By empty (7/11/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Russian authorities have no intention of overly dramatizing Georgia\'s decision to close down a checkpoint in the village of Ergneti, the Russian Foreign Ministry\'s Ambassador at Large Yury Popov told Interfax on Tuesday. \"We hope that all problems will be sorted out as part of dialogue. We see no grounds to overly dramatize the situation,\" he said.
The Russian authorities have no intention of overly dramatizing Georgia\'s decision to close down a checkpoint in the village of Ergneti, the Russian Foreign Ministry\'s Ambassador at Large Yury Popov told Interfax on Tuesday. \"We hope that all problems will be sorted out as part of dialogue. We see no grounds to overly dramatize the situation,\" he said. \"We are keeping a close eye on the situation and maintaining dialogue with Georgia. But I would not like to jump to any conclusions,\" the diplomat said. Several dozen Russian and Armenian citizens were unable to cross into Georgia via the breakaway province of South Ossetia after Georgian police shut the Ergneti checkpoint. Law enforcement agencies will not allow the Transcaucasian highway, which crosses South Ossetia, to be used for communications with Russia instead of the closed Georgian Military Road, a Georgian Interior Ministry source told Interfax. Only people who have Georgian transit visas will be allowed to cross the border via the Ergneti checkpoint as an exception, Gela Zoziashvili, the Georgian president\'s deputy envoy to the Shida Kartli region, said. \"The road from Russia to Georgia via the Roki tunnel is illegal because this section of the border has no official Georgian checkpoints. For this reason, citizens of other countries cannot cross into Georgia via South Ossetia,\" he said. Everybody wishing to visit Georgia can obtain a Georgian entry-visa at the airport upon arrival, he said. (Interfax-AVN)