Tbilisi Denies ?Terrorists? Enter Russia from Georgia
Badri Bitsadze, the Commander of the Georgian Border Guard Department, denied allegations made by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov claiming that ?terrorists? are entering Chechnya from Georgia.
?The Russian Defense Minister has numerously made such irresponsible and groundless allegations? Not a single instance of movement of Chechen rebels across the Russian-Georgian border has been observed during the past year,? Badri Bitsadze said in the interview with Rustavi 2 television on February 14.
?According to the agreement reached by the Presidents of Russia and Georgia, the border guard services of the two countries are implementing a project, which envisages joint patrolling, exchange of information and air reconnaissance on the border. Our Russian colleagues have not made any complaints so far,? Badri Bitsadze added.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said, while addressing the Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 12: “We have killed so many foreigners in Chechnya carrying passports with a Georgian tourist visa in their pockets?You can’t deny they are penetrating our territory through the territory of Georgia, that’s a fact.”
He also said that Russia reserves the right to pre-emptively strike against terrorists anywhere.
Recently, the Russian officials have renewed allegations that Chechen rebels are hiding in the Pankisi gorge, near the Russian border. But Georgia denies these accusations and offers to maintain an international monitoring mission in the gorge.
