"Spetsnaz" of Georgia has released detained Ossetians

Georgian special police agents ("spetsnaz") have released the citizens of South Ossetia who had been detained earlier on Tuesday. Mikhail Mindzaev, Ministry of Internal Affairs of the unrecognized Republic, reported about it to the "Interfax" Agency late on Tuesday.

As he said, the hostages were released at 8:17 p.m. Moscow time, that is 43 minutes prior to expiry of the ultimatum, which had been put forward by the authorities of South Ossetia. Due to release of the hostages and withdrawal of the Georgian "spetsnaz" troops outside the area of the incident, the tension in the zone of Georgian-Ossetian conflict has been removed, Mr. Mindzaev has added.

We remind you that earlier, on February 13, militia of the unrecognized Republic detained, in the vicinity of the village of Kokhati, three Georgian trucks that were making their way with humanitarian freights to the village of Vanati. The authorities of Tskhinval motivated the action by the fact that the freight transportation had not been coordinated in advance, as stipulated by the agreement between the parties. In response, the Georgian "spetsnaz" that accompanied the trucks detained about ten citizens of South Ossetia from the villages of Kokhati and Dmenis.

The "Caucasian Knot" has already informed that the South Ossetian part of the Mixed Control Commission (MCC) had regarded the actions of Georgian special agents as provocation.

After moving the ultimatum by the South Ossetian party, the Georgian militaries resorted to concessions, the Lenta.ru remarks.