TBILISI, January 23 (AVN) - Georgia has denied access to its ports to the Russian vessels loaded with cargo necessary for military bases withdrawal and regular functioning of the Russian troops group in the Trans-Caucasus, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Tbilisi said on Tuesday.
Two large landing ships and a towboat of the Black Sea Fleet were to leave the Russian port of Novorossiysk yet on January 18, the spokesman told the Military News Agency. However the Russian embassy received a note from the Georgian Foreign Ministry saying that the ships are denied access to the port of Batumi.
According to the ministry, transportation of food and material by those vessels is not envisaged by bilateral agreements achieved at the Istanbul summit in November 1999, and the cargo cannot be exempted from customs fees.
The ministry asked Russia to specify what agreements it meant when speaking about Georgia's obligations to let the cargo in without customs clearance. In case no such agreements are found, Georgia will only allow the ships to enter its territorial waters if Russia agrees to their customs clearance, payment of taxes and duties envisaged by Georgian legislation and application of border control to all people involved in the vessels' unloading.
The ambiguity in naval cargo supplies badly affects logistics support of the Russian troops in the Trans-Caucasus, a spokesman for the group headquarters told the Agency. Cargo transportation by car effectively stopped after introduction of visa control on the Russia-Georgia border, and the airlift between the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow and the Tbilisi suburb Vaziani is not functioning either.