ITAR-TASS, via RT, is reporting that the U.S. plans to "supply Georgia with more anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons worth tens of millions of dollars." The RT report -- sourced to unnamed Russian intelligence officials -- continues:

[T]he weapons will be supplied through third-party countries, as is usually practiced by the United States.

“According to the verified data that is in our possession, these promises were made by Deputy Defense Secretary of the United States Mr. Alexander Vershbowand Senator John McCain to the Georgian Minister for Eurointegration Georgy Baramidze during the latter’s visit to Washington in December last year. In reply to the Georgian emissary’s persistent requests for urgent supplies of anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons “for fighting off the Russian aggression” in connection with the stationing of Russian anti-aircraft complex S-300 in Abkhazia and a battalion of Smerch multiple-launch missile systems in South Ossetia. The American side has pointed that in the light of the productive meeting of the two countries’ presidents in the framework of the NATO summit in Lisbon in November 2010, the United States administration is holding consultation on the subject and the decision will be taken soon,” the source said.

The special services source said that, according to Russian estimates, the weapons to be supplied could be the Patriot anti-missile complexes, the Stinger and Igla-3 shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, as well as the anti-tank missiles Javelin and Hellfire-2.

There are many reasons for skepticism here. I'll skip the most obvious one -- RT. But in addition to that, there is little point in a secret arms deal. As we've said before, much of the reason Saakashvili wants U.S. weapons is for the message it would send to Russia, that U.S. support is solid. A secret deal doesn't accomplish that.

Another reason for skepticism: we've heard this story before. RT reported in November 2009:

The US has offered to sell Georgia up to $100 million worth of weapons, which would include, among others, a sophisticated air defense system, small arms and ammunition, according to Russian security services.

Russia's General Staff says the offer was made by a private arms manufacturer after Tbilisi asked Washington for its military assistance, Itar-Tass news agency reports.

That story, in fact, is illustrated by the exact same photo of a Patriot unit that the new story is. And Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been regularly claiming that the U.S. is arming Georgia. As he said last August:

I can see, the present US administration's intentions to improve relations with Russia can be altogether precisely tracked. But there is something else too. For example, the continued rearming of Georgia is underway. Why? Well, it is certainly real. We can see, after all, if there had been no rearmament two years ago, there would have been no aggression or the blood that was shed there either,” Putin said in an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant on August 30. “Now the rearmament continues.”

Maybe they think that if they say it enough times people will start to believe it?