MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Recent actions by Georgia in the conflict zone with the breakaway republic of South Ossetia were provocative and premeditated, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.
"On June 28, 2007, the Georgian side again displayed lack of restraint and made a unilateral attempt to build the [controversial] Zsho-Nikozi-Avnevi road. These actions had a previously prepared, staged and clearly-managed nature and were again aimed against Russia's peacekeeping forces," the ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
South Ossetia, which declared its independence from Georgia following a bloody conflict that left hundreds dead in 1991-1992, has been a sensitive issue in bilateral relations between Georgia and Russia. Georgian authorities are seeking to bring it back under their control, and have accused Russia, which has peacekeepers in the area, along with Georgian and South Ossetian troops, of encouraging separatist sentiments.
The situation in the conflict zone was aggravated after Georgia, without consulting with South Ossetia, started building a road near the villages of Avnevi and Nikozi. On Wednesday, Russian peacekeepers blocked the construction until consultations had taken place.
On Thursday, about 500 ethnic Georgians from the Pronskoye Gorge gathered on a section of the road demanding that the highway be unblocked. Tensions reached a peak when local Georgians poured paint and threw stones at Russian peacekeepers' vehicles.
The Russian ministry said the fact that protesters were ferried to the site by bus is an indication of the premeditated nature of the action, adding that Georgians had threatened Russian peacekeepers with weapons.
"The actions of Georgia's Interior Ministry, instead of [being aimed at] ensuring law and order at the scene of the incident, had the opposite effect. The actions conducted were aimed against Russian peacekeeping forces and were an attempt to discredit them," the ministry said.
Russia Foreign Ministry special envoy Yury Popov, who is the Russian co-chairman of the Joint Control Commission, the key mechanism for discussion and finding a solution to the situation in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone, said Friday Russia has proposed a meeting of commission co-chairmen on July 12-13.
An aide to the Joint Peacekeeping Forces commander, Yury Vereshchak, said Georgia has deployed an additional 13 infantry combat vehicles into the zone and increased the strength of the peacekeeping contingent by 130 troops up to 500.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said Friday Russia was appealing to South Ossetia's leadership to display restraint and hold a session of the Joint Control Commission as soon as possible.
The ministry said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Friday with South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity, exchanged opinions and expressed concern over developments in the zone.
Kokoity said Russia affirmed its intention to cooperate with Tskhinvali's official authorities, and not the "alternative" government of Dmitry Sanakoyev.
This spring, pro-Western Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed Sanakoyev as the new South Ossetian leader, and declared separatist Kokoity illegitimate, even though Kokoity had been elected officially for a second term at the November 2006 presidential election in the self-declared republic.
The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier said in an official statement that Russia had no intention of holding dialogue with Sanakoyev's administration.
"We are satisfied with the results of the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov," Kokoity said. "We are grateful to Russia for the principled and legal stance it has taken over the Georgian-Ossetian conflict," he said.
South Ossetian authorities said one of two policemen wounded Thursday when a police post came under fire by Georgian snipers died in hospital.
