Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh said on July 24 that Georgia will violate the 1994 Moscow cease-fire agreement if it sends troops to Kodori gorge and carries out operations there, which will lead to an "escalation of tensions in the region,” Apsnipress news agency reported.

He said that a change of the current status-quo in the region is inadmissible.

Some Georgian officials have warned that a police operation might take place against Emzar Kvitsiani, the defiant Kodori-based chief of the Georgian paramilitary group Monadire (Hunter).

Kodori gorge is the only territory in breakaway Abkhazia that is not controlled by secessionist authorities.

“The Abkhaz authorities have been refraining from attempts to take over [Kodori gorge] just to prevent the resumption of hostilities,” Bagapsh said.

Defense minister of breakaway Abkhazia Sultan Sosnaliev warned that the Abkhaz side will undertake “appropriate measures” if the Georgian side dispatches troops to Kodori “under the pretext of restoring order there.”