Georgia Blast Kills 2 During Putin Visit (click here)
By VOA News 13 August 2009
Russian news reports say two people were killed and several others wounded in a bomb blast in Abkhazia during Wednesday's visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.Mr. Putin's one-day trip to the Georgian breakaway territory was the first by a top Russian official since Moscow last year recognized Abkhazia's independence after the five-day Russian-Georgian war. The reports quote authorities as saying the blast in the resort town of Gagra killed a 52-year-old woman and wounded four others. A second victim died later in a hospital.Authorities say no one was hurt in the second blast, which occurred in the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi, shortly after Mr. Putin departed the city and returned to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Medvedev Says Georgian Army Buildup Causes ‘Concern’ (Update1) (click here)
By Torrey Clark, Helena Bedwell and Denis Maternovsky
Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia’s actions, including a troop buildup on the borders of two separatist Georgian regions, are cause for “serious concern” a year after a war between the two countries.
“Georgia’s actions continue to cause serious concern, from the unceasing threats to restore its ‘territorial integrity’ by force and daily warlike rhetoric to its concentration of armed forces on the borders with South Ossetia and Abkhazia and serious provocations in border areas,” Medvedev said in a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Excerpts from the letter were posted today on the Kremlin Web site....
Russia to increase border troops deployed in Abkhazia, South Ossetia (click here)
www.chinaview.cn
2009-08-05 22:52:02
MOSCOW, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Russia plans to increase the number of troops it has deployed in Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from around 1,800 to 3,000 by the end of the year, a deputy foreign minister said Wednesday.
"Presently, there are some 1,000 Russian military personnel in Abkhazia and up to 800 in South Ossetia," Grigory Karasin said, quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency.
He said that by the end of the year there will be 1,500 troops in each region.
Karasin also said Russia has verified reports that say Ukraine was involved in arm shipments to Georgia prior to the brief war between Georgia and Russia last summer.
"We do hope that Ukraine, as a state near to us, will stop playing these dangerous games, creating problems in current relations, already problematical," he said....
