Russia vowed today to prevent its pro-Western neighbour Georgia from rearming and threatened nations who helped it in a harsh warning timed to coincide with US Vice-President Joe Biden's visit to Tbilisi.
Moscow issued its attack as Mr Biden sat down to closed-door talks with Russia's arch-foe President Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi. Tensions between Russia and its former Soviet vassal are rising ahead of the first anniversary next month of their war.
Georgia is pushing for US monitors and weapons to help defend it against what it says is a threat from Russian troops stationed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two rebel regions at the centre of last year's war.
"We are a country under attack, under partial occupation," Mr Saakashvili said at the start of his meeting with Mr Biden.
"We decided to join the free world, Europe, the North Atlantic alliance (Nato)."
Moscow is angry because it believes Georgian aggression started the war and says the West fails to understand that Saakashvili is a dangerous leader bent on fresh conflict.
"We will continue to prevent the re-arming of Saakashvili's regime and will take concrete measures against this," Russia's ITAR-TASS agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin as saying in an interview.
Mr Karasin also accused certain unnamed states of hiding military cooperation with Georgia "under the guise of humanitarian aid" -- an apparent reference to the United States, which has been sending Tbilisi humanitarian supplies.
"We have a deep worry regarding the activity of the Georgian leadership over remilitarising its country, which several states are responding to in a surprisingly calm and positive way" Mr Karasin said.
Russia would consider "limiting or stopping military- technical or military-economic development" with states supplying Georgia with arms, he added. Moscow has in the past accused Ukraine of arming Georgia.
Mr Karasin was also quoted as saying that "the Georgian leadership is plotting various events on the border with South Ossetia to coincide with the anniversary of the 2008 events in the Caucasus . . . they [the events] are of a distinctly provocative nature".
Next month will see the first anniversary of Georgia and Russia's brief war last August, sparked by a Georgian assault on the rebel region.
Reuters