| A failure at the Inguri hydroelectric station was caused by sabotage, said Georgian Fuel and Energy Minister Mamuka Nikoleishvili.
According to him, two sections of a 500,000 volt power line Imereti in western Georgia (in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict) were damaged by shots from an automatic weapon. The same happened to the Kolkhida-2 power line.
As a result, the Inguri hydroelectric station shut down automatically. According to Mr. Nikoleishvili, the energy system still does not generate electricity. Georgia’s National Security Ministry is investing the incident.
The breakdown at the Inguri hydroelectric station, which left the entire Georgia without electricity, was reported at 6:30 Moscow time. Tbilisi’s metro network stopped operating and the traffic signaling system broke down, causing gridlock on the roads. In addition, the water supply system is out of operation, as water intake facilities shut down.
Perhaps, it is the US power failure last week, which left about 50m people without power, that prompted Georgian terrorists to commit this act of sabotage. Commenting on the outage in the US and Canada, American terrorism analyst Steve Emerson said it was a very good training for terrorists, who realized that such things could be done easily. It seems that Georgian terrorists were quick to understand it. |