Ivanishvili does not rule out that Georgia could train terrorists

Georgia’s Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili does not rule out that “under the previous authorities militants may have been trained in the country’s territory.”

He shared his suspicions in an interview on the Rustavi-2 television channel on Friday evening, as he mentioned an investigation of the August 2012 security sweep in the Lopota gorge, RIA reports.

Ivanishvili said that “the ombudsman expressed his opinion as to what, according to his sources, took place before and during the special operation in Lopota gorge.”

“I shall refrain from making my own conclusions for now. The investigation will be over soon, and we shall learn many interesting things, possibly, shocking things. There is the suspicion the previous authorities were in contact with militants, but we shall have to wait for the investigation to be completed,” he said.

At the beginning of this month ombudsman Ucha Nanuashvili said in his annual report that “the armed Chechens who were liquidated in the Lopota gorge had not entered Georgia from the North Caucasus, contrary to what was said then, but were invited by Interior Ministry officials to Georgia from Europe for training with the aim of being sent to Chechnya.”