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Wednesday, 21 July 2004
RUSSIA DENIES SENDING ADDITIONAL ARMOR TO SOUTH OSSETIA
By empty (7/21/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Major General Givi Iukuridze, who is the Georgian Armed Forces chief of General Staff, told the independent television station Rustavi-2 on 20 July that Russia is deploying 20 armored personnel carriers from the Roki tunnel to South Ossetia\'s Djava Raion. Speaking after a meeting with Saakashvili, parliament speaker Nino Burdjanadze and Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili, Iukuridze denied Russian assertions that agreement was reached on providing the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia with additional armor. Saakashvili alleged in Batumi earlier on 20 July that Moscow plans to give the additional vehicles to the South Ossetian authorities.
Major General Givi Iukuridze, who is the Georgian Armed Forces chief of General Staff, told the independent television station Rustavi-2 on 20 July that Russia is deploying 20 armored personnel carriers from the Roki tunnel to South Ossetia\'s Djava Raion. Speaking after a meeting with Saakashvili, parliament speaker Nino Burdjanadze and Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili, Iukuridze denied Russian assertions that agreement was reached on providing the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia with additional armor. Saakashvili alleged in Batumi earlier on 20 July that Moscow plans to give the additional vehicles to the South Ossetian authorities. But Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Sedov said that the dispatch of the armored personnel carriers to South Ossetia is part of a rotation of equipment in which damaged equipment is replaced. (RFE/RL)