Moscow Thinks Closing Bases In Abkhazia Good For Relations With Georgia

Moscow thinks that if Russia fulfils its obligations assumed in Stambul, it will improve relations between Russia and Georgia, sources in the Information and Press Department of the Foreign Ministry said. In the last few days, the withdrawal of military assets and the personnel from the former Russian base in Gudauta (on the territory of the self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia) was completed. Officials in the Foreign Ministry stressed that now the base in Gudauta is dismantled not only on paper, but also de facto. This "dispels certain claims and concerns on behalf of the Georgian side," the officials said. They also remarked that a series of infrastructure items of the former Russian military base in Gudauta will, as before, be used in the interests of the CIS Collective Forces for peace-keeping effort in the zone of Georgia-Abkhazia conflict.