By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russian police are preparing to thwart plans by Georgian terrorists to unleash attacks in major Russian cities in retaliation against Moscow’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a Russian daily said on Thursday.
Izvestia published the texts of two alert notices sent to police stations nationwide, which said terrorists from Georgian radical movements had been preparing a series of attacks in cities including Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“Moscow police have operative information indicating that unidentified members of radical groups from the Caucasus, including Patriots of Georgia, are planning to conduct a number of terrorist acts in Russia, including in Moscow,” the newspaper quoted one of the documents as saying.
Another notice said: “Refugees from Abkhazia residing in St. Petersburg and Sochi are preparing to blow up a number of houses in these cities. Explosive devices will be delivered to them in October 2008.”
“In addition, Patriots of Georgia are planning to use suicide bombers and a new method of terrorism – indiscriminate shooting in public places in city centers,” the document said.
Moscow police did not comment on the article “to avoid spreading panic among people,” but said that a large-scale anti-terrorist operation was underway in the capital.
“We will take all appropriate measures to prevent terrorist acts,” a source in Moscow police told RIA Novosti.
Russia recognized Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on August 26, two weeks after it forced out Georgian troops that had tried to retake control of the rebel republic.
Since then a number of terrorist acts were committed on the territory of these republics, killing and injuring local civilians and Russian peacekeepers.
At least seven Russian peacekeepers were killed and three wounded on October 3 when a car bomb exploded near the headquarters of a peacekeeping battalion in the South Ossetian capital.
Russia has denounced the blast in Tskhinvali as an act of terrorism by Georgian special forces, aimed at damaging a peace plan for the region.