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Russian soldiers resume construction of barriers in Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone

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The Russian military is continuing to build fortifications along the administrative border line in the Georgian–Ossetian conflict zone, the Georgian State Security Service reports.

South Ossetian authorities and the Russian military began building barriers shortly after the August 2008 war, when Russia recognised South Ossetia as an independent country.

 

They claim that they are strengthening the state border of South Ossetia while laying  barbed wire, metal and wooden fences, digging trenches, putting up border signs and establishing monitoring infrastructure.

 

Tbilisi calls this process a creeping occupation and states that the Russian military is encroaching on territories controlled by the Georgian side. The Russian military claims to be drawing out the so-called border based on maps of the Soviet period and paving the border along the Soviet administrative border of the then-South Ossetian Autonomous Region as part of Georgia.

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The State Security Service of Georgia stated that Russian troops are erecting illegal border facilities in the Gori region in the villages of Chorchana-Perevi and Gugutiantkari.

Tbilisi has called the actions of the Russian military a ‘provocation.’

The Georgian side has opened a hotline, since often in the past, in the process of work carried out by the Russian military, Georgian citizens have been detained on charges of violating the so-called state border of South Ossetia.

The European Union Monitoring Mission observing the situation in the conflict zone has been informed about what is happening.

US Ambassador to Georgia Elizabeth Rood has issued a statement against the erection of these barriers. 

The report of the State Security Service of Georgia also focuses on the fact that from August 29, 2019, meetings between the Georgian and Ossetian parties in the format of the Incident and Response Prevention Mechanism were stopped, during which humanitarian and technical problems in the conflict zone were discussed.

The meetings were stopped on decision of the Ossetian side after the opening of a Georgian police post in the area of ​​the village of Chorchan in the Khashursky district.  

Then the Ossetian side responded by opening a similar post on its side near the village of Tsnelisi. 

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Toponyms, terminology, views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of JAMnews or any employees thereof. JAMnews reserves the right to delete comments it considers to be offensive, inflammatory, threatening, or otherwise unacceptable

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