GEORGIA: Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili yesterday said Russia may be to blame for blasts that cut gas pipelines to his country.
Two explosions cut the main and subsidiary gas pipelines from Russia to the Georgian capital, Tblisi, in the early hours of yesterday morning, followed by a third explosion that destroyed the main electricity power line.
Moscow blamed "acts of sabotage" and said it was investigating the blasts, which occurred in an area of the Caucuses close to the war-torn Russian republic of Chechnya.
"We are not satisfied by Russia's explanations," said Mr Saakashvili. "They are contradictory."
Most of Georgia's gas and much of its electricity are bought from Russia and the blasts have plunged the country into crisis, as Tblisi has almost no energy reserves.
The blasts come with relations between the two nations frayed after several days in which Moscow and Tblisi have accused each other of provocations near the ceasefire line of Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia.
Last week Moscow accused Georgian troops of temporarily seizing a Russian army shooting range at Gonio used by peacekeeping troops stationed near Abkhazia.
Relations between the two countries have been tense since November 2003 when Mr Saakashvili, backed by the US, won election in the so-called "Rose Revolution" beating a pro-Moscow candidate.
Since then Georgia has pushed Russia to remove troops that have been stationed there since the days of the Soviet Union.
Moscow has meanwhile accused Georgia of turning a blind eye to Chechen rebels who it says have bases on Georgian soil.
The blasts occurred in the province of North Ossetia, and were followed in the late morning by the destruction of electricity transmission lines in the neighbouring province of Karachayevo-Cherkessiya.
Georgia said gas supplies from Russia have been cut as well as one quarter of its electrical power. Deliveries of both have also been cut to neighbouring Armenia which, like Georgia, relies on Russia for most of its energy.
The attack comes as temperatures across eastern Europe are plunging to near record lows.
Repairs are expected to take several days owing to the remoteness of the region and security concerns.
Mr Saakashvili said the damaged pipelines were in a zone controlled by Russian border guards.
Russia's prosecutor office has opened a formal investigation, but there was no comment from the Kremlin yesterday.
Gazprom said it was against "politicising of this issue" and called on all sides to await the result of the prosecutor's investigation.
Earlier this month Georgia and Armenia agreed to a doubling of Russian gas prices to $110 per thousand cubic metres, half the market rate. A similar deal was fixed with Ukraine, after that country had its gas supplies cut for several days by Moscow.
The pipeline blasts will cause anxiety across the region. Russia and a cluster of landlocked Central Asian states depend on an elaborate network of pipelines to take their oil and gas to market, and the explosions are a reminder of how vulnerable these long arteries are to terrorist attack.