Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov on 7 August compared Georgia's failure to take resolute action against Chechen militants ensconced in the Pankisi Gorge with the Taliban's tolerance of Al-Qaeda fighters on Afghan territory. He argued that "if [Georgian President] Eduard Shevardnadze does not understand how one should deal with terrorists, he should consult his American colleagues." Failure to eradicate the Chechen "terrorist presence," Margelov warned, could result in Georgia becoming "a rogue state." (ITAR-TASS)