Twice unanimously

There was no sensation. As expected, the State Duma and the Federation Council adopted an appeal to the Russian President calling for recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Deputies of both chambers voted for the corresponding document unanimously. The Federation Council turned out to be even more agile; 130 members of the Upper House came out for recognition of independence earlier than 447 deputies of the Lower House.

Now the word is up to the president, but Medvedev has already said that he will agree with any decision of the peoples of these two republics. Last week we were shown that people at special gatherings unanimously supported an appeal to Russia and other countries to recognize their independence from Georgia. (However, referendums on this topic were held before, and the majority again spoke in favor of independence.)

President of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh invited Russia to go further and conclude an agreement on military cooperation.

Speaking before the Federation Council, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said that both his republic and Abkhazia have more political and legal grounds for recognizing independence than Kosovo.

In addition, the Federation Council approved (again unanimously) the dispatch of an additional contingent of Russian peacekeepers to the conflict zone in Georgia.

State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said that the fact of genocide of the South Ossetian people certainly took place, and compared Georgia's actions with Germany's attack on the Soviet Union.

First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots Konstantin Zatulin ruled out the possibility of international isolation of Russia. And Deputy Chairman of the Duma Ivan Melnikov said that Russia now needs to “firmly and consistently” explain to the world community “what really happened in the North Caucasus,” and expressed hope that “there will be such an understanding in the world.” At the same time, he noted that “in matters of ensuring its security, in geopolitical issues, the West will never agree with us.”

The head of the A Just Russia faction, Nikolai Levichev, said that Abkhazia and South Ossetia will remain unrecognized states in the eyes of only a “small part of the world community,” and this does not change anything for Russia.

Meanwhile, President Medvedev is meeting in Sochi with his Moldovan counterpart Vladimir Voronin. Medvedev proposed discussing without delay the issue of Transnistria. Both spoke in the sense that “frozen conflicts” cannot be maintained and the Transnistrian problem must be resolved.