When rumors become old, they become myths; Russians are hostages to their own myths. The Russian Embassy in Tbilisi has dug up again on January 17, 2005 the temporarily forgotten issue of the “Pankisi threat.” The Russians maintain hat there is a continued threat of terrorism coming from Georgian territory. Georgia is adamant and has confirmed that the Pankisi Gorge is free of terrorist.

The diplomatic service of Russia expresses its continued “regret” that it has been unsuccessful to get the Georgian to pay serious attention to the problem and take necessary actions. Moreover, the claim is made that they have information on exact location of Chechen fighters “boeviks.” In language of “terrorist” rather than “fighters” they claim that the approximate number is in the range of 250 to 300 and allegations are made “instead of carrying-out of some additional and effective actions, the only thing that Georgian authorities do in response is to claim that there are no terrorist in Pankisi, as described in the statement of Russian embassy.

It is clear that spokespersons of the Russian Embassy fail to accept the conclusions of foreigners, not caring about the facts, which includes Russians as well. The Russian Federation is categorically rejecting the fact of the non-existence of terrorists in thePankisi Gorge. Do the Russians really think that clever Chechen boeviks can so easily deceive such “insignificant and silly” foreign observers?

“We have a reliable information that the Chechen Boeviks have been hiding during the visit of foreign observers and have been appearing again after the end of their visit,” – states the Embassy of the Russian Federation, which begs at least two questions: It is clear that 250-300 armed Boeviks would not have been able to pass the Caucasus Mountains during the winter and they would have had to have made their way to Pankisi Gorge no later than back in autumn. Why do the Russians wait till now to come forward with such allegations? And, why has Moscow been insisting to stop the mission of OSCE in Pankisi, if in actuality does such a threat really exists there?

The answers on these questions are very simple, straightforward and rather logical: Russia would not have been able to make such statements back in the fall since the border monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was effectively doing its job. To have mad a statement back then would have been foolish for the Russians since it could be easily dismissed. as being not true. It is for this reason that Russian wants to liquidate the mission of OSCE under the justification of “remember the Pankisi threat.”

The rhetoric of the Russian Embassy makes their intentions only too clear in their official statements: “The terrorist threat overflowing from Georgian territory can only dealt with by joint operations of ‘special services’ and not by turning a blind eye to the problem by continued ‘international monitoring,’ which they claim is ineffective and cannot be further justified because of a lack of positive results.”

Russians are again suggesting that we do not need the foreigners, and that they can do a better job in sorting out order in Georgia themselves. To reinforce the first announcements of January 17, but continued with such finger pointing in its rhetoric as it is reprimanding a child, thinking that these statements did not go far enough.

Sergey Ivanov, Russian Minister of Defense, has been the point man in expressing the intentions of the Russian Federation in these matters, demanding during a visit to New York “that Georgia must not use the armed divisions that were trained by American instructors in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The reaction by Georgia has been calm: “Russia has not the right to tell Georgia where and when it should use its own armed forces.” It appears that this answer took Russia by surprise and they reiterated, “there is nothing new and unusual in Ivanov’s statement and Georgia should know this only too well.”

The Russian Federation takes exception to the decision by Tbilisi to revise terms of the agreement, according to which the soldiers, trained under the US sponsored Train and Equip Program, would not be activated in Abkhazia or South Ossetia. The statement also tells that Georgia has previously attempted to revise this document during the events in South Ossetia back in the summer of 2004.

“This will reduce the confidence during two states and will also will harm the process of regulation of Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian conflicts,” – The Russian Embassy is delusional and is dreaming over integration of the territory of Georgia into the Russian Federation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia responded this statement of Russian embassy yesterday and regards the statement of the Russian Embassy as being “irresponsible,” and this position is confirmed by the remarks of Salome Zurabishvili, Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Dealing with such reactions from the Russian side is nothing new. Sergey Lavrov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, reacted exactly in the same way when protests were lodged to Georgian diplomatic entities in regards to the voyage in the run up to the elections in Abkhazia when Sergey Baburin, the Vice Speaker of Russian Duma, and Vladimir Kolesnikov, the Deputy Prosecutor General, made their visit.