We noted the series of statements from the West (the NATO Secretary General, Press Secretary of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State) which contain invented accusations against Russia regarding the measures involved in setting up the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia with Georgia, which are conducted by the authorities of these Republics with the support of our frontier guards.

We need to repeat once again, what the Russian party, as well as our Abkhazian and South Ossetian partners have already explained many times.

The Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia are independent countries, which have full rights to control their territory by the means they deem appropriate. Issues of border crossing and border regime are exclusively within the competence of the authorities of Tskinvali and Sukhumi. In accordance with the international obligations of the Russian Federation, our frontier guards only fulfil the tasks which are delegated to them by the South Ossetian and Abkhazian authorities under bilateral agreements of 2008 on our joint efforts to protect the borders.

We note the measures of the South Ossetian party to set up frontier barriers, the purpose of which is to reduce the number of incidents related to unintentional trespassing of the frontier by the local population from both sides and thus remove the factor creating constant tensions near the border. It is a fact that the number of such incidents significantly reduced when we started to install barriers. This is also confirmed by the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia.

Unfortunately, the West still prefer not to hear these arguments and do not even attempt to deal with the situation. However, for the sake of fairness we will note that the authors of the above mentioned statements refrained from the distribution of deliberately misleading affirmations about any alleged transfer of the border line inside Georgia.

If our Western partners are truly concerned with issues of building stability and the situation of the population in regions near the border, they need to stop repeating the mantra about the territorial integrity of Georgia and accusing Russia of all manner of sins. Instead they should give Georgia a hint about the only correct path to pursue – a respectful and constructive dialogue with Tskinval and Sukhum.

4 October 2013