MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax-AVN) - An inspection of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is about to complete supervision of the withdrawal of Russian armament and hardware from the self-proclaimed Trans-Dniestr Republic.
European inspectors have checked the departure of troop trains carrying IFVs and artillery systems from the Trans-Dniestr region and their voyage to Siberia, the Russian Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
"Russia invited two groups of OSCE inspectors from the United States and Great Britain to guarantee transparency of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Trans-Dniestr region in keeping with the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty," Major General Sergei Burutin, first deputy head of the ministry's national centre on nuclear threat reduction, told Interfax-AVN.
OSCE inspectors working in the Trans-Dniestrian capital of Tiraspol, the trains' starting point, and at terminals in Bekasovo (Moscow region), Saransk (Mordovan autonomous republic) and Kazan (Tatarstan autonomous republic) have made sure that four trains took away 125 BMP-1 and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles and Akatsia self-propelled artillery systems from the self-proclaimed republic.
"OSCE inspectors have mentioned in protocols summing up results of their activity that Russia holds firm to the CFE Treaty's requirements concerning troops withdrawal from the Trans-Dniestr region," Burutin said.