Georgian Police Release Russian TV Crew

A crew from the Russian REN-TV was released after spending several hours in the local police station in Zugdidi, a town in western Georgia at the administrative border with breakaway Abkhazia, Russian and Georgian media sources reported on February 12.

Three members of the TV crew were detained in the evening of February 11 while filming near the bridge over the Enguri river, which divides breakaway Abkhazia from the rest of Georgia.

Local police officials said that the TV crew members had no accreditations and they were requested to go back in Tbilisi and apply to the Georgian Foreign Ministry for the necessary papers.

The REN-TV reported that the journalists were requested by the Georgian police to erase parts of the tape, according to Interfax news agency.

The TV crew arrived in Georgia nine days ago to make a documentary about the 1992-1993 armed conflict in Abkhazia, Igor Prokopenko, REN-TV producer, told Echo Moskvy radio station, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.