GEORGIA: FOLLOW ON QUESTIONS ON REMOVAL OF SUKHUMI

C O N F I D E N T I A L TBILISI 000121 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR ISN/WMDT, EUR/PRA, EUR/RUS, AND EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2019 TAGS: KNNP PARM PGOV PREL RS GG SUBJECT: GEORGIA: FOLLOW ON QUESTIONS ON REMOVAL OF SUKHUMI RADIOACTIVE SOURCES REF: A. 09 STATE 3902 ¶B. 08 STATE 126999 ¶C. 08 MOSCOW 3605 ¶D. 08 TBILISI 2172 Classified By: AMBASSADOR JOHN F. TEFFT FOR REASONS 1.4 B and D. ¶1. (U) This is an action request. Post requests Department's assistance in providing responses to the questions in paragraph 3. End action request. ¶2. (C) Poloffs delivered ref A demarche to Giorgi Dolidze, MFA's Deputy Director of the Security Policy and Euro-Atlantic Integration Department, and Nestan Bejanishvili, Third Secretary of the same department. Dolidze thanked poloffs for the information and stated that if the high-level radioactive sources no longer exist in Abkhazia, then we have reached our common goal of removing this threat from Georgia. He said he would speak with his leadership after the meeting and forward any reactions. ¶3. (C) Dolidze did express some concern regarding the Russian response and asked the following three questions. (1) What guarantees did the Russians provide that they had removed the high-level radioactive sources? He stated that the Georgians do not want to be in the position one day of discovering these sources in a smuggling case. (2) Did the Russians formally inform the IAEA that they had removed these sources? (3) Did the Russians remove all the radioactive sources from the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and the Sukhumi Institute for Experimental Pathology or only the four high-level radioactive sources? ¶4. (U) Post appreciates the Department's assistance in answering the Georgian questions above. TEFFT