Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Russian peacekeepers outpost.
Photo: Valery Melnikov
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Georgia Says Russia Outside Mandate
Georgia thinks Russia will create a provocation in Kodori Gorge that will lead to a military confrontation, Iosif Chakhoashvili, head of the Russian department at the Georgian Ministry of Reintegration, stated. “We had no intentions and we never will of starting a war,” Chakhoashvili told Russian journalists on Friday. “But Russia is pushing Georgia toward starting one. But there will be something else – a provocation from the Russian side in Kodori Gorge.”
“The Russians will start it and then say that the Abkhazians started it,” Chakhoashvili said. “That’s what we expect.”
Chkhoashvili said that, under the peacekeeping mandate, only motorized rifle companies are supposed to be in the conflict zone. Russia is violating the mandate by introducing infantry units, antiaircraft weaponry and rocket forces. “Russia is going beyond the mandate and creating an illegal situation,” he concluded.
www.kommersant.com
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