaired the bridges on the 55-km (34-mile) section of the railroad linking the capital Sukhumi with Ochamchira, left the region earlier this week, Boboshin said.
He added that Abkhazia could seek more assistance from Russian railroad troops.
That possibility was not ruled out by the commander of the railroad troops. "No such task has yet been set, but if Russian authorities give the relevant command, we will fulfill it," Lt. Gen. Sergei Klimets told reporters at the ceremony.
Russian railroad troops arrived in the self-proclaimed republic on May 31 as part of the country's aid program to support the region, a move that prompted Tbilisi to accuse Moscow of preparing for military action.
During the operation, the troops restored 50 km of track, replacing around 12,000 railway ties and repairing some 20 railway bridges and tunnels. The work, carried out in cooperation with Russian Railways, had originally been scheduled to end on August 6.
In April, then-Russian President Vladimir Putin called for closer links with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another Georgian breakaway republic, provoking anger in Tbilisi, which accused Moscow of trying to annex the regions.
Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed in the subsequent hostilities. The two sides signed a ceasefire in 1994 in Moscow.
