Last Russian army trucks to leave Tbilisi Saturday
by: Eka Mekhuzla
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
December 22, 2006 Friday 07:57 PM EST
The Russian army group in Transcaucasia on Saturday will complete the
withdrawal of motor vehicles and other assets of its Tbilisi garrison
from Georgia. Sources at the army group’s headquarters said a convoy
of five trucks will head for the Russian military base in Gyumri,
in neighboring Armenia.
Most of the garrison’s assets and armaments left Georgia on November 16
through December 14 by four trains – two bound for Armenia, and two,
for Russia. Several truck convoys carrying assets and equipment were
dispatched to Gyumri.
As for the garrison’s personnel, most troops had been taken out of
Georgia by trucks or by train earlier.
Another group of Russian military and their families – some 40 people –
will board a bus for Gyumri.
Georgia will take over the facilities the Russian garrison had used
in Tbilisi by December 25.
The early pullout of the Tbilisi garrison was ordered by the Russian
Defense Ministry.
The Russian base in Batumi will be closed down by October 1, 2008,
and that in Akhalkalaki, by October 1, 2007.