Georgia Tuesday accused Russia of cutting off its citizens from their farmland by installing border signposts demarcating the breakaway South Ossetia region, calling on Moscow to refrain from "escalation".

The signposts have been installed near three villages in recent days and land belonging to several local residents ended up beyond the demarcation line with South Ossetia, a Georgian region that declared independence and which Tbilisi considers occupied by Russia.

Russian troops have been installing barbed wire around South Ossetia since Tbilisi's defeat in the brief 2008 Russia-Georgia war over control of the Moscow-backed separatist region.

Local residents estimated that the new border signposts effectively moved the demarcation line by 800 meters deeper into Georgia's territory, according to Georgian media.

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