Authorities in breakaway South Ossetian denied on May 18 the recent statement made by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, according to which notorious retired Russian Maj. Gen. Yuri Netkachev is South Ossetia.
?The Georgian side continues misinforming the international community about the developments in Georgia, about its relations with South Ossetia,? the Press and Information Committee of South Ossetia said in an information note issued on May 18.
The South Ossetian side also said that with actions like these, the Georgian side ?destroys the bridges of mutual trust between the Georgian and Ossetian people.?
Netkachev, who was chief of the Russian troops in Moldova in the early 90s, has been accused by the Georgian authorities of training ex-Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze?s militias during a standoff between Tbilisi and Adjara?s former regime last spring. Tbilisi has also accused Netkachev of being the mastermind behind the destruction, last May, of two bridges that connected Adjara with the rest of Georgia.
?I was trying to find out whether there is a bridge linking South Ossetia with [the rest of Georgia], when I learned [that Netkachev was in South Ossetia]. I can not understand why our adversaries repeat the same mistakes,? Saakashvili said at a news conference in Warsaw on May 17 on a sideline of Council of Europe Summit.
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