Bus Traffic with Russia Impeded in South Ossetia

Reports claim that passenger buses en route from Georgia to Russia and vice versa are being barred from entering Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia by local authorities in the self-styled republic.

Georgian Deputy Security Minister Gigi Ugulava said at a news briefing on June 28 that several passenger buses are currently being blocked at the Roki tunnel, which links Russia’s North Ossetian Republic with its neighboring South Ossetia. 

The Interior Ministry of the breakaway republic issued a statement on June 27 saying that the Ossetian side had to resort to these measures after the Georgian side seized several trucks en route to South Ossetia from Russia. Tbilisi claims that the seized trucks were transporting smuggled goods.