Breakaway Abkhazia Wants to Take Over Gudauta Base After Russians’ Withdrawal

(Tbilisi February 20, 2003. Civil Georgia) – Deputy Defense Minister of the unrecognized Abkhaz Republic said today that the Abkhaz armed forces will use the military base in Gudauta after the Russian peacekeepers? leave the base.

?Abkhaz armed forces need Gudauta military base,? Russian news agency Iterfax reports quoting de facto Deputy Defense Minister of Abkhazia Gary Kupalba.

Russian and Georgian authorities held talks in Moscow on February 18-19 regarding the Russian military bases deployed in Georgia.

Russia claims that it has already withdrew its military hardware from Gudauta in accordance to the 1999 OSCE Istanbul treaty, and the base is only used only by the Russian peacekeepers, deployed in Abkhazian conflict zone under CIS auspices, for the logistic means. 

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