TBILISI. July 31 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian State Security Minister Valery Khaburdzania on Wednesday accused Russian peacekeepers of illegal arms trade.
"The Russian peacekeeping forces is the nest from where arms are delivered and sold," Khaburdzania told a government session that was attended by President Eduard Shevardnadze.
Otherwise, arms that were seized from private vehicles of Majors Simon Mchedlidze and Georgy Mamardhashvili would have never reached Georgia, he claimed.
Khaburdzania stressed that serious attention should be paid to those facts, especially taking into account accusations of assisting terrorists brought against Georgia.
Mchedlidze was detained in his jeep on the outskirts of Tbilisi in mid-June. His car contained three Fagot antitank systems, nine missiles to them and three antitank rocket launchers. Investigators believe that the arms were intended for Chechen rebels in the Pankisi gorge and for subsequent relocation to Chechnya. They did not name the origin of the arms, though. There is also an opinion that the arms was supposed to be delivered to the Forest Brothers guerrilla unit, which was confirmed by the statement of the unit's commander David Shengelia. He refused to say where the arms were purchased as well.
Mamardhashvili, commander of a unit of the Vaziani military base, was detained in western Georgia on July 27. His vehicle carried four Strela-2 portable SAM systems that ha had apparently bought in Abkhazia.