Georgia accuses Russia of involvement after putting down military coup

GEORGIA said it put down a mutiny at a military base yesterday and accused Moscow of trying to foment a wider rebellion on the eve of NATO war games in the former Soviet republic.

Russia, which fought a war with neighbouring Georgia last year, denied involvement and said Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was trying to shift the blame for his domestic problems.

Georgia’s opposition said the incident was “a show” to deflect attention from weeks of street protests against the president. Hours after news broke of a military uprising, about 30 tanks and armoured personnel carriers entered the tank base 19 kilometres from Tbilisi, followed later by Saakashvili and the defence and interior ministers. It was not clear how many of the 500 soldiers at the base were involved, but their commander was arrested and police said several other former military officers were being investigated.

Saakashvili called the rebellion at the Mukhrovani base a “serious threat” aimed at disrupting month-long NATO military exercises, due to begin today at a former Russian air force base several kilometres from Mukhrovani.

Russia has condemned the planned exercises as an attempt at “muscle-flexing”.

A senior Georgian security official said the exercises might be postponed for several days.

Earlier, Russia’s Interfax news agency said Mukhrovani base commander Mamuka Gorgishvili had criticised Saakashvili’s government, but pledged not to intervene by force in the stand-off on the streets between opposition supporters and the authorities.

“One cannot look calmly at the process of the country falling apart, at the ongoing confrontation. But our tank unit will not resort to any aggressive actions,” the agency quoted Gorgishvili as saying.

Georgian defence minister David Sikharulidze told Rustavi 2 television the rebellion was also “an attempt at a military coup”. Authorities later distanced themselves from the term “coup”, saying the main aim was to disrupt the NATO exercises. A spokesman for the US Pentagon said the mutiny appeared to be “a fairly isolated incident”.

Saakashvili accused the plotters of links to Moscow and demanded neighbouring Russia “refrain from provocations”.

Russia said the Georgian accusations were insane.

“Today what is happening is what we have always feared – the Georgian leadership are trying to shift their domestic problems on to Russia,” Russian deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin said. “Instead of dialogue inside the country, the Georgian leadership is trying to accuse Russia of totally insane things.”