Russsia denies role in Abkhazia overhaul

KHANTY-MANSIISK, Russia, June 27 (UPI) -- The Russian foreign minister has branded as a lie reports that Moscow and Tbilisi have discussed dividing up Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia.

"It is totally untrue," Sergei Lavrov said, speaking after a Russia-EU summit in the West Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiisk. The report was carried Friday by a Russian business daily, Kommersant, citing sources in the Georgian leadership and the Russian Foreign Ministry, Novosti reported.

The report said Georgia had proposed to Moscow an array of measures to resolve the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, including the division of the breakaway republic into zones of influences -- a large Russian one and a smaller Georgian one.