Georgia Country

A team of international monitors is ending its 16-year mission in Georgia after Russia refused to allow an extension of the assignment in a dispute over two breakaway Georgian provinces. The mission by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expires Dec. 31, and OSCE chair Finland called a meeting to seek a three-month extension. But talks collapsed when Russia, a member of the group, demanded that the body join Moscow in recognizing the statehood of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

President Vladimir V. Putin ordered Russia's ambassador to Georgia back to Tbilisi after recalling him four months ago. Putin said the two countries must "normalize" badly strained ties. Russia had recalled Ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko in protest after Georgia briefly detained four Russian military officers accused of spying.

Republic of Georgia authorities, aided by the CIA, set up a sting last summer that led to the arrest of a Russian who tried to sell a small amount of bomb-grade uranium in a plastic bag in his jacket pocket, U.S. and Georgian officials said. The operation, which neither government has publicized, represents one of the most serious cases of smuggling of nuclear material in recent years, according to analysts and officials.

Russian authorities on Friday rejected as an overblown propaganda ploy the announcement this week that one of their citizens was arrested last year in Georgia while allegedly trying to sell a small amount of weapons-grade uranium. Russian national Oleg Khintsagov was arrested Feb. 1 after he smuggled about 3.

In the eyes of foreign critics like Georgian political analyst Ghia Nodiya, Russia has been bullying its neighbors for the last year or so, primarily by demanding sharply higher prices for natural gas and oil and cutting supply, if necessary, to get them. The roots of the problem lie with Russia's emergence from an "inferiority complex" that it developed after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Nodiya said.

Georgian customs officers sent a car carrying a mixture of plutonium and beryllium back into Azerbaijan after foiling an attempt to smuggle the materials over the border, Georgian television reported. Customs officials found the materials, which can be used in nuclear bombs, in what appeared to be a routine check as the car was driven over the border from Azerbaijan, the Imedi television station reported. "Georgian customs detected a high level of radiation," Imedi reported. Details were scant.

Georgia accused Russia on Tuesday of sending two fighter jets into its airspace and dropping a missile near a village. Moscow denied involvement and charged that Georgian authorities staged the incident to gain an edge in their conflict with Russia. Televised footage from an area about 40 miles west of Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, showed a deep 2-foot-wide hole in the ground that authorities said was caused by an unexploded missile dropped Monday evening.

Georgia said Russian military jets violated its airspace for a second time this month, but Russia said its aircraft had been nowhere near Georgia. Georgia made the allegation two weeks after it said Russian jet dropped a missile in a farmer's field 40 miles from Tbilisi, an incident that worsened tense relations between the ex-Soviet neighbors. Russia has also denied the earlier incident.

Georgian forces fired on a Russian plane flying over Georgian territory, a government official said, asserting that residents nearby had reported an explosion and fire afterward. Russia immediately denied the claim. The dispute comes amid heated disagreement between the neighboring countries over Georgian accusations of airspace violations by Russian military aircraft.

The former Soviet republic Georgia will cut the number of its troops in Iraq to less than a quarter of the current contingent by June, its defense minister said Friday. "The Georgian contingent is being reduced to around 300 servicemen from 2,000," Defense Minister David Kezerashvili told journalists. "We had an original agreement with the United States that we would cut our military contingent in Iraq in summer 2008." Georgia, a tiny Caucasus nation, is a close U.S.