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Russia Won't Ignore Terrorists in Georgia
Thursday, March 14, 2002
By Robert Burns
Associated Press Writer

Bush and Putin “have agreed that they would like to have something that would go beyond their two presidencies,” Rumsfeld said.

WASHINGTON -- AP
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday his country will not ignore international terrorists who have infiltrated neighboring Georgia.

He said they are linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network and are “full of new plans for terrorist operations.”

Speaking at a news conference with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Ivanov said those terrorists had trained in Afghanistan, “committed terrible crimes” in the Russian breakaway province of Chechnya and are now in Georgia's remote Pankisi Gorge, only a dozen or so miles from Russia's border.

At the Georgian government's invitation, the Pentagon is preparing to send perhaps 150 troops to the former Soviet republic to train its armed forces in counterterrorist operations. Some in the Russian parliament have been sharply critical of the plan, but Ivanov gave no indication Wednesday that he opposed it.
(More: The Miami Herald News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan