Russia is ready to use “military” force to protect its citizens if war breaks out in the Georgian separatist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a foreign ministry official said on Friday.
“If a military conflict develops, then we will have to react, including with military means,” foreign ministry official Valery Kenyaikin told journalists. “We are ready to defend our citizens.”
Most people in Abkhazia and South Ossetia have Russian passports. Georgia accuses Russia of trying to annex the territory by supporting rebel forces there and encouraging residents to take up Russian citizenship.
Tensions between Russia and Georgia have escalated sharply over the two provinces, which lie on Georgia’s side of the border with Russia in the Caucasus mountains.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week ordered closer ties with both provinces, prompting international condemnation and outrage in Tbilisi.
Russia has “crossed the line” and committed “a dangerous and provocative act” which could “destabilize the whole region,” Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Georgy Baramidze said on Friday in Paris.
Germany, the US, France and Britain this week called on Russia to go back on Putin’s order for closer ties with the regions.
Finland, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has sent an envoy to Georgia in a bid to resolve the crisis.
Another flare-up occurred last Sunday when a Georgian unmanned spy plane was shot down. Georgia blames Russia, which says that Abkhaz rebels were responsible.
Georgia’s pro-Western government is pushing hard to join NATO, but the unresolved conflicts in the two northern provinces are part of the reason that the Western alliance this month decided to delay putting the ex-Soviet republic on the path to membership.
Georgia says Russia is artificially stirring up the conflicts to weaken its independence, but Moscow accuses the Georgians of being the aggressive side.
Kenyaikin said Georgia was boosting its troop presence close to the separatist provinces.
“The Georgian side is expanding its military presence. Material is being delivered practically every day, partly from Turkey,” Kenyaikin said.
He said the Georgians had deployed troops “capable of taking military action.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS