MOSCOW  Russian military forces began large-scale war games on Monday in the Caucasus region, not far from the Georgian border, raising tensions between the countries less than a year after they went to war.

In a series of news conferences on Monday, military officials said that about 8,500 troops from all branches of the armed services would take part in a week of exercises, the largest such war games since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The officials noted that the exercises were intended in part to incorporate lessons learned from the war last August. Russia easily won, but the military officials said the war exposed deficiencies in training and equipment.

Military exercises in the Caucasus have been held before, and similar maneuvers there last year ended days before the war broke out on Aug. 7. The war games this year are scheduled to end next Monday, the day that President Obama arrives in Moscow for a summit meeting.