Relatives living on opposite sides of the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) between Georgia’s breakaway Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) and the rest of Georgia will have no chance of celebrating the upcoming New Year together.
De facto authorities of Tskhinvali region decided to close the so-called border on the holidays and not to allow Georgian and Ossetian citizens to visit each other.
All the checkpoints at the ABL will remain closed from 9am on December 31 to 9pm on January 1.
This information was released by local news agency Sputnik Ossetia. The media outlet wrote so-called head of the "state security committee” Eduard Jabiev announced the "border” closing while holding a discussing with so-called president Leonid Tibilov.
Tibilov said these "security measures” were needed on the holidays "in relation to the information that some ISIS fighters are in Georgia”.
Earlier the de facto regime said some ISIS members were planning to arrange "provocations” on the so-called border.
De facto Tskinvali closes the ABL and does not allow Georgian citizens to cross it almost every time a major celebration takes place either in Georgia or the breakaway region.