MOSCOW, June 7 (AVN) - Major General Alexander Popov, deputy airborne commander in charge of peacekeeping forces, arrived in Gudauta, Abkhazia, on Thursday together with a group of officers of the Defence Ministry troops headquarters and military communications service.
The main aim of the trip is to control disbandment and withdrawal the 50th Russian military base located in Gudauta, Lieutenant General Nikolai Staskov, Airborne chief-of-staff, told the Military News Agency. The base's main unit is the 10th paratrooper regiment of the airborne peacekeeping troops which is to be disbanded as well. Another aim is to hammer out disagreements with the Abkhazian leadership over safe movement of military trains through the republic's territory to Russia.
Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Kvashnin and Airborne Commander Georgy Shpak have ordered to disband the base from June 6 to 20. According to Staskov, the first train with equipment and ammo was supposed to leave Gudauta on Wednesday evening but it was delayed due to lack of co-ordination in technical issues with the Abkhazian leadership.
The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty and the Russian-Georgian agreements on military issues say that the base should be disbanded and withdrawn to Russia by July 1 this year. Heavy ordnance, 100mm and larger-calibre artillery systems, 78 combat vehicles and 11 artillery systems of the base were taken to Russia by military trains in December 2000.