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Russia warns Georgia from invading Adzhara

* Saakashvili says he did not want to use force

MOSCOW: Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday warned Georgia against sending forces into its restive Adzhara region, Interfax news agency reported, as tension escalated in the Caucasus state.

“There are grounds to think that Tbilisi is planning to use force. If there is a crisis, all responsibility will lie with the Georgian leadership,” a Ministry official told Interfax.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had earlier put his country’s armed forces on alert after he was denied entry to the Black Sea coastal region by forces loyal to the Adzhara leadership.

The mounting tension, accompanied by a reported closure of the country’s airspace, follows Saakashvili’s stark warning to the region’s leader to abide by national law or face action.

The Imedi radio station said that in the Adzhara-controlled town of Batumi — Georgiaa’s main Black Sea port — local authorities had blocked the airport runway with trucks.

Georgia’s Rustavi-2 television showed footage of soldiers blocking Saakashvili’s convoy at a checkpoint on the road into the Adzhara autonomous republic. A warning shot could be heard.

“No way. We will not allow you to enter,” one soldier told Georgia’s Prosecutor General Irakly Okruashivili and Interior Minister Georgy Baramidze when they approached his post on foot.

In a telephone address on Adzhara radio, the region’s leader Aslan Abashidze, who is in Moscow, told his supporters: “Be vigilant, stay firm, I’ll be with you very soon.”

But it was not clear if he would be able to fly back or if Georgia’s airspace was closed.

On Saturday Saakashvili had accused the region’s leader, Aslan Abashidze, of acting “like a feudal lord from the Middle Ages” by briefly detaining Georgia’s finance minister.

Abashidze, at odds with Saakashvili since the Georgian leader was confirmed as president in January’s election, said in Moscow on Saturday he had information that a force of up to 100,000 was planning to push into Adzhara.

Saakashvili told reporters in the Georgian port of Poti on Sunday that he did not want to use force.

“We are making the maximum effort to resolve the situation peacefully, but we do not intend to back down,” he said. Adzhara has long had autonomy, but never pushed for secession like two other Georgian regions — Abkhazia and South Ossetia — which have been beyond the control of Tbilisi authorities since Soviet times. .

Russia says it backs restored Georgian sovereignty over its entire territory but has covertly encouraged all three regions to have separate links with Moscow.

George Abashidze, son of Adzhara’s leader and mayor of Batumi, said the situation was very tense. “We did not know that the president wanted to arrive,” he said. “We knew that he was in Poti with armed troops. We have very bad examples in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and do not want to repeat these examples in Adzhara.” Zurab Chankotadze, head of the civil aviation administration, said the Interior Ministry had taken over his headquarters and he had been denied entry.

“I do not know definitely if Georgian airspace is closed,” he told Reuters. —Reuters

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