Russia said on August 4 it had placed its troops in breakaway South Ossetia on alert as Georgia’s “provocations are not stopping” ahead of anniversary of the last year’s war.

”The situation is really alarming,” Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry said in the comments posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.

“Provocations from the Georgian side ahead of the anniversary of the last August events are not stopping. In this connection, we have stepped up the combatant readiness of Russian troops and border guards stationed in South Ossetia.”

“We are watching closing development on the Georgian-South Ossetian border. We thoroughly follow statements by the South Ossetian and Georgian representatives, which are of conflicting nature, full of mutual accusations, like it had been often in the past,” Nesterenko said.

He said each case of reported shooting was being studied jointly by the Russian forces and the South Ossetian authorities in order “to establish the truth.”

“Now it is essential not to let the shootouts to escalate and grow into larger clashes,” Nesterenko said.