Russia Warns Georgia on Weapons Grab

Russian Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev warned the former Soviet republic of Georgia on Sunday that any move it might make to seize Russian weapons and other military equipment could provoke a bloody showdown with Moscow.

Georgia’s Supreme Council, led by Eduard A. Shevardnadze, demanded late Saturday that the Russian army transfer all former Soviet weapons, vehicles and military bases in that Caucasus Mountains republic to its control. If Russia refuses to give up the arms, Georgian troops will take them by force, Shevardnadze said.

Responding angrily, Grachev declared that “a sharp aggravation of the situation and armed clashes with military units of the Russian armed forces” could result if Georgia follows through with its “unilateral decision.”

Russian soldiers based in all former Soviet republics have received orders “to prevent a forcible seizure of military and housing facilities that are under their control,” Grachev wrote in a statement distributed by Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency.

The presence of well-equipped military garrisons nearly everywhere in what used to be Soviet territory has helped fuel violent political and ethnic conflicts now racking Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and other now-independent republics.

Although the Russian government has taken the Soviet troops and hardware under its jurisdiction, some of the arms have been transferred to new national armies in the former Soviet republics, and some have been stolen.

Extra firepower could give Georgia a boost in its six-week war against the forces of Abkhazia, a region of western Georgia that is fighting for independence. About 90,000 ethnic Abkhazians, most of them Muslims, live there, along with more than 400,000 Georgians, Russians and Armenians.

Abkhazian forces are supported by Muslim militants from southern Russia. So far, more than 200 people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded in fighting for the tiny enclave.

Shevardnadze almost became a casualty himself late Saturday when an unmarked combat helicopter bumped into the helicopter carrying him and other top politicians. Later, Shevardnadze’s helicopter was reportedly shot at.

The latest fighting, coupled with Georgia’s scheme to grab Russian-held weapons, dealt a serious, if not fatal, blow to a blueprint for peace that Shevardnadze and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin hammered out early last month.

The agreement, intended to produce a swift cease-fire, called for Georgian troops to partially withdraw from Abkhazia and for the Muslim fighters aiding the separatists to return to Russia.

Yeltsin called Shevardnadze on Saturday night to urge compliance with the agreement, but Shevardnadze told war-weary residents in the Abkhazian capital of Sukhumi on Sunday that a peaceful solution no longer seems possible, the Georgian press service reported.