Georgian Foreign Ministry said on October 13 that Russia's "utterly false" allegations about Tbilisi aiding Al Qaeda was a cause of "a serious concern".
Chief of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, claimed on October 13, that the Georgian secret services were assisting "Al Qaeda emissaries" in arranging sending of fighters and arms in Chechnya and Dagestan.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said that this "hysterical campaign" of spreading "absurdity" was an attempt by Moscow "to accuse Georgia of creating the catastrophic situation in the North Caucasus, for which Russia itself is to be blamed."
"The propaganda noise stirred up by the Kremlin on the normalization and stabilization of the situation [in North Caucasus] has failed to cover up the actually existing disastrous situation in the region, in particular, the fact that the conflict raging in the North Caucasus has entered its most acute stage. The Kremlin is aware that its attempts to bring the situation under control are vain and [by] employing [already] tested Soviet methods [it] tries to disguise its hopelessness by using the factor of external enemy," the Foreign Ministry said.
It also said that this allegation against Georgia originated in "some fevered brains."
"To meet its own imperialistic demands, the Kremlin will use any pretext in order to maximally [stir up] tension across the Georgian borders and create a suitable background for carrying out military provocations against the peaceful democratic country," the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.
