Incident with Georgian TV crew on S. Ossetian border was provocation - Russian diplomat
MOSCOW. April 16 (Interfax) - The crossing of the border of South Ossetian border by Georgian reporters was a provocation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin has said.
"Just on the eve of our meeting [with envoy of the Georgian premier Zurab Abashidze in Prague] there was another incident with a group of Georgian journalists crossing the South Ossetian border which I find provocative," he said to Interfax on Wednesday.
"The undertaking was meant precisely to at least cast a shadow, if not foil our meeting with Zurab Abashidze," he said.
"The journalists were detained for understandable reasons. Today they were expelled back to Georgian territory under a judgment of the South Ossetian court," Karasin said.
"Let us hope that the next meeting which we have planned for July will be rid of such provocative preambles, and we will finally concentrate on dealing with practical matters," the high-ranking diplomat concluded.