TSKHINVALI, South Ossetia. Dec 22(Interfax-AVN) - The Russian border guard service's branch in South Ossetia said it was checking a report that a Russian border guard was arrested on Georgian territory early on Monday.
"According to information from the Georgian side, Vitaly Viktorovich Khripun, a warrant officer of the Border Guard Department of the Russian Federal Security Service in the Republic of South Ossetia, was detained in the vicinity of the village of Perevi in the republic's Dzhava district," the department said.
"The Georgian side was ready to hand over the detainee but then postponed the handover for an indefinite time," it said.
The department confirmed that Khripun was "in the vicinity of the village of Perevi as a member of a border guard detail" early on Monday.
It said Khripun, 25, had joined the department this month.