Georgian defense minister: “I realize that my colleague Sergey Ivanov is in complicated situation”

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Georgian defense minister Irakli Okruashvili disproves statement of Russian defense minister Sergey Ivanov that servicemen of 12^th Russian military base were beaten late on September 27. "I understand that my colleague Sergey Ivanov is angry because he has got into a difficult situation,’ Okruashvili said to the press. “His employees have been accused of espionage and detained. But he openly lies when he says that servicemen detained yesterday in Batumi were beaten. It is not so. Yesterday, violating all agreements and without a permission, they decided to take a walk, carrying weapons, from Khelvachauri to the Batumi base, as if they were going to strengthen it. But when the Georgian President moves along Batumi streets and the Russian military – who are quite unpredictable — simultaneously move in the city, equipped with sub-machine guns and armored vests — we had no other choice than to detain them. They were released three hours later. They armaments were seized. Any state would act in the same way.”

Commenting on the last Russian statements on Georgia, head of Georgian parliamentary committee on defense and security Givi Targamadze said: “As for the hysterics of Russian top-level officials, including defense minister and foreign minister, I believe that they act in the way of which they constantly accuse us. Those are quite unbalanced statements, based on no real facts.” Targamadze stressed that Georgia will submit complete proofs of guilt of the arrested Russian officers.