TBILISI. Aug 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian border service has asked its Russian counterpart to warn the captains of Russian vessels to refrain from entering Georgian territorial waters off the coast of Abkhazia, a Thursday press release from the border service says.
The service sent an official letter to the North Caucasian regional directorate of the Russian Border Guard Service saying that "possible ship movement in Abkhaz territorial waters must be agreed upon with the Georgian side." "Otherwise such movements will be regarded as blatant violations of shipping rules," the press release says.
It says the letter was prompted by an increasing number of illegal movements of ships in the Abkhaz section of Georgian territorial waters.
Abkhazia (Sukhumi) as well as South Ossetia (Tskhinvali) are de jure provinces of Georgia, which gained independence from Tbilisi in the 1990s. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been urging Abkhazia and South Ossetia to reestablish state ties with Tbilisi, but Sukhumi and Tskhinvali have rejected these attempts. The Georgian leader promised that his victory over the separatist region of Ajaria would be followed by resumption of control over the two provinces.