Russia’s claims that some 700 Chechen fighters had spent that winter in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge. He further claimed that Russian General Gennady Shpigun, abducted and killed in Chechnya in 1999/2000, was in fact held captive and put to death in Pankisi, with the body then taken to southern Chechnya. Georgia dismissed all these claims, however. Georgian Prosecutor-General Nugzar Gabrichidze claimed that Kitovani had been in close contact with National Guard veterans who staged a failed mutiny on March 23, 2003. Kitovani, however, denied any links with the mutiny. Kitovani returned to Tbilisi, in December 2012, after the change of government in the aftermath of the October 2012 parliamentary election. In early 2014, President Giorgi Margvelashvili stripped him of his Georgian citizenship. Notes References Jonathan Wheatley (2005), Georgia from National Awakening to Rose Revolution: Delayed Transition in the Former Soviet Union. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., . Bruce Parrott (1995), State Building and Military Power in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. M.E. Sharpe, . Karen Dawisha, Bruce Parrott (1997), Conflict, Cleavage, and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Cambridge University Press, . David Darchiashvili, "Georgian Defense Policy and Military Reform", in: Bruno Coppieters (2005), Statehood and Security: Georgia After the Rose Revolution. MIT Press, . 1938 births Living people Politicians from Tbilisi Svan people Government ministers of Georgia (country) Generals from Georgia (country) Generals of the Defense Forces of Georgia Leaders who took power by coup Military personnel from Tbilisi