TBILISI, February 5. /TASS/. The organizers of an attempt to smuggle explosives from Ukraine to Russia via Georgia could have committed a terrorist act inside the country, as it was decided to leave some of the explosive devices in Tbilisi, the director of the counter-terrorism center of the Georgian State Security Service, Bacha Mgeladze, has said.
According to Mgeladze, the State Security Service managed to prevent "the transit of three explosive devices in one container to the territory of another country, to Russia." Also, he speculated that "similar terrorist attacks could have been carried out on the territory of Georgia, and this was also prevented by the State Security Service and the counterterrorism center."
He also noted that the explosive device was made by a specialist and was powerful enough to hit a fairly large area, causing heavy casualties.
The state security service said earlier that the Georgian authorities had detained a cargo containing explosives that was transiting the country from Odessa to Voronezh via Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. The explosive devices contained 14 kilograms of weapons-grade plastic explosive C-4. They can be set off with an electric fuse and a special timer.
According to the security services, at some point the organizers' plan changed and they decided to send one container with three explosive devices to Russia, while another one - also with three bombs inside - was left in Tbilisi at a certain address. The cargo bound for Russia was stopped in Georgia at the moment it was about to cross the border.
The security service specified that seven citizens of Georgia, three citizens of Ukraine and two citizens of Armenia were involved in bringing the explosives into Georgia, while the transportation of explosives was organized by a citizen of Ukraine, candidate for a seat in the regional legislature of the Odessa Region from the ruling party Servant of the People in 2020, Andrey Sharashidze.