On Thursday, Russia called on Georgia to abandon its plans to legitimize a "puppet government" in South Ossetia.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry is concerned over Tbilisi's current propaganda campaign around the so-called Dmitry Sanakoyev movement," the ministry said.
It said Russia had urged Georgia to "renounce its short-sighted plans and adopt a constructive position on the Georgia-Ossetia settlement."
Dmitry Sanakoyev, the winner of an "alternative" presidential election in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, was inaugurated in the conflict zone last December.
South Ossetia held a presidential election, along with a referendum to reaffirm its independence, November 12. Georgia, which is seeking to regain control over the region, organized an alternative poll in local Georgian-populated villages on the same day.
The breakaway republic dismissed the "alternative" election as a "farce." The results of South Ossetia's election and plebiscite have not been recognized as legitimate, either by Georgia or by the West.
The Georgian state minister's office called on the Russian foreign ministry "not to give way to emotions" and refrain from statements "whose character and wording contradict its diplomatic status."
However, the Russian foreign ministry said it was optimistic about the results of the Joint Control Commission (JCC), uniting Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and North Ossetian delegates, which discussed the current situation in the South Ossetian conflict zone in Istanbul on March 21-22.
The ministry said it was hopeful negotiations would be resumed in the same format.
