"Relations between countries must be civilized and based on certain rules. In case one of the parties would not abide by those rules, the other party reserves the right to remind the partner of its commitments. The Russian side has concluded that the most logical decision on their part would be to accept our proposal and have their weapons returned to them at the Upper Lars checkpoint," Ugulava said.
According to him, "the Georgian side had been repeatedly approached with proposals to return the confiscated Russian missiles to the Tskhinvali region (Georgia's name for South Ossetia, a self-proclaimed republic on Georgia's territory) in exchange for release of the earlier imprisoned Georgian police officers.
"We could not accept this proposal as we considered trading practices totally out of place in the given situation," the Georgian Deputy Defense Minister said.
Trucks carrying 300 unguided anti-tank missiles belonging to the Russian peacekeeping force deployed in the area of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict are currently on their way to the Upper Lars checkpoint. Representatives of Georgia's Defense Ministry accompany the trucks.
A deed certifying the weapons handover to the Russian side is to be drawn up and signed by the parties at the Upper Lars checkpoint.
The Russian weapons were confiscated near the village of Kekhvi in the area of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict on July 7. The battalion of Georgian peacekeepers and a unit of Georgia's interior troops jointly apprehended a column of 10 trucks belonging to the Russian peacekeepers.
The column was escorted by 40 Russian servicemen. The trucks carried up to 300 air-based missiles, radio transmitters, uniforms, tents, fuel and other materiel. They started from Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, and were bound for Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, as their destination.
Of the column's ten trucks eight were soon returned to the Russian peacekeepers but two, carrying a load of weapons, were confiscated.
Since 1992 the situation in the area of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict has been continuously controlled by peacekeeping forces and the Joint Control Commission comprising representatives of Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia and North Ossetia (an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation).
