TBILISI (AFP) — Tensions boiled around Georgia's breakaway regions Thursday, as Tbilisi said Russia was massing troops in South Ossetia and rebels in Abkhazia accused Georgia of killing a senior army officer.
Russia denied the troop build-up, accusing Georgia of having violated a ceasefire agreement by deploying special forces near the rebel regions.
The incidents underscored how high tensions remain after Russia and pro-Western Georgia fought a brief war over South Ossetia in August, sowing instability in the strategic Caucasus region.
Georgian Interior Ministry Spokesman Shota Utiashvili told AFP that Russia had deployed an additional 2,000 troops in South Ossetia and that Tbilisi was "deeply concerned" by the move.
"During the last two weeks, 2,000 additional Russian troops have been deployed in South Ossetia," he said. "The total number of Russian troops in South Ossetia is now up to 7,000."
Utiashvili also said that 40 armoured vehicles had been deployed in the disputed Akhalgori region of South Ossetia, which Tbilisi says Russian forces must withdraw from under a European Union-brokered ceasefire agreement.
Akhalgori, a district predominantly inhabited by ethnic Georgians, was under Tbilisi's control before the war.
"We are deeply concerned over such provocative actions committed by the Russian Federation," Utiashvili said.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze denounced the alleged troop build-up as "a provocation aimed at maintaining instability in Georgia.
"Russia is trying to hamper Georgia's economic rehabilitation, the inflow of foreign investments. We have already contacted our foreign partners and informed them of the recent developments," he said at a press conference.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that Russia was maintaining its plans to deploy no more than about 3,700 troops in each of the two rebel regions.
"This is open information accessible to all... and any conjectures on that count are on the consciences of those who make them," he told journalists in Moscow.
Lavrov also accused Georgia of violating the ceasefire agreement and criticised EU observers for taking a "light" view of incidents around the rebel regions.
"The Georgian side periodically sends special forces and other armed formations to the zones adjoining Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"It worries us that the EU observers pay little attention to these aspects," he said, adding that "such a light view of what is happening in these zones... alarms us."
Vashadze denied Georgia was breaching the ceasefire, calling Lavrov's claim an "absolute lie."
Russian-backed separatists in Georgia's other rebel region, Abkhazia, meanwhile accused Georgia of being behind the killing of a senior army officer in a tense border area.
Eduard Emin-zade, head of military intelligence in the Abkhaz separatist armed forces, was found shot dead on Thursday in the city of Gali on the de facto border with Georgia.
The owner of the house where Emin-zade was shot was also found dead by a nearby river.
"We believe the killing of Eduard Emin-zade is the latest terrorist attack by Georgia," Abkhazia's separatist defence minister Mirab Kishmariya was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.
A Georgian interior ministry official, requesting anonymity, dismissed the charge, saying: "We strongly deny the accusation by Abkhaz separatists that the Georgian secret services were involved in the killing."
Russia sent troops into Georgia on August 8 to repel a Georgian military offensive to retake the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.
Russian forces occupied swathes of the country but later pulled back to within South Ossetia and Abkhazia under the ceasefire.
Tbilisi insists they must still withdraw from a number of disputed areas to comply with the ceasefire, including Akhalgori.
Moscow has recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, drawing condemnation from Tbilisi and Western powers.
An EU mission is monitoring the ceasefire, patrolling around South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but Russia has not allowed them inside the rebel regions.
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