De facto Tskhinvali FM refused entry to Austria to participate in conference

De facto Foreign Minister of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region Dmitry Medoev has been refused entry to Austria to participate in a conference there between November 7 and 10, the de facto Foreign Ministry of Tskhinvali has reported.

Tskhinvali says that Medoev was scheduled to participate in the 20th seminar on the regional stability titled “Concrete Steps to Break Deadlocks in the South Caucasus,” organised by the Austrian National Defence Academy.

The de facto Foreign Ministry says that Medoev was to make a report during the conference titled “South Ossetia: history and modern realities.”

However, on November 6, less than a day before the beginning of the conference, the organisers of the event reported that Medoev’s presence was impossible due to security issues,” Tskhinvali says.

De facto government of Tskhinvali is sure that Tbilisi stands behind the refusal as “over many years, Georgia has been making unprecedented efforts to block any opportunities for South Ossetia to bring its point of view to the international community.”

• Two Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali were recognised as independent states by Russia after the Russia-Georgia 2008 war.
• Since 2008 only Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria have recognized the regions as independent nations.
• The rest of the international community says that the regions are integral parts of Georgia which are now occupied by Russia.