By empty (8/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Speaking on 26 August in Batumi where he attended a government meeting the previous day, Mikheil Saakashvili criticized the Russian military exercises under way at the Gonio firing range near Batumi, which he claimed are inconveniencing tens of thousands of tourists, many of them from abroad, who are currently vacationing at Black Sea resorts. He warned that if Moscow does not voluntarily close its military base at Batumi by the spring of 2005, \"we shall force them to leave.\" (Caucasus Press).