Tbilisi condemns meeting between Putin and de facto leader of Georgian occupied Tskhinvali

Tbilisi has condemned a recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the de facto leader of the Georgian occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region Anatoly Bibilov.

Official Tbilisi has evaluated it as a provocation and an attempt to legitimize the occupation of historic Georgian lands and the ethnic cleansing in the two Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali.

At the meeting held at the Kremlin yesterday Putin said that Russia will send observers to Tskhinvali to monitor the “upcoming presidential elections,” which he hoped will be held “democratically.”

We are doing our best for the social-economic development and security of the South Ossetia republic,” the Tskhinvali media cited Putin as saying.

Bibilov thanked Putin for providing economic and political support to Tskhinvali.

The meeting is illegal, provocative and is a declaration of the fact that Russia continues the occupation of Georgian territories,” Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality Ketevan Tsikhelashvili said.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry stated that the meeting was the continuation of provocations by Russia.

Russia is uselessly trying to undermine a rule-based international system,” the ministry said.

The previous meeting between Bibilov and Putin took place in the August of the last year, to mark the “10th anniversary of independence of South Ossetia.”  

Only Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria have recognised Abkhazia and Tskhinvali as independent countries since the Russia-Georgia war in 2008.