TBILISI. Sept 14 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is using an incident where two peacekeepers were detained in the Tskhinvali region to escalate tensions in the conflict area, Tbilisi said.
"Tskhinvali residents Tariel Khachirov and Vitaly Valiyev were detained on August 29 and are charged with committing a grave crime. The court ordered their preliminary detention for two months," the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Friday.
"Both Khachirov and Valieyv are Georgian citizens, which is why Georgia cannot understand and accept the claims made by the Russian Foreign Ministry," the statement said.
"It leaves the impression that certain circles in Russia are willing to use the detention by Georgian law enforcement bodies of the Georgian citizens living in the conflict area for their own ends and make Georgian-Russian relations more complicated," the ministry said.
Earlier reports said servicemen Khachirov and Valiyev were Russian citizens and served in the North Ossetian battalion of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces. They were detained on August 29. A district court in Mtskheta sentenced the pair to two months of preliminary detention on September 1.