MOSCOW/TBILISI. April 16 (Interfax) - Moscow sees the illegal crossing by three Georgian television journalists of the South Ossetian border as a provocation ahead of the Prague meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Georgian Prime Minister's Special Representative Zurab Abashidze.
"Russian border guards, who are protecting South Ossetia's border with Georgia in accordance with an international agreement, have apprehended three Georgian television journalists in the South Ossetian territory," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary posted on its website on Wednesday.
"Under the existing order, the apprehended individuals were handed over to the South Ossetian authorities. The available data confirm that the violators deliberately and demonstratively crossed over from the Georgian border village of Adzvi to the adjacent South Ossetian populated area where they started filming border infrastructure," the statement said.
"It is hard to call it something other than a planned action aimed at complicating the atmosphere of today's Prague meeting between Karasin and Abashidze. It is remarkable that this is not the first time that such provocations are being organized precisely ahead of a Prague meeting. All this, along with recent tales of 'violations of the Georgian airspace by Russian aircraft,' points to the ongoing struggle within Georgian society between forces seeking to normalize relations with Russia and those who are sharing the course towards the escalation of hostility, which was pursued by the Saakashvili regime," the ministry said.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said he hopes that the arrested Georgian journalists will soon be released.
"I hope our journalists will soon be released and the problem will be settled," he told reporters on Wednesday.
"Such facts harm the process of normalizing our relations with Russia," he added.
"Today Zurab Abashidze is meeting with Grigory Karasin and this matter will be discussed among others," Garibashvili said.
We need "healthier" relations with Russia, the Georgian prime minister said.