TBILISI, December 4 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian police said they detained two Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone with breakaway South Ossetia, but commanders of the peacekeeping forces have denied the report.
"Two Russian peacekeepers were detained for smuggling," said the head of the Georgian Interior Ministry administration, Shota Khizanishvili.
He added that the detained officers would be handed over to the Joint Peacekeeping Forces of former Soviet republics, or CIS peacekeepers, deployed in the conflict zone.
The CIS peacekeepers denied the Georgian police announcement.
"All Russian peacekeepers are in place," Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, the peacekeepers' commander, said over the phone from Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.
But he added that "personnel in the Ossetian battalion were being checked."
