A year after fighting a war with Georgia, Russia strengthened the combat readiness of its troops in the rebel region of South Ossetia on Tuesday and warned the United States against rearming Georgia, Reuters reported.
"Provocations from the Georgian side ... are not stopping," Andrei Nesterenko, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement. "In connection with this, we have stepped up the combat readiness of Russian troops and border guards."
Tension has been rising in South Ossetia ahead of the August 7 anniversary of the war, which began when Georgian forces launched an assault on the Moscow-backed rebel enclave.
Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev discussed the situation in Georgia with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday. The Kremlin said they discussed the lessons of last year's war by telephone but gave no details on what was said about Georgia.
The European Union has called on all sides to show restraint but in recent days the rebels and Georgia have accused each other of firing across the de facto border.
"The Russian occupiers and proxy regimes still continue to pursue their efforts aimed at further raising tension," the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Tbilisi said late on Monday that three rocket-propelled grenades were fired from the rebel region at a Georgian village near the boundary. No one was hurt. South Ossetia has accused Georgian forces of firing mortars, a charge Tbilisi denied.
The rebel region's leader ordered the closure of the last segment of the border through which ethnic Georgians living in the Georgian-populated Akhalgori region had previously been given permission to cross.
"To avoid any kind of provocation from the Georgian side, from 12 o'clock tonight the state border with the republic of South Ossetia will be closed," the enclave's leader, Eduard Kokoity, a 44-year-old ex-wrestler, said on the rebel website www.cominf.org.
The only official way into the pine-covered region is through the Rocky Tunnel from Russia's North Ossetia region.
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