Georgia sends military force to Kodori gorge

A militia leader, Emzar Kvitsiani, is based in the gorge, defying Georgia.

Photo: Georgia sends military force to Kodori gorge

Georgia sends military force to Kodori gorge

Russia put its troops in the area on alert and condemned the Georgian deployment as a "serious violation of the 1994 Moscow ceasefire agreement", which halted fighting between Georgian and Abkhaz separatist forces, BBC News reports.

The ruler,Emzar Kvitsiani, controls the so-called Hunter paramilitary battalion, a local force occupying the Kodori Gorge, which provides a route into territory under the control of the self-declared republic of Abkhazia, according to International Herald Tribune

With tensions with Russia flaring, Georgia insisted it had no plans to enter the Abkhaz zone or engage Abkhaz forces, which the de facto Abkhaz president, Sergei Bagapsh, said had been deployed to monitor the Georgian activity.