…AND IN GEORGIA.

The Internal Affairs and State Security Ministries have disarmed and arrested a group of supporters of the Moscow-based former chief of Georgia’s state security, Igor Giorgadze. General Prosecutor Jamlet Babilashvili announced that the group was financed by "Georgians residing outside the country" and was "acting as a fifth column." Its emergence proved that "the idea of destabilizing Georgia persists," the prosecutor said. (Interfax, January 24) Tbilisi has in vain asked Russia to extradite Georgadze for trial on charges of having organized the 1995 attempt to assassinate President Eduard Shevardnadze. Russian authorities usually disclaim knowledge of Giorgadze’s whereabouts. But his father, Panteleimon Georgadze, leader of the Georgian United Communist party, declared last week that Igor is currently in Moscow and follows the political situation in Georgia. (Sakinform, January 21)

Dushanbe Seeks to Disarm Uzbek-Inhabited West.