Russian tanks detained in Georgia
Agence France Presse — English
July 16, 2005 Saturday 5:14 AM GMT
TBILISI July 16 — Georgia has detained two tanks from Russia’s
military base in Batumi for holding maneuvers on the nearby target
range without prior notification, defense ministry officials said.
“We have detained two T-71 tanks which had illegally left their
location, Russia’s 12th base, and held training maneuvers on the
Gonio range, the fact of which maneuvers had been confirmed by the
Russian base’s military chiefs,” defense and foreign ministries said
in a joint statement late Friday.
“Even though Russia’s tank divisions are not forbidden to hold
small-scale maneuvers in Gonio, the Georgian side must be informed
in advance of such,” the statement read, adding that Russians had
also violated the ban on shooting from heavy and light guns during
the tourist season.
However, the Russian base’s representative Vladimir Kuparadze denied
knowledge of any such accords, saying that “we had neither oral nor
written agreements on these issues, and we plan to call on Russian
command to adequately react to this illegal action by Georgian
military.”
Moscow and Tbilisi agreed on May 30 the approximately 3,000 servicemen
on the two bases — one in Akhalkalaki, near the Georgian-Armenian
border, the other in Batumi, on the Black Sea coast — would be put
on withdrawal status and would pullout totally by the end of 2008.