Moscow attempting to resume smuggling across S. Ossetia – Georgia

Interfax, Russia
Oct 15 2004

Tbilisi. (Interfax) – The Georgian president’s envoy in Shida Kartli
area Mikheil Kareli believes that Russia is attempting to channel
cargo and passengers from Russia to Armenia via South Ossetia in an
effort to reestablish a smuggling route and allow Ossetian separatist
to obtain funds.

Georgian authorities will not allow transport links between Armenia
and Russia across South Ossetia, he said.

Cargo may also be channeled across South Ossetia so as to set Georgia
and Armenia against each other, Kareli said on Thursday.

For the third day in a row, the Georgian police have not allowed a
bus carrying 36 passengers en route from Moscow to Yerevan to pass
through a checkpoint in the village of Ergneti because the carrier
has not cleared the transit with the Georgian authorities, an official
in the Georgian Interior Ministry told Interfax.