RUSSIA AGREES TO BEGIN YIELDING CONTROL OF GEORGIA’S BORDERS.

Russian border troops will on July 16 begin “gradually” handing over the control of Georgia’s borders to Georgian troops. The decision was announced in Tbilisi yesterday by Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Ukleba and the border troops’ commander, Major-General Valery Chkheidze. The two men had just held talks with Russian counterparts in Moscow in the framework of the bilateral Commission on Border Protection. An agreement on the procedure and timetable of the transfer was initialed.

The transfer’s first stage encompasses Georgia’s Black Sea seaboard “from Batumi to the Psou river,” with the second stage to extend to the Georgian-Turkish land border. The “joint” border protection is to be phased out by reducing Russian troops and augmenting Georgian troops until the takeover is complete. Specifics have not yet been disclosed. (Russian agencies, June 27 through 29)

The Georgian-Turkish land border includes an Ajar sector and an Armenian-populated one in Javakhetia. The maritime border “from Batumi to the Psou” includes the Ajar and Abkhaz coastal sectors. The Ajar leadership and the Javakhetia Armenian population provide a friendly environment for the Russian forces and favor their continued presence. Abkhazia for its part has warned that it would fire on Georgian coastal guard ships on sight. The situation offers Moscow sufficient leeway to play those regions off against Tbilisi, if government and military hardliners so decide.

QUESTION MARKS MULTIPLY OVER RUSSIAN PLAN TO DIVIDE CASPIAN SEA.