Tbilisi Concerned By South Ossetia Boundary Marker

TBILISI -- Georgian officials are expressing concern over the installation by Russian troops of a boundary marker in Gogeti village near Georgia's border with its breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Imedi TV quotes Davit Sujashvili, head of the Georgian Interior Ministry’s Analytical Department, as saying on November 26 that international organizations and foreign missions have been informed of the situation.

He said Georgian security forces will increase patrols in the area near the village to ensure local residents' safety.

In September, the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi expressed concern over "borderization" activities along the administrative boundary lines of Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia recognized the independence of the two separatist regions after a short war with Georgia in August 2008.

Moscow keeps its troops in both regions, which Tbilisi considers its territory.