According to an embassy official, Netkachev has not established a contact with the Russian military in Georgia or the Russian embassy in Tbilisi.
Netkachev was transferred to the reserve about ten years ago and now is a private person, the embassy official said.
Earlier, Georgian Interior Minister Giorgy Baramidze told journalists: "We know that General Netkachev is training illegal armed formations in Adzharia. Military equipment, from small arms to armored vehicles, is being bought." The minister maintained that Netkachev came to Adzharia on Abashidze's invitation.
"On March 14 I personally saw combat vehicles, servicemen, trenches and pillboxes in Choloki on the administrative border with Adzharia," Georgian Prosecutor General Irakly Okruashvili told journalists Tuesday.
Appearing on television Sunday night, President Mikhail Saakashvili said that General Netkachev "arrived in Adzharia on call from Abashidze to destabilize the situation." According to Saakashvili, the general, under whose command are 1,500 "specially trained servicemen" of the Adzharian armed forces, "has one goal - preventing the restoration of integrity of Georgia, establishment of the supremacy of law and the central authorities on the entire territory of the country."
