Monday, October 02, 2006

Russia-Georgia Updates

* OSCE head Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht has flown to Tbilisi to help to moderate the conflict.

* Russia has destroyed more than 70,000 litres of Georgian-produced alcohol, officially due to concerns about its quality. Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief health inspector, used the term "terrorial-national formation" when describing Georgia.

* Georgian TV channel Rustavi-2 reports that 13 Georgian citizens have been detained in Moscow for "visa irregularities".

* Russian State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov has reiterated Putin's charge of "state terrorism" in relation to the arrests of the GRU officers.

* Russia has protested about an attempt by European parliamentarians at PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, of which it is a member) to bring up the subject of the Georgia-Russia crisis there. Russia's representative Konstantin Kosachev is quoted as saying:

"Taking into account the existing moods in the assembly, known by the fact that traditionally europarliamentarians, regardless of the essence of the problem, always support the "weak "state, the Russian delegation has come out against this initiative, noting that it does not considered the platform of the Assembly to be a suitable place for explaining the current conflict situation between member states of the Council of Europe".

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