Nato has started military exercises in Georgia today that have angered neighbouring Russia.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has accused Russia of trying to foment a coup after a local tank battalion mutinied against his government yesterday. Moscow denied involvement.
The mutiny ended without bloodshed but cast a shadow over the start of the month-long exercises, in which more than 1,000 soldiers from Nato countries, including the United States and allies, will practise a crisis response and train peacekeepers.
French and Canadian soldiers were seen setting up command headquarters at the Vaziani air force base, formerly used by Russian forces, before field exercises next week. The next few days will spent preparing the exercises, officials said.
Russia has strongly criticised the exercises on its southern flank as "muscle-flexing". Its envoy to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, said on Tuesday the alliance would be better off holding the manoeuvres "in a madhouse" than in a country where troops were "rioting against their own president".
Mr Saakashvili's domestic political opponents, who have paralysed central Tbilisi with weeks of protests demanding he resign, questioned the Georgian government's explanation for the mutiny.
"There are many versions of what really happened, but the one offered by the authorities is the least credible," said Tina Khidasheli of the opposition Republican Party.
The war games, a year in the planning, have increased tension between Russia and Nato, just as the two sides resumed formal contacts suspended after Moscow's war with Georgia.
Russia crushed a Georgian military attempt to retake the pro-Moscow separatist region of South Ossetia last August, routing Tbilisi's army and prompting criticism in the West.
Nato said this month's exercises should not be misused. "Georgia is just hosting the exercise and nobody should interpret the exercise in a different way and use it for other purposes," a Nato spokeswoman said.
Further souring the mood, Russia announced the expulsion of two Canadian staff at Nato's information centre in Moscow today, - a response to the Western military alliance's decision to throw two Russian diplomats out of Brussels last week over a spying scandal.
Reuters