TBILISI. Feb 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian police held up a truck belonging to a Russian military base in Georgia and loaded with 42 tank shells on Friday, Georgian military police told Interfax, saying the driver had failed to show a document to authorize the journey.
Meanwhile, a source in the base's command told Interfax the conflict had practically been settled and that the police would shortly release the truck, which was carrying the ammunition from one of the base's facilities to another.
The base is located in the region of Ajaria. The police stopped the vehicle near the Ajarian capital Batumi, Georgian military police said.
A spokesman for the command of the Russian military force in Transcaucasia told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday that "the problem is not in the movement of trucks of shells with proper documents, but with the fact that Georgia has launched a comprehensive check-up of Georgian visas among Russian servicemen."
According to him, nearly all Russian servicemen have expired Georgian visas, but Georgia has so far failed to issue new visas to them.