The Russian Embassy in Tbilisi said Friday morning that a diplomatic car with Russian diplomats had been stopped by Georgia's military police near the town of Gori, 25 km (about 16 miles) from Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, on its way from Tbilisi to Tskhinvali for a document check.
"I want to stress that it was a routine inspection to identify who was heading to the conflict zone," Merab Antadze said.
He said that Yury Popov, Russia's special envoy to Georgia and a co-chairman of the Joint Control Commission seeking to resolve the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict, who was a passenger in the detained car, had been permitted to go on to Tskhinvali.
But he said, "Land Forces Deputy Commander Valery Yevnevich, who was in the car and dressed in civilian clothes, would not be permitted to go further."
"There is an earlier coordinated with Russia procedure, which has been violated," he said. "Considering the tense situation in the region, when any provocation may occur, such movements in the zone of the conflict should be coordinated with Georgia. It was stated in a protocol signed by Russia and Georgia."
The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier sent a note of protest to the Georgian foreign ministry.
"Russia has sent a note to the Georgian Foreign Ministry expressing its very strong protest against the ungrounded detention of Russian diplomats by Georgian Defense Ministry officers during a trip in a diplomatic car to Tskhinvali," the source said.
The source described the move as "provocation against Russian representatives and the diplomatic mission."
The military police then attempted to examine the diplomatic car in violation of the Vienna convention, the embassy said.
