Senior government officials say they are “extremely concerned” about unconfirmed reports of a Russian military buildup in the breakaway region of Abkhazia done under the cover of a routine CIS peacekeeper rotation.

Speaking after a December 10 session of the National Security Council, Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili underscored allegations that Abkhaz forces are deploying mines in Gali district as particularly worrying. Gali, near the administrative border of Abkhazia, is predominantly ethnic Georgian.

Bezhuashvili said the government is asking UNOMIG, the UN observer mission for the area, to verify the reports.

The same day, Ruslan Kishmaria, the Abkhaz separatist authorities’ representative in Gali district, said it was Sokhumi’s right to militarily strengthen the border, but denied Georgian media reports that a state of emergency has been declared throughout the region.

And de facto Abkhaz president Sergey Bagapsh released a statement on his official website detailing his intention to “strengthen the border guard presence and intensify customs control.”

The statement added that additional deployments “did not exceed” the number allowed in the demilitarization agreement, but did not give any figures.

Acting president Nino Burjanadze said Georgia’s current situation in the run up to elections would be a “test for Georgian-Russian relations,” while National Security Secretary Kakha Lomaia expressed hope that “Russia will show rationality.”

Colonel Aleksander Diordiyev, Assistant to the Commander of the CIS Peacekeeping Forces in Abkhazia, responded by reaffirming that any military activity in the conflict region is in line with the peacekeeping mandate and existing agreements.

“No other activities, including those reported by the Georgian media, are being undertaken by the peacekeepers,” Diordiyev said, according to a statement released on the de facto Abkhaz president’s website.

The statement also said that Georgia and international observers had both been notified in advance of the planned December 6–10 rotation of servicemen and equipment, and that another rotation, which all parties will also be given notice of, is planned for December 17-23.

Tbilisi also reiterated calls for the commander of the CIS peacekeeping troops, Sergey Chaban, to be removed from his post.

Then-president Mikheil Saakashvili declared Chaban persona non grata after a bloody confrontation between Russian peacekeepers and Georgian police near the conflict zone on October 30.

The CIS Council of Ministers temporarily renewed his mandate last month.

“If the CIS wants to show respect toward Georgia, the issue of Chaban must be raised and I hereby bring it up again,” Burjanadze told the television channel Rustavi 2 on December 10.