Moscow ready to help Tbilisi settle Pankisi problem

President Putin has confirmed Russia's readiness to help Georgia solve the Pankisi gorge problem.

"Russia is prepared to give Georgia money, weapons, specialists and offer immediate participation of Russian army specialists in resolving the problem of the Pankisi Gorge", said the Russian president at a meeting with representatives of Scottish scientific, public and business circles in Edinburgh.

He also stressed that, "if the Georgian side rejects such proposals, it has to resolve the problem on its own". The president noted that in bilateral Moscow-Tbilisi relations there are no insoluble problems but one - "there is a bandit formation on Georgian territory which is linked, particularly, with Al-Qaeda". "People who have undergone training in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia are periodically snatched in European countries -- in Paris, Berlin and Rome. A better search can unearth them even in the United Kingdom", observed the Russian head of state.