MOSCOW. April 24 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loshchinin has denied Georgia's assertions that military hardware is being supplied to Abkhazia by Russia.
"Such assertions must be simply discarded," Loshchinin told Interfax in Moscow on Wednesday.
Georgia's ambassador to Moscow Zurab Abashidze said earlier that Georgia has not the slightest doubt that military equipment, including aircraft and helicopters, is being supplied to Abkhazia by Russia.
"Russia has sent weapons only to the peacekeepers based in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict," said Loshchinin.
He said in remarks about the Georgian leaders' proposal to enlarge the mandate of the joint peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone, that "in principle, the mandate can be enlarged."
He noted, however, that this problem "must not be tackled by Georgia and Russia alone, but must necessarily involve Abkhazia."
He said "Russia has not received any specific proposals on enlarging the peacekeepers' mandate from Tbilisi."