MOSCOW. Sept 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The leadership of the Russian Federal Border Guard Service is convinced that Georgian border guards know the exact whereabouts of rebels on their territory, but do not share this information with their Russian counterparts.
"We don't doubt that our Georgian colleagues have information about the whereabouts of the rebels who are stationed across the Ingush and Chechen sections of the border, but unfortunately, they don't share it with us," Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Border Guard Service Colonel General Nikolai Reznichenko told a Friday news conference in Moscow.
"Our Georgian colleagues want to cooperate with Russian border guards more openly, but the situation in Georgia prevents them from doing so," he said.
Asked by Interfax about the degree of their cooperation, he described it as weak.
Nevertheless, Reznichenko said that Russia has its own information about the whereabouts of the rebels.
"According to our knowledge, rebels from the Pankisi Gorge have spread along the Russian border, and individual groups are concentrated across Ingushetia in the area of Shatili and the Kerigo Gorge," he said, stressing that this information is almost 100% reliable.
Reznichenko spoke for preemptive strikes on concentrations of rebels.
"I believe such strikes should be delivered if there is exact, reliable information about the whereabouts of the rebels. And we have it, the Federal Security Service has it, and the Defense Ministry has it," Reznichenko said.