Russia Slams Georgia Section of U.S. Report on Terrorism
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 14 Aug.'10 / 17:06

A section of U.S. Department of State's annual country report on terrorism, which deals with Georgia, "surprises with its bias." the Russian Foreign Ministry said on August 13.
 
"The report portrays Georgia as a truly exemplary fighter against terrorism. Herewith it ignores available information that Georgia is playing a double game in respect of terrorist underground in the North Caucasus. The Russian special services have provided convincing evidence of that and objective observers have long noted that," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The Department of State's report, released on August 5, reads: "The situation in the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remained largely unchanged, and the Georgian government does not control its international borders located between these regions and Russia. This lack of control allowed for unrestricted and unidentified flow of people, goods, and other potentially dangerous items from Russia into Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

On this part of the report, the Russian Foreign Ministry said: "If an attempt to accuse Russia in 'export of terrorism' is hidden behind such 'assessments', which by the way are not backed with facts, then we are facing politicization of problem of fight against new challenges."

"Unwillingness to accept new geopolitical realities in the Caucasus did not help authors of the report to realize absurdity of raising the issue of 'Georgian control' on borders between Russia and sovereign states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Naturally there is no such control and can not be such."

The report also says that "the administrative boundary lines between Georgia and the conflict zones were furthered militarized in 2009 when Russia tasked its Federal Security Service (FSB) border guards to take over control from de facto authorities in both territories."

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it "categorically disagrees with use of term 'militarized' in reference to deployment of Russian border guard on Abkhaz and South Ossetian borders."
 
"Thanks to our border guards, situation on the borders of these two states with Georgia has significantly stabilized and in overall remains calm," it said.   

The Department of State report also said that Russia's claims of Georgian support for "Chechen terrorists and harboring of such individuals in the Pankisi Gorge were unsubstantiated, and the Georgian government has made transparent efforts to prove this to the international community."

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