Batumi-Based Interior Troops’ Chief Mutinies

Murad Tsintsadze, the commander of the Georgian Interior Ministry’s 300-man unit deployed in defiant Adjarian Autonomy said he would defy central authorities’ orders and remains in Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze’s loyalty. Tsintsadze said he “would not tolerate involvement of the politicians in militaries’ affairs.”

“There is nothing new in his [Murad Tsintsadze’s] statement. He never obeyed Georgian Interior Ministry,” Vano Merabishvili, Secretary of the Georgian National Security Council, told reporters on April 21.

On April 19 commander of the 25th Brigade of the Georgian Defense Ministry Maj. Gen. Roman Dumbadze also openly sided Aslan Abashidze. He has been accused of treason and arrest warrant has been issued for mutineer Maj. Gen. Dumbadze.