Foreign Ministry official comments on Georgian operation in Pankisi gorge

The operation conducted by the Georgian Interior Ministry, the StateSecurity Ministry and the Defense Ministry in the Pankisi gorge did notproduce any tangible results in the war on international terrorism,official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenkosaid. He pointed out one should have expected nothing else, since evenGeorgian officials acknowledged that the majority of militant groups hadleft the Pankisi gorge before the operation had actually started. Accordingto the Russian Foreign Ministry's representative, the real danger persiststhat guerillas will plot new assaults on Russia from their new locations inGeorgia. The Russian Foreign Ministry is especially concerned about the reports,according to which groups of international terrorists are switched from thePankisi gorge to the Kodor gorge (Abkhazia), the official pointed out."Such measures" might repeatedly result in a bloody assault similar toGelayev's onslaught on Abkhazia last fall and again claim people's lives,accelerate the situation in relations between Tbilisi ad Sukhumi andaggravate the situation in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict aswell as destabilize the overall situation in the Caucasus, Yakovenkostressed. The Russian Foreign Ministry expects Georgia to provideadditional information regarding Tbilisi's further steps aimed atstruggling against terrorism inside the country, the Russian ForeignMinistry's representative pointed out..