"Accusations aimed at our peacekeepers are ungrounded and serve, primarily, to escalate tensions and to prepare various scenarios for forcible resolution [of the conflict] by Georgia," Mikhail Kamynin said.
Russian peacekeepers briefly detained five Georgian police officers on Tuesday in the village of Ganmukhuri near the border with Abkhazia, saying the Georgians had threatened to open fire on them. Georgia gave a conflicting version of events, saying the Russians surrounded the Patriot youth camp near the village and took the Georgian policemen hostage.
Kamynin said Moscow believes the Georgian leadership may take harsh steps to worsen relations with Russia prior to mass protests of the Georgian opposition scheduled for November 2.
"There is no doubt that the actions of the Georgian leadership and personally President Mikheil Saakashvili, including during the recent [October 30] incident, were determined by the internal political situation," the Russian diplomat said.
Saakashvili has recently faced growing opposition protests and accusations of amassing too much power. In late September, thousands of people rallied to protest against the arrest of an ex-defense minister who accused the president of corruption.
The Georgian president, who arrived briefly at the scene of the incident in the conflict zone on Tuesday, demanded that the commander of the Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone, Major General Sergei Chaban, leave the country.
"Tell your general, Mr. Chaban, that I am declaring him a persona non-grata, and I want him to leave the country in the next few days," Saakashvili told a Russian peacekeeper in Ganmukhuri before leaving the area.
Saakashvili has also said his country will demand that the UN Security Council sanction the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Abkhazia.
Kamynin said the Russian peacekeepers acted strictly in accordance with their mandate and did not use weapons, despite attempts by Georgian police to provoke them.
He said new commander of Russia's peacekeeping contingent in Abkhazia would be appointed at a November 27 meeting of defense ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Kazakhstan.
"If the CIS Council of Defense Ministers decides to keep Gen. Chaban at his present post, he will continue to perform his duties as the commander of the peacekeeping contingent in Abkhazia," Kamynin said.
Georgia has repeatedly voiced its goal of regaining control over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which declared independence in the early 1990s. It has also accused the CIS peacekeeping force, mainly represented by Russians, of backing separatists.
However, Russian peacekeepers insist they are performing their duties under the CIS mandate supported by the United Nations, and accuse Georgia of making frequent attempts to interfere with their activities.
The UN Security Council adopted on October 15 a resolution urging Georgia and Abkhazia to respect their obligations under existing cease-fire agreements and to provide full assistance to CIS and UN peacekeepers in the conflict zone.
"There would have been no incident [on Tuesday] if Georgia had fulfilled its obligations and listened to the opinions and recommendations voiced by such a respectable global organization as the United Nations," said Lt. Col. Alexander Diordiyev, an aide to Gen. Chaban.
