Georgian Minister for Conflict Resolution Giorgi Khaindrava, currently in Moscow for talks with senior Russian officials, told \"Izvestiya\" on 10 August that a recent statement by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili that caused considerable controversy in Russia was incorrectly translated. Saakashvili last week made a comment that was widely interpreted in Russia as threatening that Tbilisi would fire on civilian vessels attempting to reach Abkhazia via the Black Sea. Khaindrava said that Saakashvili was really warning Russians planning to vacation in Abkhazia that the region is \"a conflict zone\" and that \"shooting could break out at any moment.\" \"We just don\'t understand why the statement of Mikheil Saakashvili, which, incidentally, was incorrectly translated into Russian, provoked such a strong reaction,\" Khaindrava said. RIA-Novosti on 4 August reported Saakashvili as saying: \"This territory, which is soaked with the blood of Georgians and where they played soccer with the heads of Georgians, is not a place for the lounge chairs of so-called Russian tourists. If you plan to come over from Sochi in boats to Abkhazia, you should get used to the sort of thing that happened on Saturday, when Georgian border troops fired on a vessel.\" (RFE/RL)