By empty (7/11/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Georgian authorities confiscated 25,000 blank Russian passports Wednesday printed in the Russian and Abkhaz languages from a Turkish ship sailing on the Black Sea. The ship was sailing from the Turkish port of Trabzon to Sochi, Russia when stopped by the Georgian coast guard, the head of the coast guard\'s border patrol department, Koba Bochorishvili, told Georgia\'s Rustavi 2 television. The passports were confiscated as illegal cargo and the ship allowed to proceed to Sochi.
Georgian authorities confiscated 25,000 blank Russian passports Wednesday printed in the Russian and Abkhaz languages from a Turkish ship sailing on the Black Sea. The ship was sailing from the Turkish port of Trabzon to Sochi, Russia when stopped by the Georgian coast guard, the head of the coast guard\'s border patrol department, Koba Bochorishvili, told Georgia\'s Rustavi 2 television. The passports were confiscated as illegal cargo and the ship allowed to proceed to Sochi. Georgian officials have repeatedly complained to Russia about its practice of issuing passports to Abkhazian separatists. The Georgian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it would investigate whether there was official Russian involvement with the passports and if confirmed, issue a note of protest. Abkhazia, a lush Black Sea province in Georgia\'s northwest, won de facto independence in 1993 after driving out Georgian government forces in two years of fighting. Separatists have refused to bow to Georgia\'s control and U.N.-sponsored peace talks have stalled. Russian peacekeepers have patrolled the dividing line between separatist and Georgian-controlled territory since 1994 under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an alliance of former Soviet republics. (AP)