STAVROPOL. Oct 7 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian border guards are ready to intensify cooperation with their Georgian colleagues in compliance with the agreements reached by the presidents of Russia and Georgia in Chisinau, a high-ranking representative of the Federal Border Guard Service told Interfax on Monday.
"All the instructions the Russian president and the command of the Federal Border Guard Service will give to boost the cooperation with Georgian border guards in the protection of the border will be fulfilled. We are ready to intensify the cooperation," Chief of Staff of the North Caucasus regional border guard department Lieutenant General Valery Putov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a Sunday meeting with his Georgian counterpart Eduard Shevardnadze in Chisinau that the two border services would be instructed to upgrade cooperation to joint patrolling of the border. Shevardnadze added that the border services of Georgia and Russia have large reserves and should reinforce the border "so that bandits do not penetrate either way."
The Russian-Georgian border goes by the Main Caucasian Ridge and access to certain mountain passes and the border itself is difficult, the chief-of-staff said.
"I think it is possible to patrol the border jointly with Georgian border guards in certain directions and sectors, wherever the terrain allows," Putov remarked.
Cooperation between Russian and Georgian border guards has not developed efficiently enough lately, he said. This is particularly true regarding data exchanges.
"Georgian border guards have not informed us on everything related to bandit formations, and we lack specific data. We get limited, scarce information from our Georgian colleagues, which does not allow us to react to developments on time," Putov said.
The threat of Chechen rebels' breakthrough from Georgia into Russia is still real, he went on. "This is true for both Chechen and other sections of the Russian-Georgian border, including the Ingush and Dagestani sections," he stressed.
"These border straps are very problematic, and the threat of new breakthrough attempts is real every day and every night," the colonel noted.
According to him, Chechen rebels still operate in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge. "We can say that not all bandit gangs have left the area. They may be hiding, not walking in localities with arms in their hands. But we still have enough data confirming that bandit gangs are in Pankisi or close to that gorge," the official stressed.
Putov did not disclose the number of rebels on the Georgian territory, saying that "nobody has counted them."