Chairman of the Abkhaz State Security Service (SSS) Robert Kiut said on Sunday that Joint Russian-Abkhaz counter-terrorism exercises that have been taking place in the Abkhaz capital of Sukhum aim to eliminate external threats.

Representatives of the security services announced on Wednesday that counter-terrorism exercises will be held in Abkhazia's capital from January 27 to February 5. 

The former Supreme Council of the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic's main building was chosen as a training site for the exercises.

Kiut told journalists that "for the first time in the history of the republic, such activities are carried out together with our colleagues from the Russian FSB [Federal Security Service]. This event was organized taking into account, first of all, external threats that exist and, respectively, various internal manifestations of a terrorist and other nature. Such large-scale activities will continue to be held." 

The exercises were attended by approximately 500 people from both the Russian and Abkhaz sides. Their mission was to free the hostages and destroy the terrorists who had taken over the government building. Kiut anticipates that larger-scale exercises will be conducted in the mountains and at sea.

In a related context, the Russian Ambassador to Ireland Yuriy Filatov said that Russia has decided to relocate Russian navy exercises planned for February 3-8 in the Atlantic to the outside of Ireland's exclusive economic zone so as not to interfere with the activities of Irish fishermen.