on march 14, nikoloz rurua, the then deputy chairman of the georgian parliament's committee for defense and security, did point the finger at russia as he said that the helicopters came from russian territory. he further said that the "helicopters, preliminarily identified as mi-24 attack gunships, flew [into the kodori gorge] from russian territory or, to be precise, from the territory of kabardino-balkaria. they made a circle above the villages of upper abkhazia, and as they were making a second circle they dropped about 20 unguided rockets, or so-called nurs (russian-made unguided) rockets." georgian deputy foreign minister eka sguladze made similar allegations in remarks to foreign diplomats that day.