Russia Refuses Deploying Weapons in Georgia’s Breakaway Region

(Tbilisi February 7, 2003. Civil Georgia) – Commander of the Russian Land Forces Nikolai Karmiltsev refused today Georgia’s allegation concerning the deployment of the Russian heavy weapons in Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia.

According to the Georgian Foreign Affairs Ministry 13 Russian T-62 battle tanks were deployed in Tskhinvali [capital of self-styled South Ossetian Republic] region last December.

The US delegation at the OSCE Permanent Council also confirmed the presence of “the heavy weapons, including artillery, in a military depot in the Tskhinvali region that apparently belongs to the Ossetian battalion of the Joint Peacekeeping Force.”

Georgia accuses Russia of violating the European Conventional Arms Treaty, with the dispatching of the additional armament in the breakaway region.

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