Russia and Georgia broke off diplomatic relations on Friday as a row deepened over reports of Russian plans to absorb the breakaway Georgian enclave of South Ossetia, which the Kremlin recognised as independent this week.

According to Znaur Gassiyev, the speaker of South Ossetia’s parliament, Moscow has plans to annex South Ossetia into the Russian Federation “in several years” or even earlier. He said this was “firmly stated” by both Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, and Eduard Kokoity, South Ossetian president, in talks this week in Moscow.