The Ministry of Defense of Georgia had signed 26 January a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with EU military mission (EUMM) on limited deployment of armamament at the territories adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. According to the MoU, Georgia had committed itslf not to deploy more than a battalion of personnel and arms not exceeding 120-mm caliber in 15 km from the administrative borders of these republics.
This agreement has been commented by the Press-service of the RSO MoD. The Press-service noted that "the EUMM welcomed the actions taken by Georgia stating that this was a unilateral move forward to ensure more scurity, though unclear for whom".
"Taking into consideration the fact that the EU monitors are military, they should know that if necessary, the Georgian armed subunits currently deployed in Gori are able to reach Tskhinval in an hour (the distance from Gori to Tskhinval is 25 km)", said the press-service.
According to data available at the RSO MoD, "presently, the number of personnel, equipment and munitions is half as much again than in August 2008 when Georgia had attacked South Ossetia".
The press-service added that "the EUMM do not notice the concentration of Georgian police forces throughout the borderline of South Ossetia where according to our information, more than 2000 policemen and more than 42 checkpoints are deployed. Hence, the EUMM do not want to pay attention to the fact that there is an open preparation for a new armed aggression by Georgia is ongoing".
