Lieutenant-General Valery Yevnevich said 14 trains will transport hardware and ammunition from the Batumi base to Russia by the yearend, while five more trains will be dispatched to a Russian base in Armenia.
Yevnevich spoke after the Georgian Defense Ministry said earlier Thursday that a convoy of trucks carrying hardware and engineering equipment had left Russia's other Soviet-era base in Georgia, Akhalkalaki, for Gyumri, in Armenia.
Under an agreement between the Defense Ministries of the two countries, the Akhalkalaki base will be closed by the end of this year, while the Batumi base is planned to close before next yearend.
Yevnevich said that all the 14 Russia-bound trains - five in May, four in June, four in July and one in November - will leave via Azerbaijan, with which Russia has an agreement on the transit of military cargo.
The five trains bound for the Gyumri base will set off from Batumi in August (four) and November (one), Yevnevich said.
Six more truck convoys will take the remaining hardware and equipment from the Akhalkalaki base before the end of 2007, he said.
Last December, Russia completed the withdrawal of its military garrison from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, handing over control of its headquarters to Georgia's Defense Ministry.
Thirteen of the garrison's 387 personnel remain in Georgia to oversee the withdrawal of Russia's two Soviet-era bases.
Georgia's Western-leaning leadership, which is seeking NATO membership, is uneasy about Russia's continued military presence, and has repeatedly urged Moscow to close its Soviet-era bases.
