TBILISI, July 15 (RIA Novosti, Marina Kvaratskheliya) - The two Russian tanks that were detained near the Gonio shooting range on Friday morning have been returned to the Russian base, the Georgian Defense Ministry said.
The ministry said that the Commandant's Office of Batumi, the capital of Adzharia (a Georgian autonomous republic), had returned the tanks.
"The incident is over. It occurred because mechanisms to implement agreements were not in place. The main issue now is how we observe the terms of the joint statement in the future," Vladimir Chkhikvishvili, the Russian ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Georgia, said today after meeting with Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said Russian and Georgian diplomats were working on an addition to the joint statement, which was likely to be signed in August.
The Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus (GRVZ) said the incident at the Gonio shooting range had been due to a misunderstanding.
The incident took place when the Commandant of Batumi arrived at the Gonio shooting range Friday and demanded that the Batumi-stationed Russian military stop military drilling.
Spokesman for the GRVZ Vladimir Kuparadze said the incident probably occurred because the commandant had not been aware of the contents of the joint statement.
"The joint statement of the Russian and Georgian foreign ministries provides for drilling with light arms with a gauge of no more than 20mm and for driving vehicles at the range. On July 13-14, drilling with light arms was held and tanks were driven in Gonio ahead of their withdrawal from Adzharia by September 1, 2005," Kuparadze said.
Georgian media reported Friday that military vehicles of the 12th Russian base located in Batumi had been detained on the way to the Gonio shooting range.
