The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has warned that Russian peacekeeping troops’ response would be “tough and adequate” if Tbilisi tried to resolve the conflicts with force.

The Russian MoD said in a statement issued on April 29 that the Georgian side’s “provocative acts” against the Russian peacekeepers, as well as the deployment of additional Georgian troops in the conflict zone had forced it to increase the number of its peacekeepers in the Abkhaz conflict zone. It did not specify the numbers involved, but said they were within the limits set by “international agreements in the frames of decisions of the Council of leaders of CIS member-states.”

August 22, 1994 decision of CIS head of states reads that number of peacekeepers in the Abkhaz conflict zone should be 2,500-3,000.

The Russian MoD also said that Russian peacekeepers had set up 15 additional checkpoints along the Abkhaz administrative border.

It said the measures followed “increased pressure from the Georgian authorities on Russian peacekeeping troops.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement on April 29 that “measures to strengthen CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces were undertaken solely for the prevention of any possibility of a renewal of bloodshed in the Caucasus.”