Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge became the focus of much international attention
in 2001-2002. After the Second Chechen War, several thousand refugees
found shelter in the Pankisi Gorge. Then, Russia complained thatGorge had
become a safe haven for militants and terrorists. Russia put much pressure
on Georgia to eradicate the terrorist groups or to give the right to the Russian
side to control the situation in Pankisi.
In early February 2002, the American Chargé d’Affaires in Tbilisi, Philip
Remler, asserted that Islamic radicals fleeing Afghanistan were moving into
the region. To help Georgian authorities reestablish control of the region, the
U.S. government announced that it would send 100-150 Special Forces
advisors to Georgia to train the country’s counterinsurgency troops. The
announcement was met with an outcry by many officials in Moscow, who
took this as evidence of yet another American encroachment into Russia’s
traditional sphere of influence. The protests only abated after Russia’s president,
Vladimir Putin, stated that, in his opinion, the U.S. military support for
Georgia was in fact “no tragedy”