GEORGIA DENIES ACCUSATIONS

The Georgian Interior Ministry rejected Russian accusations that the country was helping the Al-Qaeda terrorist group to send terrorists to Chechnya and deliver weapons to Dagestan. The allegation was “a complete falsehood and misinformation,” said Shota Khizanishvili, head of the Georgian Interior Ministry. He described the claim as preposterous and accused Moscow of stoking tensions. Earlier Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Russian Federal Security Service, accused Georgia of giving training and lending safe passage to Al-Qaeda agents planning terrorist acts in the Russian Caucasus. Bortnikov also accused Tbilisi of supplying arms and funding for terrorist activities in the neighbouring Caucasus region of Dagestan. Tensions remain high between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. They fought a five-day war in August last year, when Georgia attacked South Ossetia to try to retake the renegade region that borders Russia. In response, Moscow sent in troops to drive Georgian forces out of the region.