TBILISI/MOSCOW, May 31 (RIA Novosti) - A senior Georgian parliamentarian said Wednesday that a Russian-made anti-aircraft missile system was deployed in the breakaway region of Abkhazia in the northwest of the country.
"We recently made a unique discovery," Givi Targamadze said, adding that Georgian radars had discovered the S-300 system in the Abkhaz town of Gudauta, where a Russian military base is stationed.
He also said Russia's frequent violations of Georgia's airspace proved that the Russian military was "seeking sites to deploy additional contingent in Georgia."
But a high-ranking source in the Russian Defense Ministry dismissed Targamadze's claims. The source said an S-300 missile system could not be delivered and deployed without being noticed and added that its production was limited.
"Russian S-300 [systems] are deployed in [neighboring] Armenia and we are not concealing this," he said.
The source also said the Georgian defense minister should have attended a session of the CIS defense ministers in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, to clarify all issues.
Giorgi Khaindrava, Georgian state minister for conflict resolution issues, protested earlier the rotation of Russian peacekeepers in the Caucasian country's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions, saying that violations of the law committed during the process had brought the situation in the area to the brink of war.
But Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday that the rotation that had enraged the Georgian leadership would continue despite Georgia's warnings.
