Vladimir Putin made his first visit to Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway region, and pledged massive spending to turn it into a Russian military fortress.

Mr Putin chose the first anniversary of the ceasefire that ended Russia’s war with Georgia to travel to Abkhazia’s capital, Sukhumi. He promised almost $500 million (£320 million) to build a military base and reinforce the de facto border with Georgia.

“Russia is going to deploy its armed forces in Abkhazia and take the necessary efforts to build a modern border guard system in co-operation with the relevant Abkhazian authorities. All these factors are serious guarantees of the security of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” Mr Putin said.

He warned that Russia would defend Abkhazia against any attempt by Georgia to reclaim the territory by force. He said that a new conflict could not be ruled out as long as President Saakashvili of Georgia remained in office.

“Given today’s Georgian leadership it is impossible to exclude anything,” he told Abkhaz journalists.

“However, a repetition is going to be much more difficult for them this time... the events of August 2008 should teach them that talking only from a position of power is pointless.”

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the visit as a “provocation carried out quite in the tradition of Soviet special services”, a reference to Mr Putin’s past as a KGB agent.

Giorgi Kandelaki, deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Georgia’s parliament, said that Mr Putin’s visit was ”an illegal crossing of Georgia’s borders, which is a crime”.

Russia recognised Abkhazia and Georgia’s other separatist region — South Ossetia — as independent states after the war last August, a decision condemned by the United States and the European Union. Only Nicaragua has followed the Kremlin’s lead and, technically, Mr Putin crossed Georgia’s border illegally to visit Abkhazia.

Such details were of no concern to Abkhazians who greeted the man they regard as a liberator. A group of mothers chanted “Putin is our guardian angel” as he laid flowers at a memorial to fighters killed in the war of 1992-93, when Abkhazia first broke away from Georgia’s control.

Mr Putin later toured a maternity hospital where he was introduced to twin boys who had been born 30 minutes earlier. Liana Achba, the head of the hospital, said that the babies would be named Vladimir and Dmitri in honour of the Prime Minister and President Medvedev.

“It’s up to the parents to decide,” Mr Putin answered.

He travelled to Sukhumi with Russia’s ministers for defence, transportation and regional development as well as officials from Russian Railways and the oil company Rosneft.

Mr Putin told Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhazia’s President: “This is not a random choice of colleagues who are present here today... large-scale joint operations are planned in virtually all the spheres that my colleagues represent.”

Rosneft later announced that it expected to develop oil fields off Abkhazia’s Black Sea coast. To Georgia’s fury, Abkhazia is also expected to provide building materials for projects in the nearby Russian city of Sochi, which is hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Mr Putin recalled that he had last visited Abkhazia as part of a student labour brigade in the Soviet holiday resort of Gagra. He said: “I earned what was in those times an enormous sum — 800 roubles. With the money I bought an overcoat which I wore for 15 years.”

His visit took place as Ukraine accused Russia of having “imperial complexes”. The row flared after Mr Medvedev attacked the “anti-Russian” policies of President Yushchenko of Ukraine.

Vera Ulyanchenko, Mr Yushchenko’s chief of staff, said that Russia’s leaders were trying to bully neighbouring states and constantly needed “the idea of a foreign enemy”.

Mr Medvedev attacked Mr Yushchenko’s support for Georgia in last year’s war, saying that Ukrainian weapons had killed Russian troops in South Ossetia. Ms Ulyanchenko said that the war was the result of a “policy of provocation” by Russia.

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