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Russian Foreign Ministry Statement Unacceptable - Georgian Speaker

Posted on: Monday, 23 January 2006, 21:00 CST

MOSCOW. Jan 23 (Interfax) - A Sunday statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry commenting on the interrupted gas and power supplies to Georgia has been strongly criticized by Georgian Speaker Nino Burjanadze.

The Georgian authorities are indignant at the ministry statement, Burjanadze said. "The Russian Foreign Ministry's use of such words as hysteria and bacchanalia is outrageous, especially if they are applied to pronouncements by the president of a sovereign state," the speaker said on the Ekho Moskvy radio on Sunday.

"Russian policy does not deserve respect. The Foreign Ministry of any normal country would have condemned acts of sabotage perpetrated on its territory and the termination of power and heating supplies in the severe winter season. Criticism would also have been possible, but it should have been more or less civilized," Burjanadze said.

"Any sober-minded Russian citizen will judge the value of the ministry's statement and I think that the ministry's prestige will suffer," she said.

Burjanadze reaffirmed her opinion that the gas pipeline and power line incidents were a deliberate action against Georgia. "It is no coincidence that the explosions occurred 300 meters away from one another. It was a premeditated action against Georgia, which is confirmed by the location of the explosions which barely affected Russian customers only Georgians," she said.

"The explosions occurred on Russian territory, which means that Russia should bear responsibility for the incidents," she said.

"I cannot point at a specific agency, but many Russian politicians have warned us that Georgia will have no electricity and gas if it continues to adhere to its independent policy and on the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers. I am absolutely positive that serious Russian forces, including the secret services are, unfortunately, interested in destabilization," she said.

Source: Daily News Bulletin; Moscow - English

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