Georgia Releases Russian Officers
February 10, 2006
10 February 2006 -- Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said today that three Russian military officers detained by the police on 8 February had been released and given 24 hours to leave the country.
The three men were arrested in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia for entering the country without passports.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on 9 February that the men were in South Ossetia to investigate the recent seizure of a Russian military truck by the Georgian police after it crashed into a civilian car.
Okruashvili said the Russians had been handed over to observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in South Ossetia.
(Rustavi-2, Civil Georgia, AP)