The Lopota incident, known in Georgia as the special operation against an illegal armed group in Lopota (Georgian: შეიარაღებული დაჯგუფების დევნის ოპერაცია ლაფანყურში, romanized: ), was an armed incident where the Georgian special forces engaged an unknown paramilitary group of about 17 unknown individuals (7 of them would later be identified after the incident, see the Identities section) which had allegedly taken several people hostage in the remote Caucasus gorge of Lopota near the border between Georgia and the Russia's Republic of Dagestan.
At first, the gunmen were widely believed to be Russian Islamist insurgents from Dagestan, however several other theories suggest that they may be local Islamist militants from the Pankisi Gorge.
To this day, there is no definitive answer to the paramilitary group's identity, and the likelihood of their identity has remained classified by Georgian officials.
During the operation, which began on August 28, 2012, at least 14 people were killed and at least six wounded in a firefight on August 29. Among the victims were 11 members of the unknown armed group (including at least two Georgian citizens as well as at least five Russian citizens, all of the latter born in the former Chechen–Ingush ASSR).
Three Georgian special service personnel were killed and five were injured. On September 8, an injured suspected militant, Akhmed Chatayev, a Russian citizen of Chechen ethnicity holding a refugee status in Austria, was arrested. Chatayev was put on trial for illegal weapon possession but protests his innocence, saying he was actually a negotiator for the government and that he was carrying no arms; he was later acquitted. The operation was officially concluded on October 30.
Many details of the clash, the most deadly in Georgia since the 2008 South Ossetia war, still remain unclear. The governments of both Georgia and Russia, as well as Russia's Islamic insurgents of the Caucasus Emirate that abortively claimed that the unidentified armed group belonged to their main forces in Dagestan, accused each other of a provocation.
The incident was also lambasted by Georgian then-opposition (winner of the October 2012 election) coalition Georgian Dream, who accused Saakashvili's United National Movement government of lying about it and promised that those responsible for the deaths would be punished.
Background
The incident saw the worst loss of life in Georgia since the brief territorial war with Russia, in which hundreds of people were killed during five days in 2008. Tensions between the two countries have remained strong since the ceasefire, with the Russian military continuing to occupy Georgia's breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the two countries having not resumed diplomatic relations.Georgia hunting gunmen after clash at border, AFP / Gulf Times / 30/8/2012 (archived from the original on 2012-09-01)
The deadly clash in Georgia took place against the backdrop of the continued Islamic insurgency in Russia's North Caucasus region, including the Republic of Dagestan, where the situation was reported to be worsening for Russia. In the months preceding the incident, the mounting violence in Dagestan had reached the point of practically daily reports of attacks and armed clashes, with scores of fatalities each month. On the very day of the skirmish in Georgia (August 29, 2012), a local Dagestani member of the Russian Border Guard, apparently recruited by insurgents,Dagestan border guard who shot colleagues could be Wahabi recruit – source, Interfax, 29 August 2012 shot dead two of his fellow border guards and then killed at least five SOBR special purpose police officers from Russia's Altai Republic before being gunned down himself.Border Guard Kills 7 Servicemen in Dagestan, The Moscow Times, 30 August 2012 The day before (August 28), Dagestani rebels attacked a base of Russian Interior Ministry special forces, reportedly seizing its armory building and killing at least two Internal Troops paramilitary soldiers., Interfax / Voice of Russia, Aug 28, 2012 According to Caucasian Knot tally, during the week of August 27 – September 2, a total of at least 50 people fell victim to armed conflict in the North Caucasus, not including the events in Georgia.On August 27 – September 2, at least 50 persons fell victim to armed conflict in Northern Caucasus , Caucasian Knot, Sep 05 2012
The Russian government has repeatedly accused Georgia of offering a safe haven to the insurgents and the Western-backed Georgian government has consistently rejected Russian allegations. According to the BBC correspondent Damien McGuinness, "it was crucial for Georgia to act decisively, as there were fears in Tbilisi that Moscow would use any sign that terrorists from the North Caucasus are operating in the region as a pretext for moving [deeper] in to Georgia." Soso Tsintsadze, head of the Diplomatic Academy of Georgia, said a failure to "respond resolutely" would have exposed Georgia to "even more unpleasant developments". According to the website Vestnik Kavkaza, "such a radical decision and even tragic victims seem to be less evil than another explosion in Georgian-Russian relations in the event of the violation of Dagestani section of the border by an armed group from Georgia." Central Asia-Caucasus Institute analysis by Emil Souleimanov concluded: "As the counterinsurgent activities by federal and local armed forces gain momentum in Dagestan, the current epicenter of Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, where dozens of thousands of army and ministry of interior troops have concentrated recently, the pressure will increase on the insurgents to occasionally cross the Russian-Georgian, as well as the Russian-Azerbaijani borders, to secure a temporary safe haven. [...] Georgia and Azerbaijan would be prompted to either turn a blind eye on the presence of armed militants on their soil and risk a conflict with Moscow, which might use this as a pretext for exerting pressure on the South Caucasian countries with the ultimate risk of military interference, or risk a dangerous conflict with ethnic minorities of Chechen and Dagestani descent populating their borderline areas."
Georgian special operation On August 28, Georgian television reported that five young men from the village of Lapankuri in Telavi District, 20 kilometres from the Dagestani section of the border with Russia, had gone missing for several days. Some news reports cited local residents as saying that a few days earlier they had spotted several unknown men in military uniforms in the vicinity of the village. The missing men were soon reported found and taken by police for questioning. A former hostage said that the gunmen demanded to escort them to the border with Russia, promising to release them after reaching Dagestan and claiming they intended "to just quietly cross the border".Case of "one-armed" Akhmed , Expert Club, 15/11/2012 A man identified as Levan Khutsurauili, described as one of the freed civilians, later said that he and his friends had been seized on August 26 by an armed group of about 15 bearded men while returning from a picnic near the border and told they would be shot if they tried to escape.Three Georgians killed in clashes with gunmen near Russia border, AFP / Gulf Times, 30/8/2012 (archived from the original on 2012-08-30) According to some reports, the gunmen spoke Georgian.
Late on August 28, Georgian Interior Ministry released a brief statement saying that an armed group was detected and first reports emerged about movement of special forces in ground and air vehicles into the area. On the morning of August 29, the ministry announced that its troops blocked the gorge and were pursuing the armed group, and at 1 p.m. declared the operation as "anti-terrorist", claiming that the group had entered Georgia from Dagestan.Georgian army operation on Russian border leaves 14 dead, BBC News, 29 August 2012 Deputy Interior Minister Nodar Kharshiladze stressed: "We can't definitely say who these paramilitary people are and what their purpose is, but it is clear they were conducting some kind of terroristic activities there." Kharshiladze said that the militants had freed their hostages but then opened fire on security forces after being asked to surrender.3 commandos and 11 militants killed in Georgia hostage rescue attempt, The Independent, 29 August 2012 The deaths of 14 people were announced shortly before 4 p.m. The ministry also said that at least six gunmen were continuing their resistance to Georgian security forces,Georgian Forces Free Hostages Held By Militants, RFE/RL, 29.08.2012 but no further casualties were reported. On the next day, August 30, Georgian Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili, who has established an anti-crisis headquarters and held a meeting with all power ministers,Georgi Kalatozishvili, Georgia's War Picnic, Vestnik Kavkaza, 09/03/2012 announced the operations to be "nearly completed," saying it "ensured the security of our citizens and our borders," and that special forces were still searching for possible wounded stragglers from the armed group of around 20.
Speaking on national television late on August 29, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said that a "well-armed and well-trained armed group appeared on the Chechen and Dagestan section of the Georgian-Russian border" and took Georgian citizens hostage, and that this group was "destroyed" in a shootout after having ignored repeated demands to surrender, adding that military unmanned aerial vehicles have been deployed at the scene.Georgia Frees Hostages Along Border With Russia, The New York Times, August 29, 2012 Late on August 29, National Security Council of Georgia Chairman Giga Bokeria said that it is plausible that the group had links with anti-Moscow groups in Dagestan and "obvious" that their presence in Georgia was connected with "developments there", presumably meaning the reported buildup of the Russian Ground Forces in the western districts of Dagestan bordering on Georgia (earlier that year, about 20,000 Russian Army soldiers have been transferred from Chechnya to Dagestan).Leila Naroushvili, Special Operation and possible consequences for Georgia , Georgia Online, 03 September '12
A more detailed Georgian government account was released later on August 30. According to it, the crisis had begun on August 28, when the armed group captured a patrol of the Border Police of Georgia who had been searching for the five missing local residents. The gunmen agreed to an offer by a senior border guard officer to keep just him as a hostage and to let go the civilians and the other border guards. Later, an official from the Georgian Interior Ministry arrived to negotiate and demanded their surrender, which was rejected. The group then decided to swap the last captive border guard for the official, telling him that he is now their hostage. Two of the gunmen then accompanied the official to a location where he could talk with his superiors to update them about the new developments, but instead they were led to an ambush site, where one of them was shot dead by a government sniper. The shooting sparked a firefight, in which 10 more members of the armed group and three Georgian troops were killed. Georgian forces used helicopters and aerial drones.