NAVY REFUTES REPORTS THAT RUSSIAN SEINER WAS DETAINED BY GEORGIAN BORDER GUARDS

MOSCOW, February 13 (RIA Novosti) - An aide to the commander-in-chief of the Navy, Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo, refuted the reports that the Russian seiner Trepang was detained by the Georgian maritime boarder guard in Georgian waters.

He said, "at 4:00 a.m. on February 13 the Trepang seiner, illegally fishing in Georgian waters, raised a Russian flag when a Georgian boarder guard boat approached it and tried to escape to neutral waters."

The seiner stopped after the Georgian boarder guard boat fired a warning shot. During the course of the investigation it became clear that the seiner was Ukrainian and was registered in Kerch.

Igor Dygalo stressed, "the actions of the captain and the crew, who tried to use the Russian flag as a cover in order to avoid responsibility, are extremely incomprehensible."

Shalva Londaridze, the head of the press center of Georgia's State Border Guard, said the vessel was detained for illegally fishing near Ochamchiri (Abkhazia).