Sukhumi, Georgia News

TASS, Russia May 8, 2013 Wednesday 10:42 PM GMT+4 OSCE PA President calls for preserving Geneva format of talks TBILISI May 8 - OSCE PA President Wolfgang Grossruck called for preserving the Geneva format of talks.

Russian troops stationed at a military base in Abkhazia will receive up to 40 upgraded armored personnel carriers featuring improved ballistic protection and air conditioning, the press service of the Southern Military District said on Friday.

Many live in border camps in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon. But a lucky few are finding shelter on the Black Sea coast, in Abkhazia, a breakaway territory of Georgia.

Russia is building up its military presence in the breakaway Georgian territory of Abkhazia in a way that suggests that Moscow anticipates a long-term presence there, according to a new report by the International Crisis Group.

The sun sets over a pier and the waterfront quay in the Black Sea port of Sukhumi, a landscape that prompted early 20th century painters and vacationers to call Abkhazia 'the Russian Riviera.' Gagra train station was built to welcome Soviet leader Joseph Stalin who vacationed at a villa on the shores of Lake Ritsa, high in the Caucasus Mountains.