U.S. Navy Arrives in Georgia, Russian Troops Stay

BATUMI, Georgia (Reuters) - A U.S. navy warship arrived in Georgia's main Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday with humanitarian aid as Russia ignored Western demands to remove its remaining troops from Georgia's heartland.

Russia says the residual troops are peacekeepers needed to avert further bloodshed and to protect the people of Georgia's separatist, pro-Moscow provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia two days after Moscow said it had wrapped up its withdrawal.

On Georgia's main east-west rail line, a fuel train exploded on Sunday after apparently hitting a landmine.

The conflict erupted on August 7-8 when Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia. A Russian counter-offensive pushed into Georgia proper, crossing its east-west highway and nearing a Western-backed oil pipeline.

Russian troops also moved into Western Georgia from Abkhazia, another breakaway region on the Black Sea. Hundreds of people were killed, tens of thousands displaced and housing and infrastructure wrecked in the fighting.

In Batumi, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of another port, Poti, where Russian troops are still present, the USS McFaul arrived with aid for the tens of thousands displaced by the conflict.

Underscoring U.S. support for Georgia, two other U.S. ships are due to follow the guided missile destroyer to the port. The U.S. has already delivered some aid by military cargo plane but is now shipping in beds and food.

Russia's Black Sea fleet flagship vessel, the Moskva, is no longer in the same area, having returned to its base in Ukraine on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported.

Georgian officials were assessing the scale of the damage from the fuel train blast, which could potentially disrupt a key trade route for oil exports from Azerbaijan to European markets.

Georgia: Russian Base In Batumi Enters Its Last Phase
October 09, 2006
By Nata Imedaishvili

The entrance to Russian military base No. 12 (RFE/RL)
BATUMI, Georgia, October 9, 2006 (RFE/RL) — Two families and five soldiers are all that remain of the Russian military presence in Batumi. But their time in the southwestern Georgian city on the Black Sea coast is numbered.

Russian military base No. 12, which was established as the headquarters of the Red Army’s Transcaucasus forces during the Soviet era, is soon to be evacuated in accordance with an agreement that goes into effect today.

By the end of 2008, the base will be completely closed.

Time Of Crisis

The changes come as Russian and Georgia engage in a heated dispute triggered by Georgia’s arrest of four Russian soldiers on espionage charges in late September. The incident brought to the surface a number of simmering issues — including the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

In the first days of the crisis, Russia suspended its planned withdrawal of troops in Georgia, but later recanted.

One Russian soldier manning the gate to the facility initially appears to be talkative about his service at base No. 12. He says privately that he has been stationed in Batumi for five months and will remain in Georgia for another seven months.

But when asked to put his comments on record, he quickly ends the conversation and closes the gate, saying “I haven’t been here long.”

Slated For Evacuation

Locals, however, have no such reservations about discussing the base.

A merchant who identified himself only as “Mr. Karlo” runs a small kiosk located just 10 meters from the entrance to base No. 12. The location places him in a unique position to observe the daily goings-on at the imposing structure.

“It is no longer a base. Only several soldiers are left, who will stay only until the territory is handed over. Several officers with families,” Karlo said. “They were supposed to empty the territory, and move to Khelvachauri by the end of September. But they are still here.”

That is expected to change under the terms of the new deal, which was worked out by Russian and Georgian negotiators in Sochi in late March and ratified by the Russian State Duma on October 6.
The agreement sets the terms of operation of Russian military bases and facilities in Russia, and the transit of Russian armaments across Georgian soil.

It dictates that Russian soldiers serving at base No. 12 evacuate the base and move to another Russian facility in nearby Khelvachauri before eventually being relocated to a base in Gyumri, Armenia.

Home Away From Home

Karlo says that despite the recent tension between Georgia and Russia, the local population has good relations with the soldiers who serve in Batumi.

“We help them, give them things that they pay for in installments,” Karlo said. “We have good relations, but the soldiers are somewhat... when they first arrived here, they would not receive salaries for the whole year, and were dependent on us for bread and other things. They would come and ask me for a shot of vodka — ‘Give me 100 grams of vodka, uncle Karlo.’ This is how they were. Now they have cars and money, and no longer communicate with us. However, nobody is going to insult them in any way. And they also do not behave in a provocative manner.”

Others who live nearby reveal that the families staying at the Russian base did not mingle with the local population.

“I have never been there, and have never had any relations with them,” said one woman. “I do not know who they are, be it officers’ wives or else. We have never had any relations.”

Name Of The Game

As always, it is the children who have established relations untainted by the adult game of politics and prejudice.

One Georgian boy says he and his friends often play soccer with the sons of Russian soldiers at a playing field located on the base.

“There is a field there, and we play,” he said. “Sometimes he wins, sometimes I win.”

From 2006. Irony Evident:

http://www.rferl.org/content/Article/1071901.html

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