Georgia today dismissed as a "myth" Russian accusations that it was aggressively rearming and said it was in contact with the US to defuse tensions over rebel South Ossetia.
Russia crushed a Georgian assault on the breakaway territory in August last year, and tensions have grown ahead of Friday's first war anniversary, with accusations from both sides of gun and mortar fire on South Ossetia's border.
Moscow today again expressed concern that Georgia was rearming with Western help, but said it did not believe the former Soviet republic was capable of launching another offensive against South Ossetia.
"As a military man, I will be forthright: if there is an (act of) aggression, there will be an adequate response," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russia's deputy chief of general staff, told a news conference after the army stepped up the combat readiness of troops in the rebel region yesterday.
"Today we do not see any ability (of Georgia) to launch such aggression. And the political situation has radically changed. Not to understand this and continue acting according to the old schemes is just suicidal (for Georgia's leadership)."
Russia controls the borders of South Ossetia and Georgia's other rebel Black Sea region of Abkhazia - which Moscow recognised as independent states after last year's war - and has kept more than 7,000 troops in both since the conflict.
The five-day war, when Russia repelled the Georgian assault and sent tanks into Georgia proper, shook Western confidence in oil and gas routes running through the South Caucasus.
Russia's assault last year worsened relations with Washington. But those tensions have since eased with meetings between President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev, as well as attempts to make progress on a new nuclear arms treaty.