Georgia accused Russian authorities Wednesday of illegally detaining five Georgian fishermen and demanded their immediate release.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said five men were detained Tuesday while fishing in Georgian territorial Black Sea waters off the town of Anaklia. It said the Russian authorities accused the men of illegal fishing.
"A chain of Russia's extremely dangerous and dirty provocations still continues, and it has acquired a clear form of hunting people," the ministry said in a statement.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said the Russian coast guard detained nine fishermen off the Black Sea coast of Abkhazia and handed them over to Abkhaz authorities. He said those detained lacked proper IDs and fishing permits.
Neither Russian nor Georgian officials offered any explanation of the differing figures.
Russia recognized Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent nations after routing Georgian troops in a five-day war last year. Russia has deployed troops in both provinces and its coast guard patrols Abkhazia's Black Sea coast.
Nicaragua and Venezuela are the only other nations that have recognized the regions as independent. The U.S., the EU and the rest of the world consider them part of Georgia.
Georgia also accused the Russian troops in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia of firing on a minibus that carried a four-year-old child to a hospital along with several other people. The ministry quoted local residents as saying that several people were wounded during the incident, which occurred early Wednesday. The claim could not be independently verified, and the Russian Foreign Ministry did not comment on it.
The recent detention of four Georgian teenagers in South Ossetia was discussed Wednesday in the latest round of U.N.-mediated Russian-Georgian talks aimed at defusing postwar tensions.
Authorities in South Ossetia said Monday in a statement that they were holding four boys, aged 14 to 17, who had been detained last week near Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital. The region's information ministry said the boys were carrying hand grenades and other explosives _ an allegations the boys have reportedly denied.
After Wednesday's talks in Geneva, Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Bokeria, said the teens had no terrorist intentions.
"We demand that these kids be released as soon as possible," he said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin dismissed concerns about the boys.
"We have no serious reasons to be concerned for their fate ... especially if they had no terrorist intentions," he said.
U.N. mediator Johan Verbeke described Wednesday's discussions as "difficult."
