Georgian Foreign Ministry condemns opening of so-called customs points in occupied regions

The Georgian Foreign Ministry condemns the opening of customs points in Georgia’s Russian occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

The Russian occupation forces have opened an illegal customs point in Akhalgori and created a specialized customs post in Sokhumi.

The Foreign Ministry believes that in doing so, the Russian Federation aims at integrating the occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions within its customs sphere. This, according to the ministry, is yet another illegal step towards the factual annexation of these regions.

With these destructive actions, the Russian Federation deliberately attempts to hamper the efforts of Georgia and the international community to achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflict and further hampers engagement between the communities divided by the occupation line”, Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry called upon the Russian Federation to cease the provocative actions against Georgian statehood, abide by its international commitments, de-occupy Georgia’s territories and take steps aimed at peaceful conflict resolution in accordance with the principles of international law.

It also appealed to the international community to give due assessment to Russia’s aggressive policies and take effective measures against the steps towards the factual annexation of the territories of Georgia.

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Two of Russian-occupied regions of Georgia – Tskhinvali and Abkhazia – have their own de-facto governments, supported by Russia. These territories are internationally recognised as part of Georgia but Tbilisi has no factual control over them.