Russia ruled out a swift end to its sanctions against Georgia on Tuesday, and said that its suspension of transport and mail links was aimed partly at preventing money flows from Russia being used to fund a Georgian military build-up against its bigger neighbour.

Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, said: “We are not going to live with a situation when millions of dollars are passing from Russia to Georgia at a time when Georgia is engaged in a huge military build-up,” he said.