Russian MP: Breakaway Abkhazia, S. Ossetia will never be Georgia again
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, July 8
Russian senior lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy claims that breakaway regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, now occupied by Russia, will never be part of Georgia again.
Tolstoy made the statement in an interview with the Georgian television broadcasting company Rustavi 2. According to him, Russia has not occupied the mentioned regions.
“When your so-called president writes on a social network that Russia is an enemy and an occupier, can you imagine any talks about normal relations? Abkhazia and South Ossetia will never be part of Georgia again. Remember that very well. They will never be your regions again,” he noted, referring to the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili.
Tolstoy, who heads the Russian delegation at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, also commented on anti-Russian rallies in Georgia, launched on June 20, noting Russia supports the independence of breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“Russia will be supporting their independence. Tell those who are running with anti-Russian slogans around Tbilisi that Abkhazia and South Ossetia will never return to Georgia. This will never happen,” he added.
The United States Chargé d’Affaires in Georgia, Elizabeth Rood, commented in response to the Russian MP, saying breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia are an integral part of Georgia and the US firmly supports Georgia’s territorial integrity.
“Maybe the members of the Russian Duma say so, though we believe that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are an integral part of Georgia and the US firmly supports Georgia’s territorial integrity. It also calls on Russia to obey the 2008 agreement and withdraw the so-called “recognition” of these regions,” said Rood.
Rood also commented on Russia’s flight ban with Georgia, imposed by President Vladimir Putin on June 21, saying it was “unjust, unnecessary and disproportionate.”
She was responded by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, saying Rood made “mentor rhetoric,” adding over the past 50 years, “Russia has been viewed by the US establishment as an unfriendly state.”
“We would like to hear from Ms. Rood about ‘the fair, necessary and proportionate’ US restrictive measures that have been imposed over decades to exert pressure on our country’s foreign policy,” Russian MFA stated.
Moscow added “at least from 1974 to the present time” there was not a single day when US sanctions would not have been applied to Russia.
