Article Posted on : - Sep 16, 2009

Russia will station its troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as per the deal.

MOSCOW (PTI): Russia has signed agreements with Georgia's two breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia that will allow it to maintain military bases in these rebel regions.

According to Defence Ministry spokesman, the 49-year base deal was signed by Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his Abkhazian counterparts Merab Kishmariya and Yuri Tanayev on Tuesday.

“In accordance with the agreements, Russia has the right to build, use and improve military infrastructure and military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and create and maintain joint military contingents (in both republics) in times of peace and war,” Defence Ministry spokesman Alexei Kuznetsov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

The agreements allow stationing of 1,700 Russian troops at Gudauta base in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali in South Ossetia.

The base agreements will be in force for 49 years, with the option to renew them successively for five years at a time after that.

Besides the troops, Moscow would also deploy mountain warfare capable T-62 tanks, light armoured vehicles, military aircraft and S-300 air defence missiles.

Earlier, Russia's FSB security service, which controls border troops and coast guards, declared that its ships would intercept any vessel violating maritime border of Abkhazia in the Black Sea.

Last August, following the five-day Caucasus war with Georgia after Tbilisi's botched attempt to regain control over quasi-independent province of South Ossetia, Moscow recognised their independence and signed security pact.

Georgia, the US ally with NATO ambitions, has protested Moscow's moves and a recent non-binding UN General Assembly resolution adopted with slim margin, has called for the restoration of sovereignty over the provinces de facto independent since the Soviet collapse in 1991.