Russia yesterday accused Georgia of preparing a series of provocations on its de facto border with South Ossetia ahead of the first anniversary of Moscow’s war with Tbilisi.
Tensions have been rising between the ex-Soviet states turned foes over the last days in the volatile Caucasus region as they prepare to mark the Aug. 7 anniversary of the outbreak of the war.
“According to our information, the Georgian leadership is organizing various ‘events’ on the border with South Ossetia for the anniversary of August 2008,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told the government Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper.
PHOTO: AP
“They have a clearly provocative character,” he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said over the weekend that the military reserved the right to hit back with force if Tbilisi continued carrying out “provocations.”
“In such an explosive region, the developments can be dangerous,” Karasin said.
“Therefore we are obliged to envisage different possibilities of action, including in the media field,” he said, accusing Georgia of carrying out an “information war” against Russia.
The war last year erupted when an attempt by the Georgian military to retake South Ossetia was rebuffed by Russia. Moscow then sent troops and tanks deep into Georgian territory.
After the war, Russian forces mostly withdrew into South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, but Moscow then infuriated the West by recognizing both regions as independent.
Meanwhile, Tbilisi accused Moscow on Monday of trying to take more territory outside South Ossetia.
Georgia said Russian troops entered the village of Kveshi near South Ossetia on Sunday and erected posts in an attempt to mark a new border.
Georgia said the posts, several hundred meters outside the boundary with South Ossetia, were removed on Monday.
Russia and South Ossetia, which together patrol the de facto border with Georgia, countered that no forces had entered Kveshi and the posts — a temporary roadblock — had been erected within South Ossetian territory.
“It’s very alarming that as the first anniversary of the Russian aggression against Georgia comes close, Russia and its puppets are deliberately inciting tensions and behave defiantly,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.
But South Ossetia’s spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva said the border move was legitimate and rejected any land-grabbing ambitions.
“Let the Georgians relax about their territory. We don’t need a single centimeter of their soil,” Gagloyeva said.
Russia’s top security agency, which patrols the boundary along with local troops, also denied any wrongdoing in a statement run by the ITAR-Tass news agency.
“Russian border guards did not enter the village of Kveshi,” the Federal Security Service statement said, adding that Tbilisi had been informed about the move.
Steve Bird, a spokesman for the EU’s observer mission in Georgia, said Russian border guards had assured them they had no plans to move a checkpoint to the area that had been briefly marked by the posts.
South Ossetian authorities said late on Monday that three mortar rounds were fired into South Ossetia from Georgian territory.
ITAR-Tass quoted the region’s Defense Ministry as saying there were no casualties were reported. The ministry later said there was no retaliatory fire.
Officials of the region made similar claims last week and accused Georgia of firing at populated areas near the provincial capital of Tskhinvali on two separate occasions.
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