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http://www.russiajournal.ru/news/index.shtml?nd=12736#n12736 The Russia Journal 23:03 [Sunday 14th April, 2002] Georgia holds military exercises -Georgia has conducted large-scale military exercises under NATO auspices in recent years, but last week's exercises were the largest the country had held on its own. MOSCOW (Associated Press)- The impoverished military of former Soviet Georgia, gearing up for the arrival of U.S. troops who will train Georgians to fight terrorists, has wrapped up its largest-ever exercises in a Black Sea port. About 3,000 servicemen from the army, air force and navy took part in the maneuvers in Poti, which included 12 ships donated from Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Ukraine to replace Soviet-era ships that Russia withdrew from the port after the 1991 collapse of the USSR. The 17,000-member Georgian military has also received aid from the United States, in the form of helicopters and support for the border guard force. Boosting that cooperation to a new level, the United States announced in February that it would send military instructors to help train Georgian troops to fight terrorists as part of the international anti-terror campaign. U.S. officials have said terrorists may be hiding in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge on the border with breakaway Chechnya. No date for the U.S. troops' arrival has been announced. The last day of the military exercises Friday was almost derailed by a standoff between Georgian troops and Russian peacekeepers in a gorge in the breakaway Abkhazia region. The Russian peacekeepers began withdrawing Saturday from the Kodori Gorge, but tensions remained high between Russia and Georgia over the decade-old Abkhazia conflict. Georgia has conducted large-scale military exercises under NATO auspices in recent years, but last week's exercises were the largest the country had held on its own. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
