On Monday, Russian peacekeepers disarmed a group of Georgian soldiers in the area of the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called the peacekeepers' actions a provocation. Major General Sergey Chaban, who leads the region's peacekeeping force, has been declared “persona non grata” by Georgian authorities. President Saakashvili demanded the departure of Sergey Chaban from Abkhazia within a day. The Russian peacekeepers said they were patrolling an area near the Black Sea coast looking for dead animals as part of a hygienic mission, when three Georgian policemen approached the peacekeepers’ armoured vehicle and threatened to burn it. Russian peacekeepers disarmed and detained Georgian policemen but later handed them back to the Georgian side. President Saakashvili and other Georgian top officials visited the scene whereupon they called for the commander of the Russian peacekeepers forces to leave Abkhazia. This all relates back to the Georgian parliament’s resolution which requested all Russian peacekeepers leave Georgia. Meantime, according to Georgian media reports, the Russian peacekeepers surrounded what is known as the Patriot youth camp in the area and arrested three members of the Georgian Interior Ministry special unit, who were there.