Georgia finds "traitor"

This week, the whole of Russia learned that Georgian shepherd Levan Telidze warned Russian border guards of a coming break-through of Chechen guerrillas from the republic of Georgia. As a result, the guerrillas were unable to penetrate the border. Russian President Putin signed an order to award the Decoration of Courage to Levan Telidze.

The Georgian government, however, did not evaluate the heroism of their national. The ORT television company reported that Georgian border guards are to demand the delivery of the Georgian shepherd from Russian authorities. Valery Chkheidze, the chairman of the Frontier Department of Georgia, claimed that Levan Telidze illegally crossed the Georgian border, infringing upon Georgian laws. Chkheidze also stated that they had to find out why the shepherd decided to cross the border and address to the Russian border guards without saying anything to their Georgian colleagues. It should be said here that representatives of the Georgian security services doubted the fact that the information had been given to the Russian border guards. Furthermore, Georgian intelligence doubted the shepherd’s existence.

Levan Telidze said he tried to warn the Georgian border guards of guerrillas’ possible breakthrough, but they told him to forget about it. Georgia’s position is rather mysterious. It is an open secret that the Georgian government is turning a blind eye to the presence of Chechen terrorists on its territory. However, as soon as Moscow accuses Georgia of assisting the guerrillas, the republic rejects such allegations, addressing to the "world community" for help. However, why is the Georgian government pursuing the shepherd instead of Chechen commander Ruslan Gelayev, for example?

Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru

On the ORT photo: Levan Telidze

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov