MOSCOW, February 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed Wednesday that three Russian officers had been detained by Georgian military police.
Vyacheslav Sedov, a ministry spokesman, said the officers had traveled to Georgia to investigate an incident on February 1, in which Georgian military police had detained a Russian peacekeepers' truck.
"We are certain that the incident will soon be over and the officers released," Sedov said.
Georgian Minister for Separatist Conflicts Georgy Khaindrava said the situation would be settled swiftly, and that the officers had been detained because they had no Georgian visas.
"Visas will be issued for them tomorrow," Khaindrava said.
Irina Gagloyeva, the head of the South Ossetian information and press committee said earlier that the detained officers were Land Forces Colonel Vladimir Ivanov, Lieutenant Colonel Gennady Petrosyan, and Defense Ministry Military Auto Inspection Officer Valery Kryuk.
The incident on February 1 began with a road accident involving a convoy of peacekeepers and a car owned by a Georgian driver. After the accident, hundreds of armed Georgian policemen and soldiers arrived on the scene, and confiscated the Russian truck until compensation had been paid.
Russian troops are stationed in the zone of the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia, which erupted in the early 1990s, as part of the Joint Collective Peacekeeping Forces.
