Russia and Abkhazia to sing 49-year base accord

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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"Work on the agreement is coming to a close, the document will soon be ready and it will be signed in the nearest time," Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh told the Interfax news agency. "This document stipulates the stationing of the Russian base in the Gudauta district of Abkhazia for a term of 49 years," he added, according to Agence France-Presse.

Bagapsh did not give further details but he said earlier this year that the two sides had reached an agreement in principle for the creation of a base for ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Abkhaz port of Ochamchire. The Abkhaz leader also said that several Russian battleships would help maintain order on the Abkhazia-Georgia border. "The projects are not expected to be too costly as all the infrastructure remains from the Soviet times and only repairs are needed," the Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper quoted him as saying.

Russia's plans to keep thousands of troops in Abkhazia and other breakaway region of South Ossetia have angered Tbilisi and its Western allies, who say it violates the ceasefire that ended the Russia-Georgia war last August.