MOSCOW. Oct 6 (Interfax-AVN) - Force and political measures will compel Georgia to give up attempts to detain merchant vessels heading to Abkhazia in the Black Sea, the Russian Border Service has said.
"Seizures are ventured in neutral waters, so it's a kind of piracy on Georgia's part. Measures combining force and political pressure will be worked out to cool their heads and to stop these illegal ventures," Maj. Gen. Yury Zviryk, the head of the Russian Border Service's Abkhazia department, said in an interview, published by the newspaper Vremya Novostei on Tuesday.
Asked what Russian border services in Abkhazia can do, if Georgian ships attempt a seizure of a merchant vessel, Zaviryk said, "I don't think anything will have to be done. The very presence of our law enforcement contingent in the sea will discourage Georgia from behaving like that," he said.
Coastguard boats and ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet will convoy merchant ships sailing to Abkhazia, he said. "We will guard areas, which civilian ships will cross," the general said.
The intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Abkhazia says that Russian border guards will remain based in Abkhazia for five years. "Beyond this deadline, we will either continue doing our job, if needed, or if the Abkhaz side is ready, hand the functions of protecting the border over to it," he said.