Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili responded to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s February 18 statement, according to which, Georgia was referred to as one of the transit routes for terrorists.
Speaking with Rustavi 2 TV station on February 21, Giorgi Margvelashvili dismissed Sergey Lavrov’s claims and stated that the country’s law enforcement agencies “are working actively” against terrorism.
“Georgia is fighting against terrorism not only internally, but also [internationally] as a member of the coalition, and not through political statements, but by means of its troops,” the President stated.
Giorgi Margvelashvili also noted that Georgia meets the highest European standards in terms of passports and border control.
“Unfortunately,” the President added, there are “certain difficulties on the territory of Georgia, in its occupied territories,” referring to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Tbilisi regards as occupied by Russia.
“I would like to emphasize the high professionalism of our law enforcement agencies in regards to the control of radioactive waste [transit] from the occupied territories … As far as I remember, they have intercepted about 25 attempts of trafficking of radioactive waste from the occupied territories,” Margvelashvili stated.
On February 22, the de facto Abkhaz Foreign Ministry issued a statement accusing Margvelashvili of “an openly false report” and of wanting to create “a negative image” of Abkhazia.
The de facto Foreign Ministry added that the Georgian side has never raised such cases at the Geneva International Discussions and the Gali Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings.
“They are also absent in the reports of international organizations. In particular, during the International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, no evidence was found of any radioactive materials in the territory of Abkhazia,” the statement added.
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