TBILISI, Aug 4 (AFP) - A top Russia lawmaker said Wednesday he had come under fire and was cut off by Georgian forces in the increasingly tense corridor between Georgia proper and the breakaway South Ossetia region, Russian media reports said.
"Unexpectedly our car was shot at -- according to preliminary information the firing came from a Georgian sub-division," Andrei Kokoshin, a State Duma lower house of parliament deputy overseeing relations with other former Soviet republics, told Interfax.
The incident came amid increased tension in recent weeks in the peacekeeping corridor between Georgia proper and South Ossetia, which has had de facto independence since it defeated Georgian forces with Russian help in 1992.
Georgia's new President Mikhail Saakashvili has pledged to bring South Ossetia back under Tbilisi's control.
Wednesday's incident was fairly quickly resolved, with Kokoshin allowed to continue his tour of the troubled region. But Moscow issued a strongly worded protest.
"Georgia continues to seriously destabilise the situation in the region -- this incident occurred when the delegation headed to a military post... where Georgian units are illegally deployed," Russia's foreign ministry said in a written statement.
But Georgia's Deputy Minister for State Security Gigi Ugulava denied that Georgian border guards had fired the first shot in the incident near the village of Sarabuk in the peacekeeping corridor.
"This incident is a pointless provocation -- there is evidence that the first shots were fired by the Ossetian side," Ugulava said.
"A Georgian security post was fired on at around 4:30 in the afternoon and this naturally prompted answering fire," Ugulava told AFP.
Tension in the conflict reached new heights last week when a night-long gun battle occurred near South Ossetia's capital of Tskhinvali, leaving several injured.
A combined peacekeeping force of Georgians, Ossetians and Russians patrols the border between Georgia and South Ossetia. But all sides involved claim that the other party is sending additional supplies and reinforcements in breach of the agreement.