Sergei Lavrov told a news conference on the sidelines of the G8 summit, now underway near St. Petersburg, "We became suspicious that Georgia was preparing provocations ahead of and during the summit," with reference to conflict zones in Georgia's self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The minister's comments came in the wake of the detention of a car with Russian diplomats traveling to Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.
Lavrov said that the planned session of the joint control commission on the settlement of the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia had been cancelled.
Russia will continue its peacekeeping missions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia to stop the bloodshed, and demands that Georgia strictly abide by agreements on the status of Russian peacekeepers and diplomats in the country, he said.
The foreign minister also said that Georgia was to blame for breaching agreements aimed at returning refugees from Abkhazia to their homes.
"Georgia's failure to give clear answers to Abkhazian proposals is in many ways an obstacle for resuming the process of returning [Abkhazian] refugees."
"There has been no progress on a proposal to take on commitments against the use of force, and to guarantee security, which were part of mechanisms proposed for settling the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict," the minister added.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday Moscow had suggested that Abkhazia should be given floor at the UN Security Council to present its case in the long-running conflict with Georgia.
Mikhail Kamynin, Foreign Ministry official spokesman, put forward the suggestion after a closed Security Council meeting July 11, at which the situation in Georgia was discussed. Georgian Parliament Speaker Nino Burdzhanadze made a statement on Russia's peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia, which Kamynin described as overly harsh and critical.
Georgia has urged Russia to withdraw remaining two Soviet-era bases from its territory, a process that is now under way.
President Saakashvili, who accuses Russia of backing regimes in its two breakaway regions, also raised the situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia during a meeting with Bush in Washington earlier in the month, in the hope that the U.S. leader would influence Russia on the matter at the G8 summit.
Russia argues that it helped stop bloodshed in the region in the 1990s, and that its peacekeepers play an essential role in averting new conflicts.
