GEORGIA’S HARD-EARNED CHRISTMAS PRESENT: RUSSIAN MILITARY OUT OF TBILISI
by Vladimir Socor
Eurasia Daily Monitor — The Jamestown Foundation
January 2, 2007 — Volume 4, Issue 1
On Christmas Day, December 25, 2006, the last personnel of Russia’s
garrison in Tbilisi and the rump Headquarters of the Group of Russian
Forces in the Transcaucasus (GRVZ) pulled out of Georgia’s capital
and of the country altogether. Their unwilling, though ultimately
precipitate, withdrawal crowns 15 years of Georgian efforts toward
this goal. Moreover, the evacuation brings to a close more than 200
years of the Russian garrisoning of Tbilisi. The imperial Russian
army under General Ivan Lazarev occupied Tbilisi in November 1799,
using the invasion route from Ossetia (Itar-Tass, December 24).
The GRVZ’s last commander, Major-General Andrei Popov, announced on
December 23 that the Russian Headquarters and garrison in Tbilisi
"cease to exist as of today" (Rossiya TV, December 23). On that day,
Popov and Georgia’s Deputy Defense Minister Levan Nikolaishvili
signed the acts of handover and acceptance for the headquarters and
associated buildings and installations. The sprawling complex is
located on prime real estate grounds in downtown Tbilisi, in
proximity to the main government institutions. Georgian authorities
intend to auction it off at an anticipated starting price of $20
million for civilian development.
Almost 400 Russian military personnel, some 100 armored vehicles of
various types, and other equipment were evacuated from Tbilisi during
November and December. Two convoys headed for Russia via Azerbaijan
and another two convoys proceeded to the Russian base at Gyumri in
Armenia (Interfax, December 22-24). The Russian arsenals at Gyumri
are steadily growing through transfers of heavy weaponry from Russian
bases in Georgia. The Georgian-Russian agreements prohibit the
transfer of that weaponry to Armenian forces by Russia. However,
compliance with the ban and indeed the actual basing location of that
hardware is unverifiable.
Popov will now head an operational group of 13 officers, who
relocated to Batumi on December 25, to coordinate from there the
ultimate closure of the Batumi and Akhalkalaki bases. That process is
governed by the May 30, 2005, Joint Statement and March 31, 2006,
implementing agreements, which were signed, respectively, by Russia’s
Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and Ground Forces
Commander-in-Chief, Colonel-General Alexei Maslov, with Georgia’s
then-minister of foreign affairs Salome Zourabichvili and then-first
deputy defense minister Mamuka Kudava.
Under those documents, Russia is to complete the removal of its
forces from Akhalkalaki by October 2007 and from Batumi before the
end of 2008. Pending those deadlines, the two bases are "functioning
in a withdrawal mode," with the evacuation in progress under a
precise timetable, with interim deadlines to be met (see EDM, June 3,
2005; April 4, 2006).
Those same documents stipulated the closure of the GRVZ’s Tbilisi
Headquarters by the end of 2008, as the final step in the withdrawal
process. However, the Kremlin unexpectedly decided to start and
complete the pullout from Tbilisi two years ahead of schedule. Under
a worst-case hypothesis, Moscow may have calculated that its Tbilisi
headquarters and garrison could have become hostages in the event of
hostilities and that their evacuation gives Moscow somewhat greater
leeway to initiate a political-military crisis.
Addressing students at Tbilisi State University on Christmas Day,
December 25, President Mikheil Saakashvili termed it a historic day,
with Georgia’s capital now finally free of the Russian military
presence. He gratefully acknowledged that the pullout occurred "in a
relatively civilized and orderly manner." Saakashvili renewed an
earlier invitation to Russian officers to stay in Georgia by
individual choice and take up the country’s citizenship. However,
even after the Batumi and Akhalkalaki bases are closed — he pointed
out — the withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia will only be
complete when they leave Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Rustavi-2 TV,
December 25; Civil Georgia, December 26).
In a year-end address to a business audience, Saakashvili reviewed
overall Russia-Georgia relations in 2006: "Their idea was to shake
Georgia until it finally collapsed," he noted, listing: The energy
blockade in the coldest winter on record, January/February 2006; the
series of embargoes on Georgian fruit and vegetables, wines, and
mineral water; the full closure of Russia’s market and the
transportation blockade against Georgia; the orchestrated propaganda
against the country; recruitment of shadowy politicians "hoping to
return criminal chaos to Georgia;" the incidents staged in Abkhazia
and South Ossetia and the freezing of the negotiations on those
conflicts. Nevertheless, Georgia succeeded in preserving democratic
stability, rapidly developing transport infrastructure, creating
attractive conditions for business, and pursuing its Western course
(Rustavi-2 TV, December 27).
For his part, Minister of Foreign Affairs Gela Bezhuashvili in his
year-end news conference predicted that relations would become normal
when Russia accepts Georgia’s chosen Western orientation. "Accepting
your neighbor’s freedom to choose its path of development is basic to
any relationship" (Imedi TV, December 26).
–Vladimir Socor