State Duma Speaker Suggests Russia And Georgia Present Ultimatum To Kodori-based Militants

State Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov suggests that Russia and Georgia present an ultimatum to the Chechen and Georgian militants based in the Kodori Gorge in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. "Militants must be destroyed unless they agree to surrender and lay down weapons," the speaker of the parliament's lower house told journalists on Friday. Turning up in the Kodori Gorge last week, Chechen and Georgian militants were welcomed by official Tbilisi as a good opportunity to clear the way for further advance of Georgian regular troops into the heart of Abkhazia. With that in mind, Georgian aviation launched a bombing attack on villages located in the gorge and moved its troops closer to the border.