Russia Confirms Handing Over Armament to South Ossetia

Russian Defense Ministry official said on July 21 that a total  of 40 armored vehicles were moved into Georgia?s breakaway South Ossetia, according to Russian media sources.

?22 BMP-2 [infantry combat vehicle] and 18 armored vehicles were dispatched to the conflict zone for the South Ossetian peacekeepers, who are in the joint peacekeeping troops [also involving the Georgian and Russian sides],? Viacheslav Sedov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, told Interfax news agency.

?It is a scheduled rotation of an expended armament,? he added.

Officials in Tbilisi have made no comments regarding this recent report as of yet.

However, movement of extra armored vehicles into the conflict zone triggered the Georgian government?s concerns on July 20.

Initially the Russian side, represented by Commander of the Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone Sviatoslav Nabzdorov, said on July 20 that the Russian peacekeepers are exchanging old armored vehicles for new ones; however he said nothing about the armored vehicles being for the South Ossetian side.

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