Provocation for Georgia
Russia open to South Ossetia joining
04/01/2022, 03:00 am
South Ossetia has a population of just over 50,000, but considers itself a republic. Under international law, the area belongs to Georgia. Now the region wants to vote on joining Russia. Benevolent signals are coming from Moscow.
Russia has shown itself open to a possible incorporation of the conflict region of South Ossetia, which has broken away from the South Caucasus Republic of Georgia. This is about a self-determined decision by the people of South Ossetia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax agency. “We treat it with respect.”
Peskov was referring to a proposal by South Ossetian leader Anatoly Bibilov to hold a referendum on joining Russia. The South Ossetians see themselves as one people with the people of the Russian republic of North Ossetia. Bibilov had said on Russian state television that he could imagine a union with North Ossetia and announced a referendum about it.
In Georgia on the Black Sea, several politicians spoke of a provocation. In 2008, after a short war with Russia, the former Soviet republic lost control of South Ossetia – as well as the Black Sea region of Abkhazia, which has no plans to join Russia. At the time, Russia had recognized both regions as independent states against international protests and stationed thousands of soldiers there.
“Unification strategic goal”
The influential Russian MP Leonid Kalashnikov said that South Ossetia’s admission was legally possible. For Russia, which is now the protecting power of South Ossetia, this could also be economically advantageous, he said. “I believe that unification with Russia is our strategic goal,” said Bibilov. A referendum should be organized quickly after the next “presidential election” on April 10. The West does not recognize these elections. South Ossetia with its approximately 50,000 inhabitants, together with Transnistria, Abkhazia and Artsakh, forms the community of non-recognized states.
On February 24, Russia launched a war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine, citing, among other things, protection of the eastern Ukrainian separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. A month earlier, Moscow had recognized Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states. As a result, international concern grew that the potential for conflict could also increase in pro-Russian regions in other ex-Soviet states.