Russia says gas supplies to Georgia resume

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Gas supplies to Georgia have resumed a
week after explosions at a pipeline in Russia cut deliveries
during the coldest winter in a decade, local news agencies
reported on Sunday.

The blasts also cut a major power line and on Thursday,
high winds severed another cable leaving the country without
electricity. Georgians were forced to queue for oil hand-outs
or shiver around makeshift wood-burning stoves.

“The pipeline has been purged of an explosive gas-air
mixture and the tap has been turned. Gas will flow to Georgia
and further to Armenia,” Viktor Krainov, a Kavkaztransgaz
official, told Interfax.

It was not clear when the gas would actually reach Georgia,
a Caucasus state of 4.5 million on the Black Sea. Georgia has
also agreed with Iran to bring gas via neighboring Azerbaijan.

President Mikhail Saakashvili, who rose to power on the
back of a “Rose Revolution” in 2003, has accused Russia of
deliberately blowing up the gas pipeline and then dragging its
heels over repairing it to put pressure on Georgia.

Moscow denied the allegation, accused Tbilisi of hysteria
and said it was doing everything to repair the pipelines.