(Tbilisi, September 6, 2002, Civil Georgia) - Member of the Russian Duma Council Vladimir Lukin of “Yabloko” faction told the RIA Novosti news agency today that without the Russian military involvement Georgia would fail to restore order in Pankisi gorge.

Russian MP said that the on-going operation in Pankisi run by the Georgian law enforcers is just for putting on the show.

Russia's military leadership also expressed doubts recently concerning the effectiveness of the Georgian operation against terrorists and criminals hiding in Pankisi. It is a "buffoonery and an imitation of a fight against terrorism," Col-Gen Yuri Baluevskii, first deputy chief of the General Staff, told Interfax on 4 September.

Russian President Vladimer Putin sent a message to his Georgian counterpart on September 4 criticizing “tactic of the peaceful squeezing out of terrorists” from Pankisi gorge.