In addition to the risk of the Ukraine War spreading to Georgian territory, the planned Russian naval base in Abkhazia could threaten Georgia's status as a global east-west connectivity hub.
His outspoken criticism of Iran, and the timing coinciding with the opening of Azerbaijan's embassy in Israel led some fellow MPs to point the finger at Tehran.
Officials in Moscow and their allies in Abkhazia and South Ossetia all canceled meetings with international diplomats brokering the discussions, casting the future of the talks into question.
The embassy's chief of security was shot dead, and two other staff were wounded. The attack comes amid Azerbaijan's increasingly strained relations with Iran and blossoming friendship with Iran's archrival Israel.
The drills included a crossing of the river that forms the Azerbaijan-Iran border, mirroring the threat that Iran’s armed forces had made weeks earlier.
Questioning the territorial integrity of the neighboring country, once a taboo topic, is increasingly entering official discourse both in Baku and Tehran.