TBILISI, Jan 22 (AFP-NT) - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze Monday accused Russian opponents of President Boris Yeltsin of undermining Moscow's interests by supporting separatists in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia. "Supporters of Abkhaz separatism are sitting in the Russian Duma (lower house of parliament) and passing on various documents. They have on their consciences the ethnic cleansing of Armenians, Georgians and Greeks, and also various ethnic murders," Shevardnadze said on Georgian radio. "If the State Duma supports Abkhaz separatism, why shouldn't they allow separatism in Russia? I repeat that the support of Abkhaz separatism goes against Russia's national interests," he said. The hijacking of a Black Sea ferry in Turkey last week by pro-Chechen gunmen led by an ethnic Abkhaz showed that instability in the Caucasus region "begins in Abkhazia," Shevardnadze said. Shevardnadze welcomed Yeltsin's decision last week to tighten the economic blockade against Abkhazia, but warned that the Russian leader's opponents in the Duma could still undo Moscow's tougher position. Some 3,000 Russian peacekeepers now guard Abkhazia's border with the rest of Georgia. Abkhaz leaders have said the economic blockade is a Russian-Georgian plot to drive them to starvation, but Shevardnadze said food supplies would be allowed through, provided importers obtained permission from Tbilisi. "Residents of Abkhazia are citizens of Georgia. We are prepared to share with them everything, even our last crumb of bread," he said. He said a negotiated solution with the separatists could be reached if they were willing to back down on their demand for absolute independence from Georgia. "They will have their own constitution, flag, seal and anthem, provided they agree that Abkhazia is a subject of a united Georgian republic," Shevardnadze said. AFP /AA1234/221354 GMT JAN 96

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