Moscow: Thousands of troops, backed by hundreds of tanks, artillery and other heavy weaponry, began rumbling through the North Caucasus on Monday, as Russia began its largest military exercises since last year's war with Georgia.
The Caucasus 2009 war games are being seen by many experts as a direct threat to nearby Georgia, where the government says it has rearmed armed forces and where Nato recently wrapped up its own exercises.
Experts say the exercises may also be a signal to the United States that Russia will give no ground in its efforts to maintain its sphere of influence in Georgia and other former Soviet republics.
The exercise runs through July 6 - the day President Barack Obama arrives in Moscow for a highly-anticipated summit with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev.
Defence Ministry officials say more than 8,500 troops will take part, along with nearly 200 tanks, armoured vehicles, 100 artillery units and units from Black Sea naval fleet.
The exercises, which are being personally overseen by Gen Nikolai Makarov, the chief of Russia's General Staff, are structured around a theoretical crisis situation that spirals out of control into open fighting, the ministry said.
Tensions remain high between Russia and Georgia, which lost authority over the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the war last year.
Russia has been building military bases, storage facilities for supplies, and roads in the two regions, which Moscow recognised as independent. Around 6,000 Russian troops are based in each region.
Moscow has been openly hostile to Georgia's ambitions to join Nato and has hinted it would not tolerate any other ex-Soviet republics joining the alliance.
Still, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has not backed down on his drive for Nato membership and his efforts to draw closer to the United States.
Former Kremlin adviser Andrei Illarionov predicted that if Russia were to take military action against Georgia, it would take place directly after Obama's visit and that Moscow would portray its decision as having been made with Washington's approval.
The Caucasus 2009 war games are being seen by many experts as a direct threat to nearby Georgia, where the government says it has rearmed armed forces and where Nato recently wrapped up its own exercises.
Experts say the exercises may also be a signal to the United States that Russia will give no ground in its efforts to maintain its sphere of influence in Georgia and other former Soviet republics.
The exercise runs through July 6 - the day President Barack Obama arrives in Moscow for a highly-anticipated summit with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev.
Defence Ministry officials say more than 8,500 troops will take part, along with nearly 200 tanks, armoured vehicles, 100 artillery units and units from Black Sea naval fleet.
The exercises, which are being personally overseen by Gen Nikolai Makarov, the chief of Russia's General Staff, are structured around a theoretical crisis situation that spirals out of control into open fighting, the ministry said.
Tensions remain high between Russia and Georgia, which lost authority over the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the war last year.
Russia has been building military bases, storage facilities for supplies, and roads in the two regions, which Moscow recognised as independent. Around 6,000 Russian troops are based in each region.
Moscow has been openly hostile to Georgia's ambitions to join Nato and has hinted it would not tolerate any other ex-Soviet republics joining the alliance.
Still, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has not backed down on his drive for Nato membership and his efforts to draw closer to the United States.
Former Kremlin adviser Andrei Illarionov predicted that if Russia were to take military action against Georgia, it would take place directly after Obama's visit and that Moscow would portray its decision as having been made with Washington's approval.
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