Russian General Staff: Tbilisi attempted to capture Abkhazia via South Ossetia

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In case of successful blitzkrieg in Tskhinval, Georgia planned to launch attack on Abkhazia. REGNUM correspondent reports Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn to inform on this the media community at a press conference in Moscow on Aug 26.

Nogovitsyn showed to journalists trophey maps on which a prepared military attack aimed to capture Abkhazia is graphically demonstrated. The operation was sopposed to be completed during a 24-hour-period, the general informed. By the end of the assault's first day, Georgian armed forces command planned to reach the objective of the city of Novy Aphon, proceeding to occupation of the republic's capital Sukhum.

Nogovitsyn specified that the land phase of the operation of capturing Abkhazia was supposed to be preceded by a powerful preassault bombardment. The H-hour signal was to be received by the Georgian forces at dawn, hence the operation code name, Nogovitsyn informed. The Georgian leadership decided to avoid the forced resolution of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict only because the blitzkrieg in South Ossetia failed. ''The courage of Russian peacekeepers, the action of South Ossetia's power officers, and the immediate decision to deploy 58^th Army units in the conflict zone made possible curbing the Georgian aggression against Abkhazia,'' Nogovitsyn said.