Translated material
The only phenomenon
Sergei Lavrov is convinced of the peacefulness of Chisinau and Baku
Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke at an extended meeting of the international committee of the Federation Council on the situation around South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He said that Russia's recognition of two breakaway republics from Georgia is not a precedent for other conflicts in the post-Soviet space. “We will responsibly implement our mediation mission in the negotiation process, this fully applies to Pridnestrovie and Nagorno-Karabakh,” he noted, explaining: “Everywhere, however, has its own characteristics, its own formats and mediation mechanisms. But the South Ossetian crisis is not creates no precedent for them."To substantiate this thesis, Sergei Lavrov referred to the difference in the behavior of the Georgian authorities, on the one hand, and the leaders of Moldova and Azerbaijan, on the other. According to him, “the parties involved in resolving these conflicts are not going to resort to the methods of the Georgian leadership.” “None of those involved in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Transnistrian settlement plans to violate international law, break existing agreements, destroy the agreed settlement format, or bomb civilians and peacekeepers,” said the head of Russian diplomacy. According to him, “there is no one there who would like to ensure territorial integrity by mass murder of people whom you consider to be your own citizens, residents of your own country. There can be no parallels here. Thank God, Saakashvili is a one-of-a-kind phenomenon.”
Lavrov warned the West against “ideological games to the detriment of ensuring real security objectives in the region and continuing the restoration of South Ossetia.” He noted the attempts of supporters of the Saakashvili regime to “turn everything upside down”, “to use the OSCE to sneak in as many international officials as possible into South Ossetia” in order to “then say that this is the territory of Georgia.” According to him, the OSCE needs to “just write down a decision” that “additional observers should be stationed in the zones adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.”
But the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship yesterday suspended consultations on additional observers in the conflict zone. “Georgia, the United States and the EU countries persistently proposed sending all the remaining 80 military observers to Georgia, while implying that South Ossetia is an integral part of Georgian territory,” said Russia's permanent representative to the OSCE Anvar Azimov. The decision of the OSCE Permanent Council on August 19 provided for the immediate deployment of 20 out of one hundred military observers in Georgia in the zone adjacent to South Ossetia. Sending 80 more observers required an additional decision. However, Russia's arguments that “observers must first of all control the territory of the aggressor, and the areas adjacent to the borders of South Ossetia are not perceived.” There are currently 28 military observers in Georgia, eight of them have access to the territory of South Ossetia under the old mandate, which an independent South Ossetia must still confirm. Russia demands that representatives of Tskhinvali and Sukhumi be invited to OSCE meetings on issues affecting them.