Tbilisi Calls on Moscow to Stop ‘Destructive Acts’
Tbilisi has warned that Russia’s “destructive acts against Georgia” may lead to destabilization in the entire Caucasus region.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on August 25 that the situation was “alarming” especially against the background of recent large-scale military exercises by Abkhaz separatist forces and “the unprecedented number of violations of Georgian airspace by Russian military aircraft.”
It said that the Abkhaz maneuvers, which involved combat helicopters, planes and 6,000 servicemen, were carried out with the direct assistance of the Russian military.
“The Georgian side calls on the Russian Federation to cease its support of the separatist regime, including military assistance,” the Foreign Ministry said.
It also said that Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili had requested the UN Secretary General’s Group of Friends on Georgia (France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the U.S.) to take “a more principled position when assessing the acts of the separatist regime and also demand that the Russian Federation, as a member of the group, end its destructive acts against Georgia.”
