TBILISI. Dec 10 (Interfax) - Seven former servicemen of Ukraine's Donbas battalion planned to carry out riots on December 2 using firearms at a rally organized by supporters of opposition candidate Grigol Vashadze, who lost the presidential election, the Imedi television reported citing Ukrainian sources.
Former Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili and Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputy Semyon Semenchenko had planned provocations at an opposition rally in Tbilisi, Ukrainian special services officer Col. Vyacheslav Vlasenko said in an interview with Imedi.
"According to my information, Saakashvili paid Semenchenko money and maintained constant contact with him. They planned all scenarios of the provocation together. That event could have involved shots so that the opposition could later blame them on the Georgian security structures," Vlasenko said.
"According to my information, the people detained in Tbilisi, and also other former servicemen of the Donbas battalion, who had Georgian origin, 20-25 people all in all, were expected to meet in a hotel on the day of the rally, but something went wrong and they were detained several hours before the opposition rally," he said.
The detainees could have brought the firearms from Ukraine to Georgia through sea ports, Vlasenko said.
According to Imedi, the seven detainees were personal security guards of Semyon Semenchenko, former commander of the Donbas battalion, who arrived in Tbilisi on November 27 and was an observer in the presidential election from one Georgian opposition Internet-baased media on November 28.
The six citizens of Ukraine and one of Georgia were taken into custody in two Tbilisi hotels as a result of a special operation of the Georgian Interior Ministry.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said it had seized handguns, an improvised rifle, and ammunition from the detainees who came to Georgia on November 27. The reason for their arrival is being investigated, including in the context of their possible involvement in the political processes underway in Georgia.
The lawyers said their clients came to Georgia as tourists.
Semenchenko is still in Tbilisi and, as Georgian television channels show, he is bringing parcels to his security guards in prison.