Abkhaz Rail Repair to End in July

Units of the Russian Railway Forces will finish the repair of the Ochamchire-Sokhumi railway in breakaway Abkhazia by the end of the month, a Russian Ministry of Defense official said on July 24.

Interfax news agency reported, quoting Russian MoD spokesperson Alexander Drobishevsky, that a so-called “hand over ceremony” of the repaired railway to the Abkhaz authorities would be held either on July 29 or 30.

Russian MoD Railway Forces, sent to the region in late May, have repaired a 54-kilometer section of railway. 

Georgia has strongly condemned the deployment of the Russian MoD Railway Forces to Abkhazia.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that it had sent the unarmed units – tasked with the protection and reconstruction of railway infrastructure – to Abkhazia as part of Moscow’s “humanitarian assistance” to the unrecognized republic and would withdraw them as soon as the reconstruction works were over. Tbilisi, however, said that Russia was preparing infrastructure in Abkhazia for possible military aggression.