Russia Urges Georgia to Search for Missing Russian Officer

(Tbilisi, Civil Georgia, August 1, 2002) – Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement urging Georgian authorities to activate search for the Russian officer Igor Zaetsev, who goes missing in Tbilisi since July 29.

Zaetsev is the officer of the Group of Russian Troops in Trans Caucasus headquarters in Tbilisi, Georgian capital.

“Russian is concerned with the fact and, especially when the case coincided with incursion of terrorist groups into Russian territory from Georgia,” the statement says.

“Kidnappings in Georgia, which has become the ‘norm of every day life’, are the result of Georgian authorities’ connivance towards terrorists. Georgian government is becoming a hostage of terrorism itself”, the Russian Foreign Ministry statement says.