Rebels offer Russia military base

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1778751

May 14, 2008 8:43 AM

Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region wants Russia to open a military base on its soil, the separatists' leader said in a proposal likely to anger Georgia and alarm its Western allies.

Georgia has already accused Moscow of trying to annex Abkhazia, a lush strip of land on the Black Sea coast, and the ex-Soviet state's Western backers have expressed concern that Russia's support for the separatists could stoke tension.

"We are in favour of Russia having a presence here in the military sense, a base here...It will give us protection," Sergei Bagapsh, president of Abkhazia's separatist administration, said in an interview.

Russia has given no indication it is prepared to establish a military presence in Abkhazia, though it has said if Georgia attacks it will respond, by military means if necessary.