Russia ‘to Absorb’ South Ossetia
Russia intends to eventually absorb Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia, a South Ossetian official said Friday, three days after Moscow recognized the region as independent and drew criticism from the West.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the region’s leader, Eduard Kokoity, discussed the future of South Ossetia earlier this week in Moscow, South Ossetian parliamentary speaker Znaur Gassiyev said.
Russia will absorb South Ossetia “in several years” or earlier, a position was “firmly stated by both leaders,” Gassiyev said.
In Moscow, a Kremlin spokeswoman said Friday there was “no official information” on the talks.
In Georgia, the vice speaker of parliament, Gigi Tsereteli, said the statement cannot be taken seriously.
“The separatist regimes of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the Russian authorities are cut off from reality,” he said in Tbilisi. “The world has already become different and Russia will not long be able to occupy sovereign Georgian territory.”
“The regimes of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should think about the fact that if they become part of Russia, they will be assimilated and in this way they will disappear,” he added.