Russia Begins To Withdraw Its Armaments From Transdniestria Under Istanbul Agreement

The first trainload of armaments of the Russian task force, stationed in the breakaway Transdniestria of Moldova, on Friday left the Blizhny Khutor railroad station, near Tiraspol, Transdniestria's administrative centre. Russia thus began to implement an agreement for the withdrawal of Russian armaments from Transdniestria, signed in Istanbul. The armaments include mostly equipment and weapons covered by the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe. The first train carried 37 152-mm artillery guns. Before December 1, 125 units of combat equipment are to be sent back to Russia. Trains will leave every other day. By way of compensation, Transdniestria will receive units of equipment withdrawn from service or utilised, for example, engines of BTR-60 armoured personnel carriers, which can be used in GAZ-63 trucks. An agreement has been reached on compensation of part of the money which will be used to pay for gas received by Tiraspol, a spokesman for the Transdniestrian president has said.