From the Boston Marathon to the Pankisi Gorge

Author: Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi, exclusively to VK

Georgia is shaken by the scandal in connection with the new investigation into the events of last August near the village of Lapankuri in the Lopota Gorge, where the special forces of the Interior Ministry destroyed a group of Chechen fighters (including natives of the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia) who were trying to break into the North Caucasus. After three days of fighting, eleven terrorists and three Georgian servicemen were killed.

New Georgian ombudsman Ucha Nanuashvili accused members of the entourage of President Saakashvili of inviting Chechen rebels to Georgia from Europe, training them in military bases and providing arms and money. According to him, at the last moment they were refused corridor to the North Caucasus. The prosecutor's office opened an investigation into the crime under Article 333 of the Criminal Code ("abuse of power"). Prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili believes that the territory of Georgia could have been used for terrorist training and their transit to the North Caucasus. Ivanishvili even suggested that Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was in touch with the "Caucasus Foundation of Georgia", that worked closely with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Mamuka Areshidze, an expert on the Caucasus, talked to VK about Chechen militants in Georgia, the involvement of intelligence agencies in their training and their relation to the story of Tsarnaev.

- Do you consider reliable and proven the Public Defender's assertion that the group destroyed last August was created by former officials of the Interior Ministry and intelligence agencies?

- So far the experts have no direct evidence that Chechen rebels were armed, equipped and trained by the Georgian secret services. I personally discussed it with Nanuashvili, when he said these people were supposedly preparing to move to the North Caucasus. He referred to some confidential sources. Even before the events in the Lopota gorge I spoke with two Chechen activists, who are now living in Turkey. They said they were planning to go to war in Syria. There were two streams of Chechens who came to Georgia from Europe. I talked to one from the first wave, and not from those who then fought with the Georgian special forces in Lopota. I asked him, "If you wanted to go to Syria, so why did you first go to Georgia? How did you get in the Pankisi Gorge? "He replied vaguely that someone had promised to give them money and weapons. Then I asked: "Suppose you received weapons to Georgia. You planned to go with these weapons and full equipment to cross into Syria through several borders? " But he stubbornly replied that, together with his colleagues he intended to go to Syria, and not to the North Caucasus. And the weapons they needed to "get used to it and to shoot, but not to cross the border with it" In the end, they did not get anything. I talked to them when they lived in some Central European country. It was a phone conversation, but I knew where they were. As for the family members of the Chechens - natives of the Pankisi Gorge - they claim that the group was not planning to go to Syria but to the North Caucasus! However, these are only verbal statements that are not supported by other evidence and information sources.

- However, Nanuashvili said that the killed militants had a driver's license issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, a service weapon with official permission to carry it, and so on...

- Only one of them had this permission, Chechen Kistinian Aslan Margoshvili. But he bought it with his own money. Georgian citizens have the right to buy weapons. But we are waiting for a new investigation.

- The name of Tsarnaev appeared in the same context...

- I do not see any connection between the events in Lopota and the Tsarnaev brothers. Some claimed that the older brother visited Georgia. But I thoroughly rechecked the lists of those invited to the seminars of the "Caucasian fund" in Georgia. Tsarnaev was not among them. In general, there was nobody younger than 32 years.

- It was said that he had been at the seminar of the "Caucasian fund" in Makhachkala.

- I can't say anything about it. Most of those invited by the "Caucasian fund" in Georgia were Circassians, also from various European countries. But I cannot exclude that the fund was used by intelligence agencies for their own purposes. It is therefore necessary to conduct a thorough investigation. According to my sources, Georgian officials indeed participated in the organization of this Chechen visit from Europe. But for me, it is still unclear what was the purpose of bringing them to the country.

If the previous government wanted to use them in the North Caucasus or against their political opponents, or smuggle them into Syria, none of these tasks were achieved.

- What could the results of charges of supporting terrorism be for Georgia? Also considering the relations with the Boston bomber?

- The consequences would be unpleasant. But this should be a lesson for all the Georgian authorities, so that they refrain from such experiments. There is no Russian-Georgian information war about it. There is a war between a part of the Russian media and the former Georgian authorities. After all, the government of Ivanishvili lifted the veil of secrecy over the whole story and all the unpleasant process. Those responsible must be identified and punished. The country has already been discredited. This is the result of stupid decisions by the former government.