Georgian President Warns Russians to Stay Away

The president of Georgia has suggested that his forces would fire on Russian cruise ships heading for the Black Sea resorts of a breakaway Georgian region, prompting a furious response Wednesday from Moscow.

Abkhazia and another rebel region, South Ossetia, have been irritants in Georgian-Russian relations since both regions broke from Georgian rule in brief wars in 1992 and 1993. Georgian officials say Moscow supports the separatists.

Ties with Russia have been strained in recent weeks since Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili made clear his intention of re-establishing control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, after the ousting of a separatist administration in a third province, Adzharia.

Late Tuesday, Saakashvili warned thousands of Russian tourists who flock by sea to war-battered but extremely cheap Abkhazian resorts to stay away.

“We should immediately open fire on and sink every ship that enters Abkhazian waters,” he said in a televised statement. “I would like Russian tourists to pay attention to my words.”

Russia reacted quickly to the statement by Saakashvili, who has made frequent threats of force against what he sees as Russian imperialist designs on his small Caucasus nation.

“Russian citizens have the right to choose where they want to go on holiday,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “In accordance with international law, such moves, if implemented, would be viewed as hostile acts with all the ensuing consequences.... Any attempt to injure or threaten the lives of Russian citizens will receive the necessary rebuff.”

Last weekend, a Georgian patrol boat fired at a civilian vessel off Abkhazia’s coast. Georgian officials said the shots were fired after the boat failed to obey orders to stop.

Later Wednesday, Georgian forces were accused of firing on a Russian delegation in South Ossetia.

South Ossetian spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva said Georgian troops fired on a delegation led by Andrei Kokoshin, head of the Russian parliament’s committee in charge of relations with former Soviet republics.

Georgia disputed the charge. Interior Ministry spokesman Guram Donadze said South Ossetians fired at Kokoshin’s vehicle “as a provocation.”

Russia’s Tass news agency quoted Kokoshin as saying that fire from machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars went over his convoy from a wooded area that apparently was controlled by Georgian forces, and that his delegation was then blockaded in a village for 40 minutes by armed men calling themselves Georgian police.