Russia is to conduct war games close to the borders of its southern neighbour – Georgia - just days before the former Soviet state holds its parliamentary elections in October 2012. The Georgians are nervous of Moscow's intentions. But Moscow claims the Georgian authorities are fanning countrywide hysteria as part of their anti-Russian propaganda campaign and unsettling a region already unnerved by Israel-US and Iran tensions.
RUSSIA is to stage war games in September 2012 involving 8,000 troops in the North Caucasus, a simmering cauldron of potentially explosive tensions. Warships and fighter jets will be deployed and the latest surface-to-surface ballistic missiles fired.