TBILISI/STAVROPOL. Aug 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian State Border Guard Department on Thursday lodged official claims to its Russian colleagues who announced the day before the detention of a group of 17 Georgian citizens trying to get to Russia illegally.
"Tbilisi has got no official information on the fact from Russian border guards," chief of the department's press service Shalva Londaridze told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Russian border guards have made public statements of that kind before without checking the data with the Georgian State Border Guard Department, he said.
The department has got no data on the detention on Georgian nationals in Russia, Londaridze stressed.
According to him, the press service of the North Caucasus regional border guard department reported on Wednesday that Georgian citizens were detained during a search and reconnaissance operation on the border strap controlled by the Bezhta picket of the Khunzakh detachment late on Monday. The department claims that more than 200 border guards have been detained on the Russian- Georgian border this year, Londaridze said.
An official of the North Caucasus department's press service told Interfax-AVN that no official statements were made by the press service on Wednesday.