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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Moscow says Georgia harboring Islamist rebels |
| 2010-01-15 |
| Russia said on Thursday Islamist rebels were being trained in neighboring Georgia to launch attacks in Chechnya and nearby regions, a state-run news agency reported. Russian officials have said that foreign training and funding has contributed to a surge in violence by Islamist insurgents in recent months in its volatile north Caucasus regions, including Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. "At military bases in Georgia, terrorist groups are trained by foreign instructors to carry out attacks in Russia," Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev told police officials in the Caucasus town of Vladikavkaz, RIA news agency reported. He did not directly accuse the Georgian government of complicity and did not say what nationality the instructors were. Russia has in the past accused Arab fighters of providing training to Chechen rebels, though not specifically in Georgia. Yedelev said the training had contributed to a 19 percent increase in "terrorist attacks" in Russia's Caucasus regions in 2009 compared to the previous year. During the second separatist war with Chechnya in the 1990s, Moscow said Georgia's Pankisi Gorge on the border with Chechnya served as a shelter for hiding guerrillas and militants. Today, Tbilisi officials say some Chechen refugees still live there, but fighters and militants no longer take shelter in Georgia. The head of the FSB, successor to the KGB, accused Georgia in October of collaborating with al Qaeda and aiding Islamist militants. A senior official in Tbilisi dismissed those accusations as "absurd." |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 SAME TOPIX > WHETHER AZERBAIJAN LIKE IT OR NOT, NAGORNO-KARABAKH IS AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC; + THE GREAT FRENCH WHINE [aka WHEN FRENCH GRAPES ATTACK = WINE WARS]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-01-15 22:29 |
| #2 TOPIX > IN 2010, STRATFOR BELIEVES THE STANDOFF IN THE CAUCASUS WILL SET DEEPLY IN [Turkey versus Russia]; + CAN TURKEY BECOME FRANCE OR GERMANY [Neo-Colonialism = Expansionist]. IOW, setting-up of various PRO-ANKARA/TURK international Colonies widout formally or directly threatening VICTORIAN BRITAIN, AMERICA, andor TSARIST RUSSIA, at least until a TURKISH "BISMARCK" COMES ALONG!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-01-15 22:26 |
| #1 ION WAFF > BUSH AIDES WEIGHED ATTACK TO HALT RUSSIA-GEORGIA WAR [explor options for limited mil strikes which POTUS Dubya did not accept]??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-01-15 19:37 |