MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia threatened Thursday to send more troops to the Georgian separatist province of Abkhazia if Georgia added to its own military presence in the region, Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying.
"Further steps by Georgia's military structures adding to the deployment of troops in the conflict zone can only lead to necessary and adequate measures by the Russian side to raise the peacekeeping contingent to the maximum number allowed," the ministry said in a statement.
The statement quoted by Interfax and RIA Novosti, said the current troop level was 2,542 servicemen and that the maximum allowed under accords ending fighting between Georgia and Abkhaz rebels in the 1990s was 3,000.
The threat to send almost 500 more soldiers came despite an outcry from Georgia and its allies in the West over the earlier deployment of reinforcements announced last week.
The total number of Russian troops in Abkhazia, whose separatist government is backed by Moscow, is not open to outside monitoring. On Sunday, a defence ministry spokesman had told AFP that the number was already 3,000.
Russia accuses ex-Soviet Georgia of preparing a military operation to recover control over Abkhazia, which lies on the Black Sea just across the mountainous border from Russia.
Georgia, run by the reformist pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, rejects the charge and accuses Russia of annexing the territory.
Tensions over Abkhazia sparked expressions of concern from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.
On Tuesday the United States bluntly urged Russia to "cease from further provocations" in Abkhazia and another Georgian rebel region, South Ossetia.
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