TBILISI. Nov 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The strength of the Georgian border guard force on the Chechen, Ingush, and Dagestani sections of the border with Russia has been reduced considerably.
"The Georgian State Border Guard Department has completed the process of cutting the number of border guard posts in light of upcoming winter, and has withdraw part of its personnel from the Chechen, Ingush, and Dagestani sections of the border with Russia," Colonel Kornely Salia, chief-of-staff of the Georgian State Border Guard Department, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
According to him, "the snow blanket depth in the mountains has already reached 1.5 meters and there is no need to maintain the same strength of the border guard force in the regions."
At the same time, Salia emphasized that "main directions of possible activities of trespassers, including terrorist cells, were under reliable control. Such areas primarily include Shatili, Girevi, and Omalo."
"Georgian border guards maintain constant links with their Russian counterparts, and in addition to that OSCE military observers continue monitoring the aforementioned parts of the Russian-Georgian border," Salia noted.
According to him, at the present time the Georgian State Border Guard Department does not have any information on any Chechen terrorist groups preparing to cross the border.