November 21, 2009 | admin

Three weeks ago Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s federal security service, accused Georgia of harbouring Al Qaeda extremists in Pankisi. No terrorists have been discovered either by the numerous reporters who have travelled to the area or the delegation of journalists and foreign diplomats whose trip was organised by the Christian Democrat opposition party. But all the media attention aside, Pankisi remains an underreported region, home to people who have experienced the devastating power of both war and rhetoric.