Georgia's NATO showpiece left in tatters

SENAKI, Georgia (Reuters) - Georgia intended this brand new military base as the showpiece of its drive for NATO membership, but the Russian soldiers who took it over had different ideas.

"Russia is a great power!", one of them had scrawled in a ransacked building before the Russian troops pulled out, leaving behind the blackened shells of T-72 tanks and a runway scarred with craters.

"The damage is huge, but we'll restore everything," Colonel Gaioz Moseshvili said as he drove through the sprawling base, reclaimed on Sunday by Georgian forces.

A roll of explosions last week signaled Russia's intention to tear apart the sprawling base, constructed under a military buildup launched by President Mikheil Saakashvili after his rise to power with the 2003 "Rose Revolution".

Senaki was a signal of Georgia's ambition to leave behind its Soviet past and turn to membership of NATO. Built to alliance specifications, it could house 3,000 soldiers, many trained in NATO-member countries.

A Reuters correspondent who gained access to the base on Monday saw several T-72 tanks, armored personnel carriers and two helicopters blown apart, metal twisted and blackened.

The fitness gym was empty, running machines and weight-training benches had vanished. Doors and windows were smashed, and computers taken from the training centre. Beds lay upturned in the barracks, mattresses on the dirty floor.

The facilities Russian forces found here would have far surpassed those normal in their own bases.

Russian forces arrived in Senaki as part of a massive counter-attack on land, sea and air after Georgian forces made a failed attempt to retake the Moscow-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia.

The Kremlin said it acted to defend the separatist region and prevent further bloodshed. Defence officials said they had been destroying arms caches and armor so Tbilisi would be unable to carry out new acts of aggression.

But Russia has also made no secret of its opposition to Georgia joining NATO, saying that would threaten its national security.

NATO STANDARD EQUIPMENT

Georgia's Deputy Defence Minister Batu Kutelia said it was hard to put a figure on the damage inflicted by Russia on the country's military infra-structure.

"But in general, I can say it's quite significant," he told Reuters.

He insisted Senaki would be rebuilt quickly, and could start functioning "to a degree" within a week.

"But another problem is that many military bases where Russians were have since been mined, so now we're de-mining."

Opinion is divided on where the brief war leaves Georgia's NATO hopes. Independent analysts suggest divisions in the alliance will likely deepen as questions are asked of Tbilisi's readiness to join, and whether it is wise to further test Moscow.

Saakashvili's government says it will not be cowed.

"We have already started negotiations on the purchase of new equipment and weapons from our Western partners," said Kutelia.

"As always, the equipment will be NATO standard."

(Additional reporting by Margarita Antidze; writing by Matt Robinson; editing by Ralph Boulton)