Berisha denies any arms sale to Georgia

TIRANA, Aug 26 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha has denied that Albania had sold weapons to Georgia, as a top Russian military officials said a day earlier.
Berisha rejected what the Russian media said, listing Albania among the countries from the Balkans that had sold weaponry to Georgia.
“Georgia is a friendly, democratic country that has all the support a democratic and friendly country deserves in a difficult situation,” said Berisha Tuesday at a news conference. Berisha also said that he was not surprised by the Russian accusation, adding that they have “a constant stand against Albanians.”
“Russia’s stand toward small countries should be denounced. One day it attacks a country, the next day it makes statements against Croatia’s and Albania’s NATO membership.”
Russian army deputy commander, General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, told the media that “Albania and other Balkan countries have supplied weapons to Tbilisi,” meaning they had intervened with military weapons in the conflict.
He included in his list Macedonia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania and Serbia.
Berisha said that even imagining that Georgia needed Albania’s weapons was invented. (Tirana Times Staff)