Russia warns Georgia that detaining peacekeepers may end in bloodshed!

MOSCOW, Russia - June 19, 2008 - A Russian General Staff official warned Georgia on Thursday that the patience of Russian peacekeepers was running out and any further detentions could end in bloodshed.

The warning comes amid the detention Tuesday night of four Russian peacekeepers by Georgian police on suspicion of smuggling weapons out of the breakaway region of Abkhazia. The peacekeepers have since been released.

"The consequences might be extremely serious, such as bloodshed," said Lt. Gen. Alexander Burutin, a deputy head of the General Staff, adding that there were no guarantees that Russian troops stationed in the region would continue to be so tolerant.

The peacekeepers were detained by Georgian police supervised by a deputy head of a crime police unit in the Zugdidi district, western Georgia. Burutin said the detention was unwarranted and called it "a bandit attack."

"Under the circumstances, the Russian peacekeepers had the complete right to use their weapons and ammunition, to defend themselves and their equipment," the official said. He said the right was contained in the mandate of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces, stationed in the region since a bloody Georgian-Abkhazian conflict in the early 1990s.

Georgia's Interior Ministry claimed that the peacekeepers were transporting 35 crates of munitions, including guided missiles and anti-tank mines. Georgia refused to return the seized arms until an investigation has been completed.