Georgian authorities have condemned the Russian Foreign Ministry’s reaction to Tbilisi’s plans to set up a provisional administrative unit in South Ossetia. The Russians, they said, had been “unfriendly” and “provocative.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on March 29 that Tbilisi’s plans for a new South Ossetian administration could shatter the fragile situation in the region. They warned Georgia against attempting to legalize the status of its loyal alternative South Ossetian leader, Dimitri Sanakoev.

“[The statement] is full of unfriendly and smearing words. The fact that the Russian Federation’s Foreign Ministry uses the language of special services is a source of surprise and bewilderment,” the Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues said in a statement on March 30.

Moscow’s claim that there were “only two internationally recognized parties,” Tbilisi and the de facto authorities in Tskhinvali, was rejected as “disinformation.”

“There are not ‘two internationally recognized parties’; there is only the Georgian Government, which uses all available means to solve this internal conflict, through negotiations with forces operating in the Tskhinvali Region, including [South Ossetian secessionist leader Eduard] Kokoity’s regime,” the statement reads.