Further increase of Georgia’s military potential and its NATO integration may trigger even more serious conflict than the August war, Anatoly Serdyukov, the Russian defense minister, said in Ankara on November 18.

“We are concerned about the Georgian leadership’s efforts to increase its military potential and to drag the country into NATO. This action can provoke more serious conflict than we saw in August,” Interfax news agency reported quoting Serdyukov.