Russia’s move to establish official ties with breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia is “an attempt to legalize annexation of Georgia’s two regions,” Davit Bakradze, the Georgian foreign minister, said on April 16.

“Georgia all the legal and diplomatic measures at its disposal to stop this process, which creates threat to stability in the region,” Bakradze told journalists in remarks aired by the Georgian Public Broadcaster.

He met with foreign diplomats accredited in Georgia in the evening on Wednesday, April 16, after the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that President Putin instructed his government to boost ties with breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, was not invited.