PRESS RELEASE

State Secretary, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Grigory Karasin received on December 9 the Head of the European Union Investigation Mission into the Georgia-Ossetia Conflict in August 2008, Heidi Tagliavini.

During the conversation, the Commission's upcoming work was examined. A discussion of the current situation in Transcaucasia took place with emphasis on the need for urgent measures to ensure security and stability in the zones adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The importance was noted of elaborating an objective position regarding the causes of what happened and the precise chain of events, beginning with the start of the 90s. There was reaffirmed on the Russian side its fact-based vision of the causes and chronology of Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia in August 2008. The necessity was emphasized of the Commission establishing contacts with all the parties and international organizations involved, in one way or another, in the August conflict.

December 9, 2008