Georgia says 'very close' to war with Russia
Updated: 2008-05-06 23:50
BRUSSELS -- Russia's deployment of extra troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has brought the prospect of war "very close", a minister of Georgia said on Tuesday.
 Russian peacekeeping troops sit at an air defence artillery in their camp near the village of Kokhora bordering the Gali district in the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia May 4, 2008. [Agencies] |
Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the foreign minister of the Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia.
"We literally have to avert war," Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels.
Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: "Very close, because we know Russians very well."
Georgia, a vital energy transit route in the Caucasus region, has angered Russia with which it shares a land border, by seeking NATO membership.
An April summit of the US-led Western alliance stopped short of giving it a definite track towards membership but confirmed it would enter one day.
Russia has said its troop build-up is needed to counter what it says are Georgian plans to attack Abkhazia, a sliver of land by the Black Sea, and has accused Tbilisi of trying to suck the West into a war -- allegations Georgia rejects.
Tensions have been steadily mounting and escalated after Georgia accused Russia of shooting down one of its drones over Abkhazia in April, a claim Russia denied.
An extra Russian contingent began arriving in Abkhazia last week. Moscow has not said how many troops would be added but said the total would remain within the 3,000 limit allowed under a United Nations-brokered ceasefire agreement signed in 1994. Diplomats expect the reinforcement to be of the order of 1,200.
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