Group of the Russian Armed Forces in Transcaucasia
The Group of the Russian Armed Forces in Transcaucasia - GRVZ ( Russian Группа российских войск в Закавказье - ГРВЗ ) is a major association of the Russian armed forces . It operated military bases in Georgia and Armenia for 17 years . After the bases in Georgia were closed in 2006 and 2007, it only has one base in Gyumri , Armenia.
structure
The GRVZ was created in the early 1990s from the Transcaucasian Military District - ZakVO (Russian Закавказский военный округ) of the Soviet Army . The group originally included the headquarters and staff in Tbilisi (Georgia), the 12th military base in Batumi (Georgia), the 50th military base in Gudauta ( Abkhazia / Georgia ), the 62nd military base in Akhalkalaki (Georgia), the 102nd military base in Gudauta ( Abkhazia / Georgia ) . military base in Gyumri (Armenia) and the 137th military base in Vaziani (Georgia) and other smaller formations and units as an independent helicopter - squadron and the 142nd tank repair factory in Tbilisi.
Meddling in Georgian conflicts
Immediately after Georgia's independence in 1991, the GRVZ began to interfere in the country's internal conflicts. According to a 2009 report by the Georgian government, the 643rd missile-carrying air regiment of the Russian armed forces supplied the Abkhaz separatists with weapons, ammunition, military vehicles and food in August 1992. In February 1993, complained President Eduard Shevardnadze , the 128th motorized infantry regiment from Gyumri have on the part of secessionist guerrillas in the Abkhaz civil war intervened. Eyewitnesses reported that Abkhaz militants were trained at the 50th military base in Gudauta, and that Russian units fought on the part of the militants in the civil war against Georgia from day one. According to other reports, the 145th Motorized Infantry Division was at the same time defending Ajarian’s borders with Georgia.
At the end of August 1995, the GRVZ helped Georgian State Security Minister Igor Giorgadze to flee Georgia. He was accused of organizing an assassination attempt on President Eduard Shevardnadze and was able to escape his arrest by fleeing to a GRVZ military base. From there he was taken to Russia.
Closure of bases
Georgia's government saw the GRVZ at an early stage as a threat to state independence and, in February 1993, obtained a contract guarantee that all Russian troops would leave the country by 1995. But just seven months later, an uprising in the Mingrelia region led by Georgia's first president, Swiad Gamsachurdia , put the government in Tbilisi under such pressure that it temporarily needed the Russian armed forces to help. In return for the military aid, Russia enforced a military cooperation agreement in 1995 that allowed the GRVZ to station a maximum of 25,000 soldiers on four military bases in Georgia for an initial period of 25 years.
At the end of the 1990s, Georgia again demanded that the GRVZ be withdrawn. On November 17, 1999, Russia undertook in a joint declaration at the OSCE summit in Istanbul to conclude a treaty on the duration and function of the Russian military bases in Georgia the following year. However, that did not happen. In 2001 the military base in Wasiani and the military base in Gudauta were closed. The base in Wasiani was handed over to the Georgian army, the base in Gudauta remained in Russian hands under the command of the CIS Peacekeeping Forces (CISPKR) in Abkhazia.
It was not until May 30, 2005 that the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Georgia, Sergei Lavrov and Salome Zurabishvili, agreed on the gradual withdrawal of the GRVZ from Georgia. On March 31, 2006, an agreement was signed in Sochi on the terms and conditions for the temporary functioning and withdrawal of Russian military bases and other military facilities of the Group of Russian Armed Forces in Transcaucasia, which are stationed on the territory of Georgia . It stipulated that all GRVZ facilities in Georgia should be withdrawn by December 31, 2008.
As planned, the headquarters in Tbilisi were closed on December 31, 2006 and the military base in Akhalkalaki on October 1, 2007. The base in Batumi, which was scheduled to close on October 1, 2008, was closed early in November 2007. No stipulations were made about the military base in Gudauta used by CISPKR.
The future of the GRVZ is uncertain. Officially, it only consists of the 102nd base in Gyumri.
literature
- Colin Robinson: The Russian Ground Forces Today: A Structural Status Examination . In: The Journal of Slavic Military Studies . Vol. 18, issue 2 (June 2005)
- Michael Mandelbaum: The New Russian Foreign Policy . Council on Foreign Relations Press, New York 1998, ISBN 0-87609-213-X
- David Z. Papava: Russia's national interests towards the caucasus: implications for Georgian sovereignty . Naval Postgraduate School, Springfield, Va. 2004
- Report of the Georgian government on the aggression of the Russian Federation against Georgia (PDF file), (English; 237 kB)