Russian Defence Minister: Pankisi - International Training Base of Chemical Terrorists

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has stated the whereabouts of the base for training international chemical terrorists have been established - it is Georgia's Pankisi Gorge.

Speaking at an international security and defence conference in Munich, Ivanov stressed "makeshift labs have been discovered" in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia "where ricine was made." It's become known that "chemical terrorists recently arrested in France and Great Britain were trained there," said the Russian defence minister.

In his words, "the ricine trace leads to Chechnya." "A recent special operation in the Gudermes district resulted in the elimination of a militant group directly subordinate to Maskhadov. One of the killed terrorists had a manual on him for makeshift production of poisoning substances, including ricine," Sergei Ivanov emphasised.

In his words, last April a murdered field commander was found to have mercuric chloride and arsenic - strong poisons, and a manual for handling them. Large batches of the same poisons were discovered in a cache near the Bachi-Yurt settlement.

"Therefore, international terrorism is gearing up for new terrorist acts with the use of weapons of mass destruction," Sergei Ivanov said.

According to him, "ricine can hardly be one of those weapons." "But we cannot be sure that terrorists will stop at this and will obtain no access to more threatening means of destruction," stated the Russian defence minister.