Russia has no plans to establish military base in Abkhazia, Yuri Baluevsky, chief of general staff of the Russian armed forces, said on May 16.

“I do not know from where this information came,” RIA Novosti news agency quoted Baluyevsky as saying in Brussels.

Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, said on May 13 that Sokhumi wanted to have Russian military presence to provide security guarantees. After those remarks of the Abkhaz leader, Alexander Zelin, commander of the Russian Air Forces, said that potential base in Abkhazia would have improved protection of the Russian border.