The explosion at the US Embassy in Tbilisi: is Russia involved?
Last fall, an explosion thundered in Tbilisi near the US embassy. In organizing and conducting the attack accused a Russian officer.The Georgian authorities established that a citizen of the Russian Federation was standing next to the US Embassy after the 22 September 2010 explosion. These conclusions were subject to considerable doubts, since they were made only on the basis of Georgian sources, for it is known that Georgia prefers to blame Russia for all events, and only then find out what really happened.
However, this attitude did not bother Georgia. The Tbilisi City Court at the absentee meeting of 28 in June of this year, almost a year after the above-mentioned events, convicted in a terrorist act that took place in the autumn, Major of the Russian Armed Forces Yevgeny Borisov. At the trial, it was stated that the Russian special services had created an entire organization under the leadership of Russians Borisov and Murman Tskhadia living in the Gali district of Abkhazia, engaged in intimidating the population and creating mass unrest in Georgia, as well as encroaching on the strategic, economic and political interests of the Georgian state. A Tbilisi court found that the organization was also guilty of a number of terrorist acts carried out in the 2009-2010 years in the Samegrelo region and in Tbilisi itself. The attacks caused heavy consequences and human casualties. It is believed that Borisov himself is hiding in Abkhazia. At the insistence of Georgia, Interpol is looking for Yevgeny Borisov in the red circular. The Georgian Foreign Ministry said that Russia refused to cooperate in the investigation of the terrorist attacks.
At a briefing held on 28 in July, the deputy head of the Georgian Foreign Ministry Nino Kalandadze made a statement that Moscow was officially involved in international terrorism. She also stated that there was irrefutable evidence that the Russian special services had organized terrorist acts on the territory of Georgia, which she had informed the partner countries and Russia, suggesting cooperation in investigating the events that had occurred.
The Secret Report of the American Special Services
This week, the Washington Times announced Georgia’s confidence in the guilt of the Russian special services in carrying out the terrorist attack at the US Embassy in the fall of 2010. Later, material was published that talked about a conversation with two US officials who had access to a secret report prepared by the end of last year and describing the events of September 22. The Washington Times returned to this issue on July 27, as the report of the US intelligence agency confirms the version of events put forward by Georgia.
Officials who anonymously took part in an interview with journalists argue that the clear wording of the report is consistent with the findings of the Georgian Interior Ministry that the cause of the explosion is Major-General Yevgeny Borisov, an intelligence officer of Russia, and his actions were coordinated directly by military intelligence, namely the GRU.
The US State Department raised the issue of an explosion near the US Embassy in Tbilisi, as well as Georgia’s alleged 2009-2010 attacks, at meetings with high-ranking officials of Georgia and the Russian Federation. Moreover, attention was focused on the fact that the United States does not want to indict, simply expresses concern about these events.
The same “Washington Times” publishes information confirming that the lawmakers of America have appealed to the committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives with a request to launch an investigation into all the circumstances of the autumn explosion near the embassy in Georgia.
According to John Kyle, a senator from Arizona, it is unclear what kind of cooperation with Russia in the field of missile defense is at stake if the relatively high level of the GRU and the Russian government itself approve of the explosion of the US embassy. He also states that the Congress should conduct its investigation and report its results to senators and congressmen.
After the American interpretation of the issue of weapons The reports of American intelligence are no longer considered to be impeccably accurate, but the accusation deserves a very careful consideration. If we assume that the data from the secret report is reliable, then why does the Washington Times not answer a number of fair questions? At what level was the decision to commit the attack agreed? Did the agent act in the interests of Russia, or did the other side intervene here? In whose interests did the GRU act? Or was it the Kremlin’s own initiative? Why was the US embassy chosen as the object of the explosion, and why in Georgia? And, if it was a demonstration explosion, why did its organizers try to get rid of the tracks so carefully? As always, there are far fewer answers than questions.
Russia's response to the allegations
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia completely denies all the accusations leveled against Yevgeny Borisov in connection with the explosions. However, Moscow has not yet officially commented on the article in the Washington Times. Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Grigory Karasin, 27 July, responded to the statements of Georgia about the subversive nature of the actions of the Russian special services in Tbilisi, accusing Georgia of "anti-Russian hysteria".
He also accuses Georgia of trying to consolidate “the image of the enemy in the person of Russia” in Georgian society. According to him, the Government of Tbilisi has long been trying to convince its own population and the world community that the territory of Georgia is teeming with Russian special agents, spies and saboteurs, with whom the Georgian special services are trying to fight. It is quite understandable that in this way Georgia is trying to distract its people from problems within the state, focusing its attention on the far-fetched intrigues of the enemy forces. In the words of Tbilisi, it says about readiness to establish friendly relations with Russia, but now almost no one believes in it. In reality, there is no progress in this direction, any actions in the direction of rapprochement with Russia would contradict the policies pursued by M. Saakashvili’s policy. All this Grigory Karasin said in an interview with ITAR-TASS, posted on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Moscow considers an article in the Washington Times a newspaper duck
Andrei Klimov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, commented on the article in the Washington Times as follows. He says that all this story with the report of the American special services, it is very similar to the fairy-tale story about the leakage of secret information, and this leverage is advantageous by the US conservative, who are now going to war against Democrat Obama, because America is on the verge of default.
The Russian parliamentarian considers everything that is happening and the visa sanctions adopted by the US State Department against several Russian officials who are considered implicated in the death in jail of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky as a result of the internal political struggle in America and the 2012 presidential company of the year.
President Obama is pursuing a political course to “reset” relations with Russia, so his opponents are trying in every way to discredit her very idea, and therefore all directions of the current president’s foreign policy, according to Andrei Klimov.
The chief editor of Agentura.ru, Andrei Soldatov, who is an independent expert on the affairs of the Russian special services, generally considers it wrong to build some theories and talk about a conspiracy against Russia on the basis of dubious information about a secret CIA report that was leaked to the American press.
He argues his opinion by the fact that none of the journalists saw this report with their own eyes, and they publish all the information, citing some anonymous sources. It is not known whether the report is the result of the activities of the US special services or it is based on data from the Georgian Interior Ministry. Therefore, to evaluate the information from the article "Washington Times", it should be very carefully.
Pavel Felgengauer, a Russian independent military analyst, advocates approximately the same position, emphasizing that the September 22 explosion of 2010 was not at the US embassy in Georgia, but at some distance from it, the attack was not directed to the embassy.
However, as Pavel Felgenhauer said, the high activity of the special services of both Russia and Georgia, in a situation where the states are in a state of unstable military truce, is difficult to deny. Moreover, Russia has much more opportunities for action on the territory of a possible enemy than those of the Georgian special services.
Opinion former scout
Voice of America has asked to comment on the events to Oleg Kalugin, a former Soviet intelligence officer and current professor at the Center for the Study of Intelligence and Counterintelligence in America.
Oleg Kalugin suggests that it was Georgia who informed the CIA about Russia's involvement in the attack. What was its purpose? The only thing that could have caused this information was general indignation among the Georgian population and a corresponding negative reaction from the world community. So why did it have to be done? It will not be possible to overthrow Saakashvili in this way, it will not affect the current situation. What is happening is most like a planned provocation. But its organizers - this is a really interesting question. Kalugin does not try to claim that part of the Georgian authorities, thus, want to show the Western allies that Georgia is always under threat, but he does not rule out such a possibility. This attack looks too unnecessary and ridiculous to believe that it was organized by Russian intelligence. Most of all, this looks like a provocation, and not from Russia, but from Georgia itself.
Expert Comments from Georgia
On the part of Georgia, political expert Zaal Andjaparidze spoke about this. The expert believes that it is too early to draw conclusions, since the CIA report is confidential information. He considered that the request of the senators to conduct their own investigation, addressed to the Congress, suggests that America found convincing the evidence provided by Georgia about the participation of the GRU in organizing the 22 bombing in Tbilisi last September.
As Andzhaparidze said in his interview, if the evidence were not so convincing, such a harsh reaction from the US would not have happened. He believes that it is worthwhile for the White House to officially confirm its involvement in the incident of the Russian special services, as relations between Russia and the United States will become significantly more complicated. For Georgia, a positive point will be that in this case the authority of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which suffered against the background of the unconvincing evidence provided to the public during the disclosure of terrorist acts, will increase.
Comments from Washington
The expert of the Jamestown Foundation, Vladimir Sokor, was asked about how the confirmation of suspicions about the participation of Russian special services in the events of last September will affect the relationship between Washington and Moscow. Vladimir Socor replied that Washington would not be able to react as it would have done in another situation. The “reset” of relations with Russia is the official course of the American presidential administration, so the reaction cannot be harsh. Suffice it to recall that it was Washington that did not allow Congress to adopt a tough resolution on the case of Sergei Magnitsky.
Since the idea of a "reset" belonged to the United States, they would have to demonstrate to Russia their interest in good relations with it. The Kremlin can only wait for the next concessions from the White House. Under these conditions, Washington’s serious reaction is impossible, even if the accusations of the Georgian side are confirmed.
In confirmation of his words, Vladimir Socor notes that the incident occurred last fall, the report was compiled by the end of the year, and information from it was leaked to the press through anonymous sources in the US administration only in July of this year. This confirms that Washington does not want to spoil relations with Russia.
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