Breakaway Abkhazia will hold the last stage of its largest ever five-day military exercises at the Nagvalou training ground in the Ochamchire district on August 19. This is the second such large-scale maneuver in the unrecognized republic in 2005.
Military exercises with the participation of 6,000 servicemen including reserve forces were launched in Abkhazia on August 15. According to Abkhaz defense minister Sultan Sosnaliev armored vehicles, artillery, the navy and air forces are participating in the maneuvers. Abkhaz troops are training to repel a sea landing operation of enemy forces – the scenario, which the Abkhaz side deems most likely Tbilisi would resort to in case of resumption of hostilities.
The Georgian side protested against the maneuvers claiming that the training area where the last stage of exercises are planned is within the zone of restricted armament. Although Alexander Kazantsev, the Chief of Staff of the Russian peacekeeping forces, admitted that the training ground in Nagvalou is located in the zone of restricted armament, the Russian peacekeepers turn a blind eye citing that the Georgian side also conducts maneuvers within this zone.
Officials in Tbilisi also alleged that these kinds of exercises are only made possible due to assistance from Russia, which as the Georgian side claims, sends both military instructors and arms to the secessionist region.
Separatist Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh denied at a news conference in Moscow on August 18 Tbilisi’s claims that Russia supplies arms to Abkhazia, but added that Abkhazia will be glad to recruit mid-ranking military, navy and border-guard officers of Russian citizenship into its armed forces. He also spoke about some details of Abkhazia’s defense policy and spending.
According to Bagapsh, “our military doctrine is of a defensive nature. We are not planning to attack anyone, but we will not allow anybody to attack us. The army is relatively small, without reserves there are 10-12 thousand troops, and the military budget represents 20-22% of the budget.”
Irakli Aladashvili, a military analyst and reporter of the Tbilisi-based weekly Kviris Palitra, says that “the figures seem over-exaggerated.”
To put these numbers in perspective: although the current number of residents of Abkhazia remains unknown, the Abkhaz government estimates that during the presidential elections in October 2004 there were a total of 120 thousand eligible voters in the region. This would mean that the active duty force (not counting reserves) represents 10% of the eligible voters, which seems an extraordinarily high number.
Abkhaz prime-minister Aleksander Ankvab told Interfax in June 2005, that 2004 budgetary revenues in Abkhazia equaled 377 million Russian Rubles – roughly 13 million USD. Ankvab said the budget might not increase significantly in 2005. Hence, according to Bagapsh’s recent statement the maximum military budget is around 2.9 million USD.
These figures cast doubts on the accuracy of statements of the Abkhazia defense minister Sultan Sosnaliev who in an interview with Kommersant denied that arms and ammunition were supplied to the Abkhaz army from Russia and argued they were bought on, as he put it on “free market.” Responding to the Kommersant’s question as to how the Abkhaz military acquired military jets (allegedly Su-25 Frogfoot), Sosnaliev responded “Well, it is a free market now! It’s only important to have money. We can buy any weapon we want. This is not a problem.”
Military Analyst Irakli Aladashvili argues, that holding the maneuvers of the kind currently underway in Abkhazia “does not cost too much.”
“These maneuvers are concentrated mainly in the Ochamchire district. They are not stretched over a large area and they last only five days, so I do not think exercises cost much to Abkhazia. But on the other hand we should take into consideration that these are the second such maneuvers this year. In April large-scale exercises were also held in Abkhazia,” Aladashvili, told Civil Georgia.
Aladashvili claims that Abkhazia could hardly afford holding two large-scale maneuvers in a period of four months with its extremely scarce budget, not without external assistance.
