TIBILSI (Armenpress)–Georgia expressed disappointment on Wednesday regarding the Russian Foreign Ministry’s announcement of its failure to pullout of the Russian Gudauta military base in Georgia–which was due on July 1.
Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Temur Loria stated that implementing the Gudauta pullout is realistic and can be done by using military-cargo airplanes. In an interview to Prime News–Loria mentioned that the Gudauta airport is can accept IL-76 cargo planes–which are capable of transporting all the Russian military equipment out of the area. The Georgian official said this is only one of the alternate solutions being suggested to the Russia’s.
According to an OSCE decision–Russia must have liquidated the base as of July 1. However–the Russia’s say they have failed to do so–claiming the base is being heavily surrounded by the local population. On Tuesday–the Russian Foreign Ministry called on Georgia to cooperate–pointing out that the failure of the pullout from the Gudauta military base was due to the problem of the local population.
According to ITAR-TASS –Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Valeri Loshchin has left for Sukhumi for further negotiations with Abkhazian government officials and Georgian UN representatives–trying to regulate the situation around the Gudauta military pullout.
Several Georgian youth organizations held protests on Wednesday near the Russian embassy in Tibilisi. Over 50 people demanded the pullout of the military base as soon as possible.