Abkhazia, the focus of an ongoing dispute between Russia and Georgia, closed its border with the rest of Georgia earlier on Tuesday. The move followed two explosions in Abkhazia that the local authorities blamed on Georgian special forces.
Russian control "does not serve the peace process, and is not in the interests of the Abkhaz population, which have now become de facto hostages to the current situation on Abkhazia's territory, where absolute control has been established by the Russian authorities," Yekaterina Tkeshelashvili told reporters.
"The main aim of the Georgian government is to change the situation, so that the situation cannot be controlled by any one country - in this case Russia... the Abkhaz population should be able to decide their own fate."
Abkhazia has closed a bridge across the Inguri River to civilians, but is allowing staff of international organizations and peacekeepers based in the security zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict to pass, a Georgian police source said earlier on Tuesday.
Abkhazia announced the border closure after two bombs exploded on Monday at a market in Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. Earlier reports that one person had been killed were not confirmed.
On Sunday, six people were injured when two explosions rocked Abkhazia's Black Sea resort of Gagra. Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh blamed Georgia for the bombings, while Tbilisi dismissed the accusation as "absurd."
Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed in the subsequent fighting.
The pro-Western Georgian government of Mikheil Saakashvili has said it is determined to bring the breakaway region back under its control, while accusing Russia of trying to annex the breakaway republic, along with another rebel province, South Ossetia.
