Abkhazia: Russia to Review Ossetia/Abkhazia Status
The legal status of Abkhazia and South Ossertia was excluded in EU-backed peace plan, Russian Foreign Minister claims.
Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov called on Wednesday [13 August 2008] to re-examine the status of autonomous republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia while his government denied the advance of troops within Georgian territory.
Lavrov said the status of those republics was not included in a peace plan made in France and submitted by the European Union (EU) to end the conflict, and the discussion about safety in South Ossetia and Abkhazia is impossible out of the context of its status.
The Russian foreign minister said his nation ended the peace operations in Georgia on Tuesday [12 August 2008] because it fulfilled its objectives and not because US President George W. Bush demanded so.
He also said Washington's arguments were unfounded because it showed Moscow as part of the conflict and, thus, unable to fulfil the peace mission.
According to Lavrov, the peace-keeping group of Russian, Georgian and Ossetian battalions left Georgians out after attacking Ossetia.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Brussels after meeting his EU peers that the regional bloc is willing to watch and control the ceasefire implementation in Georgia.
Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff Anatoli Novogitzyn denied versions of a transfer of Russian troops to Tbilisi from Gori, Georgian city near South Ossetia.
Military sources reported the evacuation of Russian technology and ammunition from an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Gori aiming at the demilitarization of the area near the South Ossetian conflict region.
