Moscow Backs Tskhinvali, But Urges Restraint
South Ossetian secessionist leader Eduard Kokoity held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on June 29.
The meeting comes two days after the Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated that that it would not engage in talks with the Tbilisi-loyal South Ossetian provisional administration, led by Dimitri Sanakoev.
Lavrov and, as the Russian Foreign Ministry put it in an information note, “the President of South Ossetia” expressed their concern over the “shelling of Tskhinvali and provocative actions against Russian peacekeepers.”
According to reports from Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region, a South Ossetian militiaman was injured after the capital came under mortar attack from the Georgian village of Kheiti in the early hours of June 29. The Georgian side has denied the reports, saying that Georgian villages had in fact been shelled.
On June 28, a group of local Georgian residents in the conflict zone scuffled with Russian peacekeepers, who had been preventing the Georgian side from resuming construction of a road. The Russian peacekeepers showed restraint and withdrew. Construction of the road between the two Georgian villages of Nikozi and Avnevi resumed.
Georgian media sources, as well as officials in Tbilisi, described the incident as a success, wherein the local population’s will had prevailed over Russian peacekeepers’ “provocative actions.” Opposition lawmakers subsequently called on the executive and President Saakashvili to push for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the conflict zone.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on June 29 that escalating tension in the region “is becoming dangerous.”
“The Georgian side’s actions aim at the destabilization of the situation in South Ossetia,” the Foreign Ministry said.
According to the report, Foreign Minister Lavrov informed Kokoity of Moscow’s “diplomatic measures and contacts with partners and international organizations” aimed at convincing Tbilisi and “its foreign co-thinkers” of the futility of their policy.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated its position that the current, Moscow-dominated negotiating formats should remain as the major tool for conflict resolution.
After the meeting, Kokoity told Russian journalists that the talks with the Russian Foreign Minister demonstrated Moscow’s “full support” for the authorities in Tskhinvali.
The Russian Foreign Minister, however, told the South Ossetian leader to show a more flexible approach and to reconsider measures aimed against the local Georgian population of the conflict zone.
“He [Lavrov] called on the South Ossetian leadership to show maximum restraint and good will in relation to current problems, particularly water supply and free movement,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
In May, the South Ossetian side blocked roads leading to Georgian villages and in early June cut supply of irrigation water to Georgian villages.
“The only reason why Tskhinvali has blocked these roads is to prevent the population from seeing the reconstruction which is taking place in the [Georgian-administered] villages [of South Ossetia],” Col. Mamuka Kurashvili, commander of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion, told Imedi TV on June 28.
The recent flare-up of tensions in the region comes after Dimitri Sanakoev’s visit to Brussels, which was described by officials in Tbilisi as “a turning point” in the conflict resolution process.
“The meetings, which were held [in Brussels], show that the European Parliament not only accepts but also supports Tbilisi’s creation of the provisional administration in South Ossetia. This is a very important message,” Nino Burjanadze, the Parliamentary Chairperson, said on June 29.
The European Union welcomed on June 14 Tbilisi’s attempts to engage in an “all-inclusive consultative process” with all the forces in South Ossetia. The EU, however, added that this all-inclusive process “can only succeed if it is given sufficient time to unfold, and if it is accompanied by concrete confidence building measures.”