#11
AFP
November 29, 2001
Shevardnadze says bombing aimed at scuttling Putin
meeting
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze accused Russian generals of bombing a volatile region of northern Georgia on the border with war-torn Chechnya to prevent his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I think one of the reasons for the bombings was the will (of some Russian generals) to scupper my meeting with Putin in Moscow," Shevardnadze said on Georgian state television, referring to a summit of former Soviet republic leaders he is to attend Thursday and Friday.
Georgian authorities accused Russia Wednesday of sending military planes and attack helicopters to bomb the north Georgian Pankissi gorge region, which borders the Russian breakaway republic of Chechnya.
The Russian defense ministry confirmed that it had attacked a group of Chechen rebels near the Pankissi Gorge on Tuesday but denied that any of its aircraft had crossed into Georgia.
Shevardnadze said that Putin may "not have been aware of these bombings," which may have been decided "by (Russian) generals at the regional level."
He added that, in spite of the bombings, he would not alter plans to meet his Russian counterpart at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Moscow.
"I have to meet with Putin to try and find another way (for Georgia and Russia) to coexist," the Georgian leader said, adding that "relations between both countries must not be as strained" as they currently are.
However, he went on, if further bombings were to occur "we might shoot down one or two planes."
Moscow accuses Tbilisi of allowing separatist guerrillas fighting Russian forces in Chechnya to take refuge in Georgia and particularly in the Pankissi Gorge.
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze earlier this month admitted for the first time that Chechen rebel warlord Ruslan Gelayev and other separatist fighters were on Georgian soil.
The CIS is a loose organisation uniting all former Soviet republics minus the three Baltic states.
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