STUTTGART, Germany — Despite a brief mutiny Tuesday involving a Georgian tank battalion 20 miles from the nation’s capital, NATO troops will move forward with a monthlong training mission near Tbilisi, marking the first significant exercise in the country since its five-day war with Russia last year.

But the scope of the exercise, scheduled to start Wednesday, will be scaled back as three nations — Switzerland, Moldova and Serbia — have officially withdrawn. NATO officials said a couple of more countries could soon be added to the list.

"The exercise is on, but some plans have changed," said Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Chaston, a spokesman from NATO’s Joint Force Command headquarters in Naples, Italy. "It’s not a major impact at this point, but that could change if more countries drop out."

The short-lived mutiny ended soon after a former special forces commander, accused of planning to disrupt NATO exercises, was taken into custody. President Mikhail Saakashvili, in a televised address, described the mutiny as an isolated case.

The president also described the plot as an attempt by Russia to disrupt the NATO exercise.

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, an official said they were monitoring the situation on the ground in Georgia, but that there were no concerns about the safety of troops involved in the mission.

NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero also said the exercise shouldn’t be confused as an operation related to the tensions between Russia and Georgia.

"It’s a Partnership for Peace exercise that is done every year. It is not an exercise about Georgia," Romero said.

A Georgian military official told The Associated Press that the suspected coup plot was organized by Georgy Gvaladze, the former special forces commander, and an army officer on active duty.

Meanwhile, a former Saakashvili ally said the reports of the planned coup were fiction. "It’s nothing but a tall tale, and we’ve heard so many of them already," Georgy Khaindrava, Georgia’s opposition leader, told the AP. "Saakashvili could not make up anything smarter."

The NATO exercise, which includes 24 troops from the U.S., has provoked heated words from Russia, which views the drill as a poorly timed muscle-flexing move.

However, officials at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe said the collaboration with Georgia and other NATO partner nations had been in the works well before the August conflict.

Indeed, the mission was planned last spring and approved by NATO in June, according to SHAPE spokeswoman Lt. Col. Rita LePage. After that, "all the nationals were informed in July," including Russia, LePage said.

But last week, Russia spoke out against NATO’s presence in Georgia. At the same time, Russian forces took control of the borders of the two breakaway regions that were at the center of last year’s war: Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

During a signing session in Moscow on Thursday with leaders from the breakaway provinces that ratified the border accord, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said NATO military exercises should not be held where a war was so recently fought.

Initially, about 700 NATO and Partnership for Peace troops from 15 countries were slated to participate in the exercise at Vaziani air base near Tbilisi, according to SHAPE.

NATO officials contend that the exercise isn’t about confronting Russia but rather about fostering the capability of NATO and partner countries to work together.

The exercise, which ends June 1, is broken down into two components.

Cooperative Longbow involves roughly 250 personnel and is focused on training NATO staff-level skills and procedures to the various NATO partner countries. The scenario is based on a fictitious U.N.-mandated, NATO-led crisis response operation, according to SHAPE.

"The purpose is to improve interoperability in a joint military environment," LePage said. "The exercise exposes them to those kinds of staff skills. They become familiar with policies and procedures."

Longbow will be followed by Cooperative Lancer, an exercise designed to provide basic knowledge about peacekeeping support missions at the battalion level, LePage said. About 400 personnel will be involved. "It is based on humanitarian response," LePage said.

A similar exercise was held last year in Armenia. Following that exercise, the Georgian government volunteered to host the 2009 event, LePage said.