09 February 2010, 22:00
Chikirov: incident with Khripun in South Ossetian-Georgian border is a provocation
The Frontier Department (FD) of the Russian FSB in South Ossetia has announced the reasons, which forced warrant officer Khripun to desert on December 21 from his post of frontier control. According to Colonel Dmitri Chikirov, deputy head of the above Department, Khripun's flight across the border was a provocation of Georgian special services.
"In my opinion, in the current situation, when we can rather efficiently control the border, special services of Georgia have nothing to do but stage provocations with the aim to compromise our presence in the republic and our actions to guard the border," Mr Chikirov said.
The Colonel gave the voluntary flight to the territory of Georgia of warrant officer Vitaly Khripun, a contracted serviceman of the FD of the FSB in South Ossetia, committed in the end of last year, as an example of such provocation.
"In case with Khripun, in my opinion, they made a mistake, since they traditionally relied on regular soldiers, and he happened to be a contractor, said Dmitri Chikirov. The announced political motives also look vicious, as he never took part in any political parties or movements. He had voluntarily contracted to serve for the FSB, and arrived in South Ossetia also on his will. He had served for less than ten days, when this episode happened."
The FD of the FSB of the Russian Federation believes that the persons earlier engaged in desertion to the Georgian territory of another soldier - Dmitri Artemiev - were also involved in this case.
Author: Maria Kotaeva Source: CK correspondent
