Plan to disrupt NATO exercises thwarted

Source: Agencies | May 6, 2009, Wednesday |

Print Edition

GEORGIA said it ended a brief mutiny yesterday at a military base near the capital Tbilisi and thwarted a plan to disrupt NATO exercises.

The Interior Ministry first announced that the mutiny was part of a Russia-supported plot to overthrow the government, and that the suspected organizers had been arrested the night before.

But the ministry later backed off and said the plotters were intent mainly on disrupting NATO military exercises set to begin in Georgia today.

The mutineers surrendered after speaking to President Mikhail Saakashvili, who suggested that force could be used against them, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Saakashvili said the mutiny was an isolated case and the situation in the country was under control.

"The plan was to have military riots at different places all over Georgia," Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. "To make sure that at the minimum the NATO trainings will not happen and at the maximum there is a full-scale military riot in the country."

Russia's NATO envoy Dmitri Rogozin said that allegations of Russian involvement were "crazy."

Russia, which fought a brief war against Georgia last year, has sharply criticized the exercises, which it said would encourage Saakashvili to rebuild its devastated army.

World

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Plan to disrupt NATO exercises thwarted

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