The Interfax correspondent: How does the Russian side view the fact that Georgia has circulated a statement in the UN Security Council in which, among other things, it charges Russia with violating the air space of Georgia?

Foreign Minister Ivanov: Today even the official authorities of Georgia are forced to admit that in the Pankisi Gorge international terrorists have settled down who are carrying out criminal actions on the territory of Russia, primarily in the Chechen Republic. These facts are well known in the US, in European and many other states.

All member countries of the UN have in line with UN SC resolution 1373 assumed a commitment to wage a struggle against, and suppress the activity of international terrorists on their territories. These commitments apply to Georgia in full measure. Unfortunately, apart from statements of a general character containing promises to put an end to terrorism, in actual practice nothing is being done. As the latest developments have shown, international mercenaries feel quite at home in the Pankisi Gorge.

Official Tbilisi, in order to justify its inaction or inability with its own forces to eliminate the seat of international terrorism on its territory, is trying to shift the attention of the Georgian and international public now to the problem of refugees, now to the need to render humanitarian assistance to wounded gunmen, now to a violation of the airspace by unidentified flying objects. In parallel, statements are being made that it is necessary to sign a grand treaty between Russia and Georgia and then, it says, all the problems will be solved.

If we are to speak of refugees from the Chechen Republic, Russia has repeatedly stated its willingness to render all the necessary assistance in their return home. To this day, unfortunately, the Georgian side has not even handed us any lists of those refugees. Talks on a new treaty are continuing and the Russian side will conduct them in a constructive way. As to the latest allegations about UFOs, it is not the first time that the Georgian side has used this trick as a diversionary maneuver.

Unfortunately, the official representatives of Georgia have never been able to give any reasonable answers on the substance of the main problem - the struggle against international terrorism.

Why on the territory of Georgia, whose sovereignty and territorial integrity Russia always recognized and is recognizing, do hundreds of gunmen and foreign mercenaries operate with impunity, receiving financial and material support from international centers of terrorism?

Why do these terrorist gangs plan and carry out military provocations with impunity?

Why do the Georgian authorities, who, as the latest evidence shows, have information about terrorists' plans, do not duly inform the Russian side as not only the principle of good-neighborliness requires but is also an obligation under the UN Security Council's resolutions?

These are the legitimate questions which the Russian public is asking and to which, unfortunately, we have received no clear answers from Tbilisi so far.

Russia is ready to develop good-neighborly, friendly relations with Georgia. We are ready to help in fighting international terrorism, which poses a threat no less, and perhaps even more to Georgia itself. But it is for Tbilisi to make the choice.