Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili said while visiting Ukrainian capital Kiev on October 2, that Georgia is ready to provide Russian authorities with a list of persons currently residing in Georgia?s Pankisi gorge in an attempt to defuse Russia?s fears over presence of alleged terrorist suspects in the gorge near the Russian border.
?In case the Russian colleagues request [us to do so], the Georgian Interior Ministry is ready to provide the list of names of all the persons living in Pankisi gorge ,? Russian news agencies quoted Okruashvili.
The Georgian Interior Minister denied the reports that Achimez Gachiyaev, wanted by Russia for the bombing of the residential apartments in Moscow in 1999, is currently in Pankisi.
On September 21 Georgian Interior Ministry forces, in cooperation with the Security Ministry, carried out, as officials put it, an “inspection” of the Pankisi gorge, which involved a door-to-door checking of the papers and documents of the Chechen refugees living in the gorge.