| Abkhazia is preparing for unprecedented exercises Abkhazia is preparing to conduct military maneuvers that will be the largest in the 12-year history of won independence. Command and staff operational-tactical exercises will take place in August, at the height of the holiday season, at several training grounds in the unrecognized republic. Five thousand military personnel and reservists will be involved in them.
First Deputy Minister of Defense, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Abkhazia, Lieutenant General Anatoly Zaitsev, told Vremya Novostey that on June 14-16 in Sukhumi, in preparation for the maneuvers, operational mobilization training of command personnel will be held, in which commanders and chiefs of staff of reserve brigades. In total, over 120 officers will gather.
In April, Abkhazia already conducted exercises involving three thousand military and reservists. But in Sukhumi they fear forceful pressure from Tbilisi, and these worries are growing as Georgia draws closer to NATO. In Abkhazia they remind that in November three thousand Georgian commandos will be stationed in Western Georgia, the training of which has begun under the new program by US instructors. Georgia's national security concept, which will be approved by parliament and signed by the president this month, states that territorial fragmentation is the main state problem.
Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Georgiy Khaindrava, commenting to VN on the Abkhaz war games, said that “constant exercises in Abkhazia would be impossible without Russian money and the help of Russian specialists”: “After all, the Abkhazians complain that their treasury is empty, but For some reason the teachings are found.” “And at the same time,” said Mr. Khaindrava, “the Abkhazians refuse to open a UN human rights office in the Gali region (a place of compact residence of Georgians - Ed .) and do not allow UN civilian police to go there.”
The parties will consider all these issues, along with the possibility of restoring railway communication through Abkhazia, at negotiations in Moscow under the auspices of the UN on June 15-16. Georgia will be represented by Georgiy Khaindrava, Abkhazia will be represented by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the unrecognized republic, Sergei Shamba. Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi |
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