Foreign Ministry officials said Grigory Karasin would meet with Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh and Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba to discuss ways to avert a new wave of violence in the region following last month's deployment of Georgian security forces in a gorge separating the breakaway region from the rest of Georgia.
The Russian diplomat is also expected to meet with the commander of a peacekeeping force deployed in the region since the early 1990s to monitor a ceasefire deal with Georgia.
Russia is a key mediator between Georgia and Abkhazia, and Russian servicemen are part of the peacekeeping contingent in the conflict zone. Tbilisi has repeatedly accused Moscow of siding with Abkhazia and in July the Georgian parliament passed a resolution calling on the government to declare Russian peacekeepers in the country illegal.
