Georgia announces discovery of 14kg of explosives allegedly transported from Ukraine to Russia. PHOTO
The Georgian Security Service said it had seized a cargo of explosive devices allegedly being transported from Odesa, some of which were to be delivered to Voronezh in Russia. Georgian law enforcement officials said that Andriy Sharashidze, a candidate for the Odesa district council from the Servant of the People party, was allegedly involved in the transportation of the cargo.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the Radio Liberty project Echo of the Caucasus and the Security Service of Georgia.
As noted, the cargo contained six explosive devices.
According to the Georgian special service, they were brought from Odesa, via Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey to Georgia on 19 January through the Sarfi checkpoint in a minibus owned by a Ukrainian citizen. The SSU believes that the explosives were planned to be transported to Russia, namely to Voronezh, through the Daryal checkpoint. Law enforcement officials claim that the explosives, weighing a total of 14 kilograms, arrived in Georgia under the guise of electric vehicle batteries.
Who may be involved
Three explosive devices were seized on the Russian-Georgian border, and three more were "left in Tbilisi at a specific address". The special service does not rule out that the organisers planned to carry out terrorist attacks in Georgia.
The Georgian Special Service believes that 7 people from Georgia, 3 from Ukraine and 2 from Armenia are involved in the importation of these explosive devices into the territory of Georgia and their movement throughout the country.
The process, according to the SBU, was organised by Andrii Sharashidze, a citizen of Ukraine, a candidate for the Kyiv District Council of Odesa in 2020 from the Servant of the People party, who is originally from Batumi.
The investigation believes that only Sharashidze knew about the explosives. It is noted that he actively monitored the movement of explosive devices from outside Georgia.
"It has been established that the explosive devices contain military-grade plastic explosive C-4, which is activated by an electric detonator and a special timer. The total weight of the explosive is 14 kilograms. The containers also contained 6 units of detonators and 6 units of special keys.
All six separate boxes of the explosive device had the same number of electronic trigger timers, which had already been programmed with the trigger time. As a result of the initial examination of the seized devices, it was found that all six devices were manufactured by high-level specialists and designed for a wide radius of destruction," the press service said.
The country's counter-terrorism centre is currently conducting an investigation under an article relating to the illegal acquisition and storage of explosives and devices. This offence is punishable by imprisonment for a term of 3 to 6 years. The qualification may also include an article on preparing a terrorist attack, which provides for imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years.
Ukrainian diplomats, law enforcement officials, and Sharashidze himself have not yet commented publicly on the situation.
