Georgia fears war over region's independence vote
The prime minister's stark language was tempered by the removal before the vote of the hawkish Georgian defence minister, the strongest sign yet that Tbilisi wants to ease a standoff with the separatists and their Russian backers. Election officials in South Ossetia said 99 per cent of the roughly 50,000 voters said "Yes" to separation from Tbilisi - a defiant reaffirmation of a split that has existed since a war in the early 1990s.
Zurab Nogaideli, the Georgian prime minister, said the vote was a "provocation" and part of a Kremlin strategy to ratchet up tensions in the region.
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Hide Ad"They are portraying us as if we are going to start a war there, which has never been our intention," he said during a visit to the European Union headquarters in Brussels. "Their recent rhetoric and action are making us draw the conclusion that they themselves are getting prepared for a war."
A sliver of land in the Caucasus mountains, South Ossetia has no international recognition, but is propped up by the Russian government.