NATO countries illegally deliver Soviet weapons to Georgia — Sergei Ivanov

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Speaking Sep 29 at a news briefing in Slovenia, Minister of Defense of Russia Sergei Ivanov accused some NATO member countries of illegally selling weapons to Georgia. “Some NATO members trade Soviet-made armaments and ammunitions to Georgia,” Ivanov stated. He says the exports of Soviet weapons by these states were strictly regulated to exclude the possibility of the armaments’ being obtained by third countries. “This means that the countries have violated the international practice,” Ivanov said

“We have no doubt that Georgia has chosen the way of war, the armed way of resolving conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” Ivanov said. According to him, Tbilisi hopes to join NATO right after the forced solution of the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “Georgia feels that Russia resists the forced way of solving the conflicts. Our peacekeepers, who for the last 16 years have been preserving peace in the region, are there.”

“We should not forget that 90% of population of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are Russian citizens. They never were citizens of Georgia. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the region population who had Soviet passports individually officially applied for the Russian citizenship – as early as in the last century. And we issued passports and granted citizenship not only to the residents of the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, but also to residents of all former Soviet republics. Millions of people chose the Russian citizenship. That was their right,” the minister informed.